QualiCal for sustainable development
QualiCal boosting 3D printing and Global Goals 2030 sustainable development
In pursuing the Global Goals through the 2030 vision, QualiCal — as technical and technological supplier in the lime industry- is strongly committed to UPGRADE ALL INDUSTRIES AND INFRASTRUCTURES FOR.
A functioning and resilient infrastructure is the foundation of every successful community. To meet future challenges, our industries and infrastructure must be upgraded. For this, we need to promote innovative sustainable technologies and ensure equal and universal access to information and financial markets. This will bring prosperity, create jobs and make sure that we build stable and prosperous societies across the globe.
The goals is reached addressing its efforts to upgrade lime plant infrastructure and retrofit existing plant to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes.
3D printing and sustainable development goals
With 3D printers, marvelous things are starting to happen. No longer will there be the need for expensive shipments of items. Individuals can create whatever they need anywhere they are. There’s a positive impact on the environment with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions caused by long-distance shipping and delivery.
3D printing also reduces the overproduction of plastic products, needs less storage space, and generates less waste than traditional manufacturing techniques. In a circular economy, plastic, food, cement and other materials which otherwise would become waste, could be made into new products.
3D printing belongs to a class of techniques known as additive manufacturing, which builds objects layer-by-layer rather than through molding or subtractive methods.
There is an excellent variety of materials that can be used, like plastic, metal, ceramics, glass, paper, and even living cells.
Additive manufacturing is leaping forward, silently and relentlessly transforming the world economy. Until now, 3D printing had been used primarily for rapid prototyping.
However, the technology has evolved with widespread adoption, thanks to lowering prices.
3D printing is not currently rival to the economies of scale found in mass-produced commodities. It still has great potential for highly customized consumer products created in small numbers. The technology is evolving though, and production numbers are rapidly scaling up.
The future of work
3D printing opens a new path for manufacturing cutting costs and giving opportunities to new skilled workers. Imagine printing your products customized to fit your needs instead of buying one-size-fits-all mass-market products.
Customization and opportunities new skilled and small shop owners can revive the manufacturing sector, which will be more flexible and sustainable by fabricating on demand. Small-scale independent manufacturers can also simplify the supply chain of large manufacturing companies.
Materialise workshop open to QualiCal
Coupled with an industry-wide drive to utilize the benefits of digitization and realize Industry 4.0 ambitions — Italian engineering company QualiCal saw these challenges as an opportunity to innovate.
Partnering with Materialise, QualiCal has already developed since 2015 METRO — a 3D-printed industrial grade “level indicator” that offers its users significant increased reliability and consequent savings in downtime.
In 2020 QualiCal is launching its second product — SAMPLY — a full 3D printed manual piston sampler, used to obtain a 80 cm3 volume sample in a vertical chute.
These successes are the outcomes of #NEVERSTOPINNOVATING QualiCal R&D vision underlining once more QualiCal mission:
Fab Labs
abrication laboratories, known as Fab Labs, are public workshops open to anyone who wishes to learn about digital manufacturing technology and electronic tools. 3D printers are a standard piece of equipment in these spaces.
Fab Labs have a network approach that requires to share designs and processes, an open knowledge movement, which benefits the whole world. Thanks to fab labs, open-source blueprints for any fabrication are available to anyone anywhere. They are democratizing manufacturing, reaching the most isolated and deprived communities.
People from any origin or economic condition can come in and learn how to use them and be ready to start up a business in the future anywhere in the world. Access to design from any computer connected to the internet makes fabrication available from any location.
3D printing may not be available yet in mass for the consumer market, but it’s getting there. By the year 2025, we’ll see a whole new economy flourish. The potential is enormous, especially for developing countries. And in the developed world, it may represent a new hope for people who suddenly find themselves out of traditional manufacturing jobs.
