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Elías Cueto

Transforming digital boards manually

In October 2017, the first digitally printed melamine boards were presented in Brussels. The presentation took place within B2B learning exchange experience at Covent Garden Building. One month later, in November 2017, those boards feed the first experience of furniture making. The four Companies worked together in order to make possible this activity.

In order to transform raw melamine boards into furniture, two main operations ought to be made: cutting and edge banding. Cutting is usually made by a CAD/CAM tool. This is a robotic saw producing pieces that fit to the final dimensions. Edge banding is also an automatic process were a plastic band y fixed to the edge of the boards.

Although those operations are usually automatic, during PRINTODECO development ought to be made manually. By means of this it is possible to check the workability of the raw material. It also avoids failure within the innovative material that might cause damages to the expensive robotic tools for automatic cutting and edge banding.

Visiting Mexico

On the first week of November 2017, a technician of SEISTAG visited Mexico. This visit focused on testing the local market for the products coming out from PRINTODECO Project which are based on newness and design.

The Mexican furniture became important activity thanks to the rustic furniture and the American market. The development took advantage of the natural conditions of Mexico, which is a huge country with large natural resources and low labour costs. Moreover, Mexico is very well placed, close to the biggest markets in the world, which are the EEUU. Thanks to this, Mexico reached a prominent position within the international furniture market between the seventies and nineties.

Since then, the furniture industry in Mexico has shown a great deterioration. The traditional furniture business based on the low costs of the Mexican labour force and took advantage of being placed close to North America market. In the context of globalization, those advantages became irrelevant against producers coming from Asia.

During the last decades, the main demand on furniture moved to low price goods, mainly coming from Asia. The local industry sowed down due to the lack of technology, innovation and design added to the globalization of the sector changed the situation. The local industry lost the traditional advantages and therefore its competitiveness. For that reason, the biggest investors changed its preferences towards processes based on raw materials. Meanwhile, the demand for high quality goods, innovative products and exclusive furniture stablished as the new furniture market in Mexico as Asia producers cannot provide that kind of solutions.

SMARTER TOGETHER

PRINTODECO Partner took place at SMARTER TOGETHER. This is a European Project focused on Sustainable development. The proposal of the Project is to build that Sustainable development on people: in integrated, inclusive societies that develop in partnership and foster dialogue among all parties. The collaboration between PRINTODECO AND SMARTHER TOGETHER is part of the strategy of linking European Projects to reach higher visibility for the actions of the projects.

SMARTER TOGETHER work plan is leader by Munich, Lyon and Vienna that act as lighthouses. It is followed by five other cities such as Santiago, Venice, Sofia, Yokohama and Kiev. The Project fosters user-centric innovation by involving even more people and stakeholders in the co-creation and design of new services and solutions. For that reason, SEISTAG was present at an action focused on co-design that was hold in Santiago de Compostela on Friday, October the 20th. The action was directed by local creatives named cenlitrosmetrocadrado.

PRINTODECO Partners sustain a deep compromise between design and society. The organisations at the consortium aim to boost local industry, sustainable use of natural resources (such as traditional hardwoods) and productive activities characterized by high added value (such as digital printing). Therefore, the participation of the technicians from SEISTAG at SMARTER TOGETHER was part of its compromise with design industry and local communities.

DIGITALLY PRINTED BOARDS

The technical coordinator of PRINTODECO Project shared the achievements of the Consortium within COSME networking event held in Brussels on 19th of October 2017. This meeting focused on the digitally printed boards and its possibilities to convert in an emerging alternative for imprinting of melamine decorative paper.

During the presentation, people attending to the meeting had access to digitally printed boards. In addition to this the make of process was shown by means of sharing white paper, printed paper, resin impregnated paper and raw boards (chipboards and MDF).

By sharing this material made possible to understand the productive process and the challenges of the project: low prices and large scale married with high technology to reach a huge market. During the presentation, the public could get their copy of the book showing PRINTODECO advances. In addition to the book, flyers and catalogues of the Project were available for the people interested on PRINTODECO. Another technical material shared with the public were the colour management proofing process.

The meeting succeed to catch the attention of the participances and to demonstrate the evident advantages of digital printing. In addition, it has been identified that the products obtained from PRINTODECO project will allow a high customization rate, a considerable time to market and production cost reduction, as well as a high business model replicability rate and the increase of market share.

B2B LEARNING EXCHANGE

Coordinator of PRINTODECO, other partners of the projects selected under the COSME program and participants from European Commission had two days meeting in Brussels. This meeting took place in Cover Garden Auditorium on October 19th and 20th. At the event a large debate was held. During the first day of the meeting the building up on the discussion and exchange held on impact with the wider audience of COSME projects. Day two takes back the discussion to the Community of 10 projects to deepening on harvesting and impact.

The main attention was paid to an effective ´B2B learning exchange´ on market uptake and to a facility networking and synergies with other projects. PRINTODECO agreed with proposal to build a community of the projects. This community helps to get an insight on the scope of the individual projects and to provide information on the administrative and financial management of COSME projects. PRINTODECO shared information of the project monitoring, financial reporting and review.

Two principal actions decided to undertake as a result of the meeting were the followings: (i) ´B2B leaning exchange´ as market uptake project, (ii) ´B2B leaning exchange´ as managing the COSME design based consumer goods project.

The companies at the meeting showed interest in the project idea and main objectives of it.

Teaming up for success

PRINTODECO Project will be presented at COSME networking event to be held on 19th of October 2017. The meeting is focused on “teaming up for success”, it will help to share experience between innovative European companies. Project partners will explain the world of melamine boards and how can it change due to digital printing. They will show new expected products and possibilities. By means of the new possibilities, new products are possible as unexpected effects and are possible. The technical coordinator of the project will be present.

During the presentation, the first digitally printed boards will be shown. Also, many details on how they were made will be explained. Challenges such as colour management and image processing. In addition to this, the customization tools will be explained. The presentation of the Project will be highlighted one of its major concepts which is radical change that digital printing brings into the value chain of the melamine board.

As the project is focused on market uptake and business development, the attention will be placed at business opportunities, new markets, marketing strategies, etc. The proposal of PRINTODECO Project will simplify the access of digital printing to new markets such as melamine boards. By doing this the framework conditions for the competitiveness of SMEs will be improved.

PRINTODECO volume 1

PRINTODECO partners present a book showing the advances of the Project. It was printed on September 2017 in full colour, with 77 pages and 43 pictures. The new book includes the project explanation, the presentation of the companies and news on the Project evolution from April 2016 to July 20017. It resumes the execution of Project during this period.

The book describes four Spanish Companies which participate in PRINTODECO Project: TORCULO, SEISTAG, LOSAN and LOGISIETE. The publication resumes the work done during first period of the Project, starting from the management of coordination of effort amount all the partners to ensure the effective operation of the project and ending the dissemination and the exploitation of project results.

The book includes the information about 17 project meetings and shows PRINTODECO results in the field of image customization and colour management. It also deals with trends and international market opportunities. Finally, the publication of PRINTODECO project describes the possibilities to innovate in terms of surface design.

The book will be presented at Brussels meeting to be held on 19th of October 2017. This is a meeting within COSME networking event, which is focused on “teaming up for success”.

Closing A Estrada Fair

On Thursday 21st closed the Profesional Encounters at Feira do Moble de A Estrada. The meeting made possible sharing up to four different European Projects in the field of wood, furniture and design. The Technical Director of PRINTODECO Project was on charge of the meetings and invited to relevants personalities of wood industry and design to share their knowledge and experiences.

During the last day, DESIGN4INNOVATION Project was explained to the public. Montserrat Rodríguez fro CIS-MADEIRA conducted the presentation of this work program, which is focused on improving public policies to boost design. The project is participated by different European Countries with the aim of sharing best practises.

The last journey also counted with the presence of two professionals who shared their experience on design. From one hand José Manuel Iglesias who success to innovate in the field of design driving the Spanish Company GALOPIN to export worldwide. From the other hand, it was present Alberto Alonso. He directs VEREDES being a local influencer on the internet regarding architecture and design.

The Encounters started on Monday the 18th showing PRINTODECO Project. The Project Coordinator and the Technical Director explained the details and first results. The Project Coordinator, Jacobo Bermejo, showed products based on digital printing applied to wood. The innovative materials caught the interest of the profesionals present at the meeting.

At Feira do Moble

On September the 20th, two COSME projects at Feira do Moble da Estrada. This is an international meeting on furniture paying special attention to wood industry and design. The presentation took place during the professionals meetings. Those are a series of encounters hold between 19th to 21st. The Technical Director of PRINTODECO Project was in charge of the contents of the encounters.

In addition to PRINTODECO Project, during the encounter it was presented WORTH Project. This is a European Project focused on helping designers and producers to collaborate. The idea caused interest among the community who show interest on participating.

PRINTODECO and WORTH Project were presented along a day dedicated to designers. The meeting counted with the participation of Fermín Blanco, Xulio Turnes and Tamara Vila. They are young talents on design who show different approached to the challenge of innovative wood design.

Round table at CdC

On September the 15th the technical director of PRINTODECO Project has steered a roundtable about collaboration between design and industry. It took place in Santiago de Compostela, at the international cultural centre Cidade da Cultura. It was part of a meeting about design and industry organized by the Wood Industry Cluster and held every two years.

This roundtable gathered qualified representatives from three different fields. Tania Pichel, from Molduras del Noroeste, and Ana Hermida from Muebles Hermida represented manufacturing sector. Designers were also present: Xabier Rilo and Ricardo Tubío from Cenlitrosmetrocadrado and José Antonio Vázquez from Studio Nomad. Finally, two Spanish research centres took part: Vicente Cambra from AITEX and Montserrat Rodríguez from GAIN CIS MADEIRA.

The roundtable was based on fast interventions that answer to specific issues on the collaboration between professional and the opportunities of the sector. The technical director of PRINTODECO steered the dialogue. The debate was focused on problematic subjects in the design sector like trends, designers and markets. The meeting success to catch the attention of more than 60 professionals who were present at the meeting. The opportunity of personalization and new technologies allowing artisan production were present during the talk.