Footwear Polytechnic
3D printer manufacturer, German RepRap has provided printers and 3D scanners to the Footwear Polytechnic of Riviera del Brenta.
3D printer manufacturer, German RepRap has provided printers and 3D scanners to the Footwear Polytechnic of Riviera del Brenta.
Delivered through German RepRap’s Italian reseller 3DZ, the technologies will be used in Footwear Polytechnic’s FF laboratory for research, training and rapid prototyping. The FFlab was launched in September 2016 by Footwear Polytechnic, the ‘institute of excellence’ in the footwear industry, as a digital space specialising on new 3D scanning and 3D printing technologies.
Founded in 2001, the school has a long tradition of the Brenta’s shoemakers that has its roots back in 1268 in Venice with the first Brotherhood of Calegheri. The footwear district has successively developed starting from 1898 thanks to entrepreneur Luigi Voltan who founded the first major shoe factory in the Veneto territory. The Polytechnic has been committed to maintaining the tradition and knowledge, and typically expands on both with research. It invested in a rapid prototyping laboratory and in the emerging FFlab in order to offer companies new product development opportunities.
“3D printing allows companies to achieve, in a shorter time and with reasonable costs, the aesthetic model, the functional one and small production series for the sampling and fashion shows,” said Alice Marcato, bio-engineer of the R&D department and manager of FFlab. “The components prototyping regards parts which make up the shoe such as form, insoles, heels, soles and accessories.”
In the FFlab, footwear components are designed in an electronic format with the 3D CAD technology and then printed in 3D with the German RepRap x400 PRO V3. The other method used is reverse engineering, which allows a physical model of a CAD file to be retrieved, edited and then printed. These new technologies, which can be enjoyed by FFlab visitors, allow the Footwear Polytechnic to meet the demands and needs of the companies that cater to the institute.
For an area specialising in designing and manufacturing quality products, Veneto often does not have the technology, equipment and internal professional skills that allow companies to be competitive by reducing production and of industrialisation times and costs.
Seeking to expand its equipment range, Polytechnic was supported by 3DZ with the delivery of the most appropriate technology for its needs – the German RepRap x400 3D printer and the Geomagic Capture 3D scanner.
“We have turned to 3DZ for the prior knowledge of the capabilities of this company, the equipment quality, the availability and excellent service,” added Marcato. “Thanks to their on-site training, two people of the staff have been instructed about the proper use of the new equipment.”
