The Consorci de la Zona Franca unveils its 3D Incubator and the D Factory Barcelona project to secretary of state Pedro Saura

Barcelona, 16 October 2018. The Consorci de la Zona Franca (CZFB) received a visit from Central Government’s Secretary of State for Infrastructures, Transport and Housing, Pedro Saura, during which they presented the European high-tech 3D printing incubator, the ‘3D Factory Incubator’ to the Secretary of State, which will be built at the CZFB and the Industries 4.0 Hub which has been dubbed the D Factory 4.0 Barcelona.

These two projects, both are part of the D Factory Barcelona strategic plan, are among CZFB’s main initiatives for addressing the challenges of the new digital economy. The technology projects will be presented on Wednesday at Barcelona Industry Week (BIW), an event which opened today at the Fira de Barcelona in Montjuïc.

Special State Delegate in the CZFB Pere Navarro told Saura that during the next five years the Consorci is expecting around 100 SMEs involved in additive printing will benefit from the technology and business services installed in the Free Trade Zone incubator, in which the CZFB and European ERDF Fund have invested around €3 million through the Incyde Foundation.

For a photograph of the meeting click here. Navarro also told the Secretary of State about future CZFB projects to develop affordable houses for young people in the La Marina del Prat Vermell neighbourhood of the district of Sants-Montjuïc.

Until the end of the month, the Consorci will be accepting proposals and applications from start-ups and small- and medium-size companies interested in 3D printing and that want to form part of the incubation projects. The initiative is receiving support from the Leitat Foundation as a technology partner.

The purpose of the project is to provide services to the scientific, technology and business sector interested in using 3D/AM (additive manufacturing and new materials), a cross-cutting technology that will improve competitiveness of the business and entrepreneurship community in Catalonia, boosting efficiency and adding value to production in established sectors (health, biomedicine, automotive, metal and mechanical industry, chemical industry and aerospace, among others).

The infrastructure will be housed in the CZFB corporate headquarters and will be equipped with 3D printers and machinery, a design, production and post-processing area, a co-working area laid out to be flexible for companies that need space, modular meeting rooms, shared areas and a showroom area featuring technology and additive manufacturing and international promotional and financing programmes.

The incubator will be presented in detail tomorrow morning at BIW together with the D Factory 4.0 project (see programme and accreditation here), a specific hub for industry 4.0 that the Consorci intends to start developing on the old SEAT site in the Free Trade Zone, a project for which partners have already been found from among leading technology companies.

The D Factory will start operating with an initial investment of 17 million euro with an almost 17,000 m² technology unit, which will function as the first phase of a new area developed for advanced industry. Later on, two 35,000 m² and 20,000 m² areas will be developed to create a zone covering more than 70,000 m² at the intersection between Streets 3 and A.