Technological News from Vicenzaoro September 2019

Sometimes all it takes is a good, innovative and winning idea to begin a business adventure. Then there are those, like Maurizio Costabeber – CTO at DWS, with head offices in Thiene, near Vicenza -, who have good ideas all the time, as his 250 or more registered patents and trademarks go to prove. «Our company has been in business since 1991 and was the first in the world to implement 3D printing techniques in jewelry production. Speaking today of Autostrade CO.LTD – the company that I founded with a Japanese partner in the early nineties and whose name was chosen to evoke a kind of “motorway towards innovation” – we could define it as ahead of its time, a start-up with a rather ambitious project for those years, that is, miniaturizing 3D printing in order to make it accessible to everyone» says Costabeber. «Since 2007 we have been called DWS, which stands for Digital Wax Systems, and we have developed three sectors of skills: technologies and materials for 3D printing and software. That dream which we began three decades ago is now a consolidated reality because we have made this technology functional and accessible to many, thus contributing to the evolution of the goldsmith trade. Years ago, nobody could ever have imagined being able to make such precise prototypes and in such rapid times. Now, however, you can go straight from the design to the 3D model. It is 4.0 industry for everyone, no matter how big the company is» Costabeber continues. But what does “4.0 manufacturing” mean? «The latest groundbreaker is the production of laboratory-grown semi-precious stones: we can now artificially create coral, ivory, onyx and ceramics, offering considerable freedom of design and shapes and greatly extending the craftsman’s creativity. With our machinery, we have also impacted ancient techniques, such as lost wax casting and metal casting, by offering other solutions that we will be presenting for the first time here at Vicenzaoro. We could call it the evolution of an industry that has historically been almost totally manual into one that is essentially digital while still maintaining all the traditional skills as well as cornerstones like design and aesthetic taste. Elements that guarantee the individuality of a brand no matter what technology is used».