The revolution in micro-granulation technology for eco-friendly, production efficient, superior ceramic tiles

Project Information

MIGRATECH 4.0

Grant agreement ID: 882436

DOI 10.3030/882436

Project closed

EC signature date 27 November 2019

Start date 1 December 2019

End date 31 March 2020

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost € 71 429,00

EU contribution € 50 000,00

Coordinated by

LB OFFICINE MECCANICHE SPA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MIGRATECH 4.0 (The revolution in micro-granulation technology for eco-friendly, production efficient, superior ceramic tiles)

Reporting period: 2019-12-01 to 2020-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

LB is developing a new micro-granulation technology for the production of high-quality powder for ceramic tiles. Our technology can be tuned to the production requirements of our customers and is optimised to achieve high-energy savings. In this project, LB has tuned the final product development roadmap to advance to TRL9 and accelerate our market entry. Also, an analysis of target markets and main drivers that will fuel the adoption of our new technology has been performed.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In the technical part, we optimised the design of our plant for maximum energy savings, established our roadmap to advance MIGRATECH 4.0 to TRL-9, analysed key technical risks and established their mitigation actions. In the commercial part, we analyzed the ceramic tile industry and the main drivers that will fuel MIGRATECH 4.0 adoption by target segments. We tuned our commercialization plan for wide market adoption, focusing on markets where the energy efficiency of manufacturing operations and high-quality tiles are sought after. Our competition analysis validated our leadership over existing commercial products. Also, we performed a Freedom to Operate analysis, which confirmed that our technology does not infringe any existing IPR. From the financial side, we adjusted our pricing strategy, we calculated the necessary investment for MIGRATECH 4.0 market entry, and we projected two revenue scenarios (high and low) for the commercialization period.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

MIGRATECH 4.0 offers huge reductions with respect to energy consumption, water and chemicals use. These reductions translate to substantial cost savings for our customers, who will be able to recoup their investment in our turnkey plant in less than 3 years. Also, our breakthrough technology will accelerate the decarbonisation of the ceramic tile industry leading to reductions of 388,600 tons of CO2 emissions, and accelerate the transition to sustainable production processes enabling savings of >1.7 million tons of water and >28,500 tons of chemicals.