MATFLEX | Material Flexible production, development of physical and virtual test bed

The project aimed to create a sustainable test bed that strengthens Swedish industry by providing facilities and tools to physically and virtually test and evaluate different manufacturing concepts. This has been achieved. Furthermore, cooperation with SMEs has been established for efficient interactions that enable companies and students to actively exploit the test beds even after the project. The project has delivered results in several categories: 1) Direct benefit to the project partner industries through their pilot cases 2) Generic knowledge concerning cooperation with SMEs in different concept phases 3) Strengthened networking within manufacturing As a concrete outcome of the project, four new products were developed, two of which have reached the market. Four small Swedish companies with proprietary products have acted as partners with their own industrial cases in the test bed development and have been interviewed about the collaboration and future needs. Technology transfer has taken place via conferences and exhibitions, where prototypes developed in the partner companies were demonstrated. An important part of the test bed was the network created, and the cross-functional teams of researchers, companies and external experts who worked on the pilot cases. Through international collaboration the test bed has been linked to three EU applications, of which two are approved. A ground for collaboration among the project partners for upcoming European and national projects has been established.