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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SOLVE (new machine tool for SimultaneOus pLate beVElling on all material types)

Teaser

Summary

Since we were founded in 1963 in Reggio Emilia (Italy), our company OMCA SRL has grown to become one of Europeâ€™s leading manufacturers of metal cutting machinery known as bevelling and chamfering machines. Our continuous investment in advanced technology and our commitment to product quality and customer service has helped solidify our position, with approximately 10% market share of the bevelling and chamfering machine market and â‚¬2M in annual revenues.

Our end-customers are increasingly preoccupied with reducing downtimes and increasing productivity and we have historically worked with them to help ensure our products meet their requirements. With this in mind, we have identified a new opportunity in the market to develop a new bevelling machine, SOLVE, that can decrease bevelling times by 50% compared with current market offerings while maintaining a strong and sharp cut and increase safety.

Following the approval of our Phase 1 project presented in February 2016, our team has carried out from June till September a complete feasibility study in order to analyse the key areas of the project. On the technical and industrial side, we have further worked on the mechanical design and on the control strategy (electronics and control software). The plan for the next development steps has been detailed, considering as well the preparation for industrialisation. On the commercial and business side, we have studied in detail our target market in order to prepare SOLVE entry strategy. We have also performed a freedom to operate analysis, which is required to check and validate the innovation of our product. Financial forecasts and return on investment have been drafted in order to evaluate the growth and profitability of the SOLVE project for our company.

Work performed

During our 4 month feasibility study, and based on the original Work Plan proposed in the Phase 1 proposal, several activities have been carried out.

Firstly, technically, further calculations, designs and component selection for the application were carried out to optimize the mechanical subsystems and overall structure, along with the electronic components and associated control software. Following these developments, a preliminary risk analysis has been conducted to ensure that no issues have been left aside and thus that future development and industrialization will be with a low and controlled risk. Our team has prepared a complete Execution Plan for the developments of SOLVE (from TRL6 to TRL9), covering tasks, planning, budget, risk analysis and organization.

Commercially, we have focused on the machine tool and bevelling machine market which has allowed us to further prepare our marketing and align our pricing strategy. A complete freedom to operate was performed to search for existing Intellectual Property rights that could infringe with our technology. This analysis has confirmed the novelty of the SOLVE technology and the absence of existing thread for its commercialization.

Financially, several scenarios have been detailed, leading to consolidated financial projections (revenues, commercial margin, return on investment) for the 2018-2022 period with highly positive turnover increase.

Final results

Practically, when using SOLVE, manufacturers will bevel a metal plate at twice the speed offered by current market technologies, dividing by two the process times while adhering to the stringent quality standards and specifications of the industry.
Of the bevelling operations, it is important to note that our machine can process material thickness up to 100mm (common technologies are limited to plate thickness below 80-90mm) and is compatible and easily adaptable to all types of cutters and bevel shapes, another advantage of the machine as today most of the technologies available provide only 1-2 bevel shapes, meaning that manufacturers have to use 2-3 machines to address their needs.