Caracol continues evolving, opening two new facilities in Italy

With the launch of the new Technology Assembly facility and Innovation Hub near Milan (Italy), Caracol kicked off the year opening the doors of its European HQ to the public – partners, customers, and opinion leaders in industrial tech & 3D printing from all over the world joined to celebrate this milestone.

[01 February• 2024] – Caracol leading player in Large Format 3D printing (LFAM), never stops; relentlessly pursuing its vision of expanding the adoption of this technology to provide a more efficient, flexible, and sustainable production means for industrial manufacturing.

Born in Milan, Italy, Caracol’s growth has been steady as the company scaled up internationally creating a strong multidisciplinary team globally. The company invested in developing technology and a service-first approach – which led to the opening of its latest facilities near Milan, Italy, together with the revamping of its state-of-the-art, ISO 9100 certified, LFAM production plant and the opening in Austin (TX, USA) last year of the North American HQ. This brings Caracol’s global facilities to four, and with the occasion, the CEO announced Caracol is opening of a new office for the GCC area in Dubai.

“Achieving this milestone today is truly rewarding for our team. It is a step forward in expanding the possibilities of Large Format 3D Printing and working towards our vision for the world of industrial manufacturing,” says Francesco De Stefano, CEO & Co-founder of Caracol. “Our Italian facilities are the heart of our global operations, and this expansion will further enable our team, partners, and clients to succeed in adopting these technologies and pushing towards a new paradigm in production.”

Caracol inaugurated two facilities: the first is the new Technology Assembly and Testing facility where the company’s Heron AM platforms are born, prepared custom to fit clients’ specifications and manufacturing needs, they are then thoroughly tested before delivery to customers. The team here works closely to support clients in designing the space within their shop floors and prepare the environment to install the equipment. The second opening is the Innovation Hub inaugurated is a facility designed to accommodate the company’s research & development team. Here different labs are dedicated to developing the integrated technology and process Caracol provides. From materials testing and qualification, from software to hardware and automation, from polymers to metals – the company continuously works to improve and push the boundaries further in the world of large-scale additive manufacturing.

“Our work is centered around the needs our customers have in manufacturing parts and applications. Opening these state-of-the-art facilities will allow us to further grow on delivering top quality, reliable, technological solutions, made for production,” says Paolo Cassis, COO & Co-founder of Caracol.

To celebrate this milestone, Caracol hosted an official opening event on February 1st, 2024. The team at Caracol was truly overwhelmed by the fantastic attendance, which saw partners, customers, institutions, and leaders in the world of industrial manufacturing and 3D printing come together from all over the globe to visit the company’s facilities near Milan.

“Seeing partners and clients Caracol has had the pleasure to work with over these years join us from all over the world to celebrate this milestone was truly extraordinary. Our success is only possible because of the fantastic people and companies we have the pleasure to work with every day.” stated Francesco De Stefano.

After touring the facilities, the event ended in the beautiful setting of the Artwood Academy, a school for technical manufacturing skills, where Caracol shared the stage with local institutions and some of the partners that are creating fantastic projects with Heron AM platforms. Starting with Armando Alves, CEO at Solidtech (Portugal) who shared his experience manufacturing supports for nickel shells for automotive dashboards; Massimiliano Zulli, Marketing Manager at Treddy (Italy) talked about their work with finished superstructural parts such as t-tops for the marine industry; Dominic Wright, CEO at Generation 3D (United Arab Emirates) shared the fantastic work the team is doing 3D printing architectural projects such as the COP28 Dubai Municipality booth; Faisal Alamer, CEO at Namthaja (Saudi Arabia) talked about their work replacing traditional technologies with LFAM in industrial manufacturing in the GCC region; and Michael Gorski, CEO at Filament Innovations (US) discussed the great results achieved replacing metal sheet folding with robotic 3D printing for custom cabinets.

Caracol partners’ success stories highlighted the huge potential the company’s platforms and LFAM technology have for industrial production – a glimpse into the future of manufacturing where there is a shift from design, engineering, and production approaches to deliver efficiency – costs, lead times, performance – flexibility – design freedom, customization – and sustainability – from the choice to the reduced use of raw materials and resources.