A framework agreement for scientific collaboration has been signed by Lodovico Camozzi, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Camozzi Group, and Professor Ferruccio Resta, Dean of the Polytechnic University of Milan. Camozzi is an international group active in industrial automation, machine tools, textile machinery and raw materials processing.
Under the agreement both organisations will combine resources and skills to develop common research and training initiatives. The aim is to seize opportunities created by industrial digitalisation and collaborative robotics to develop smart solutions and innovative production processes.
The agreement is structured along three main lines:
- Maximising the use of collaborative robots on Camozzi’s own production lines, from component assembly to communication with the company’s MES for the optimisation of layouts and scheduling. Special attention will be given to intelligent task planning and the analysis of robot and operator interaction;
- Development of components, sensors and software for Industry 4.0 (I4.0) applications;
- Study and analysis of additive manufacturing processes.
Students and researchers from the university will operate from the Camozzi Research Centre in Milan, a new state-of-the-art facility with 3000sqm of industrial space and 3600sqm of offices and laboratories that has been created within Innse Milano – a Camozzi Group company. They will develop common study and research programmes and also seek to broaden the scientific horizons around these fields. Camozzi will also conduct research in many of its group companies around the world.
Camozzi Automation manufactures intelligent Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) components and already uses collaborative robots in its production systems. Under the agreement, it will focus on advancing intelligent components and I4.0 technologies for future production processes, along with the field testing of man-machine collaboration.
In relation to additive manufacturing, Ingersoll Machine Tools – an American company of the Camozzi Group – will build on its already considerable experience in producing 3D printing machines for use with the innovative materials used in aerospace, navigation, power generation and large scale industrial plants and infrastructure.
For the university Ferruccio Resta says: “The relationship between the Polytechnic University of Milan and business is strengthened today through this agreement with the Camozzi Group, a leading partner in Italy and worldwide in the field of industrial automation. Camozzi represents for our university an excellent example of a company that invests in research, promotes digital innovation processes within the production system and offers a unique opportunity to our students and researchers in a modern laboratory. With this collaboration our university will advance with some of the best skills sets in the region to achieve common development and growth goals.”
Lodovico Camozzi explains: “We are very proud of this important agreement with the Polytechnic University of Milan. It is of great strategic importance to our Group and ensures continuous progress both in the research and the design of production models based on the connection between physical and digital systems. It is a goal that can only be achieved through sharing our consolidated know-how of industrial processes and our continuous investment in technological content, with the important innovation cues that Politecnico’s work-teams will bring, to outline a development path towards 4.0 Manufacturing.”
The agreement between the Dean of the Polytechnic University of Milan and thre President of the Camozzi Group