Technology Transfer System S.r.l. was founded in 1993 as a spin-off of an Italian research institute on industrial technologies and automation with the goal to develop and apply IT solutions for the manufacturing industry. Nowadays the company has 10 employees with background in informatics, mechanical and management engineering, and is primarily focused in the development of cutting-edge simulation solutions supporting strategic, tactical and operational decision making in manufacturing companies.

The available competences refer to Industry 4.0 key concepts, where the virtual world and the physical world converge for more effective and sustainable production. Simulation and forecasting technologies are a substantial factor for the future of manufacturing and will be key contributors to the developments of complex products and processes. There is a vibrant link between investment in simulation and industrial productivity, and that’s very well understood in the framework of Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution.

In this context, TTS proposes a coherent integration between simulation tools and the structural paradigm shift that a so called Cyber-Physical System framework imposes on the factory: it is necessary to create an adequate connection between simulation and the factory architecture, enabling a seamless usage for verification and validation of complex behaviour towards digital-commissioning.

3D animations and simulations, discrete event simulation, virtual reality and sustainability assessment engines, with a constant link to the factory real environment, are the most relevant competence areas the company is involved in. Combining EU-level research initiatives (the staff is currently engaged in 5 Horizon 2020 research projects on ICT and Factory of the Future themes) and the development of customized IT solutions for major players in the manufacturing context (with a special focus on machine builders), the company relies on undisputable technological background, software development capability, a set of proprietary 2D and 3D simulation libraries and a wide network of innovative companies, universities, and research centres.

• Manufacturing virtualization, with a persistent care to the challenges of digital-real synchronization and digital continuity, is the ultimate scope of the company technology. Four application contexts are addressed through the provision of customized solutions, that ultimately rely on proprietary simulation engines and libraries, but that are properly personalized for each customer;
• Plant simulation. These solutions allow the customer to (i) design a new or reconfigure an existing production system and to evaluate its performances (varying the layout, the production mix, the technologies, etc.) in terms of technical efficiency (saturation, throughput, etc.), financial results (cash flows, industrial full cost, etc.), environmental impacts (GWP, eutrophication potential, toxicity); (ii) visualize in a 3D environment the material flow through manufacturing system;
• Virtual commissioning. During the design phase, when the real machine is still not available, thanks to these solutions the user can carry out the control logic verification by connecting the CNC to the virtual 3D machine, that has performances and logics perfectly aligned with the (future) real machine;
• Production line balancing also considering the skills of involved workers and ergonomics of the jobs to be performed in order to assure a better workers’ well-being.

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