Cutting-edge Design Technologies

Bergen startup first in Scandinavia with cutting-edge design technologies: now they want to disrupt the market.

Coral Solutions was established in October 2019 by designer Iver Finne and optimization engineer Bruno Maffei, two friends who both previously worked for Rolls Royce Marine.

They wanted to establish a design engineering firm by using machine learning based technologies after one year of research in such field.

– The idea behind it was simple: how can we leverage the potential of AI and new technologies to make industrial design more efficient, less material-heavy, and more sustainable for the environment? We found an answer in smart design for additive manufacturing, says Iver Finne, CEO of the company.

After developing two case studies, the two entrepreneurs pitched their business idea to StartupLab Bergen, to which they became members as Coral Solutions.

Coral Solutions is betting on the future: smart design, additive manufacturing, and AWs are just few of the many examples of how we can disrupt the industry for the better, bring innovation, create value for our society at large, and tangibly take a step forward in preserving our environment, Iver Finne, Coral Solutions.

Partnerships with Additech and nTopology

In April 2020, Coral Solutions became member of the GCE Ocean Technology cluster and added a mechanical technologist to their team, Sigmund Berge.

– There is a transformation happening in the marine industry in Norway, in which innovation is taking the spotlight: digitalization of inventories, metal 3d-printing, digital twins, smart design, and parts on-demand are just few examples, says Sigmund Berge.

– Before joining Coral Solutions, I had been working as a project engineer for a company that would use traditional manufacturing for their products. Industry 4.0 and design for additive manufacturing are instead the answer for a more sustainable future. Re-designing a part with these technologies brings a manifold of benefits, for instance: reduction in lead-times, reduction in mass, increment in efficiency, reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, and in general, an augmentation of the part life cycle assessment, he adds.

Once a member, Coral Solutions closed two partnerships: one with a member of the cluster, Additech, specialized in industrial metal 3d-printing and rapid prototyping, and the other one with nTopology, the world leading software company in implicit modeling design.

Combining the latest high-end technologies in design for additive manufacturing, such as AI-based generative design and implicit modeling, allows us to explore design possibilities that were unthinkable in the past, generate hundreds of design options to choose from, and increase the overall performance of a part sometimes up to 120%, Iver Finne, Coral Solutions.

Automated Workflows and Smart Design for 3D-printing

During the past months, Coral Solutions has been applying its expertise in developing a new way to create smart designs for a given application with just the click of a button.

– Automated workflows (AWs) are the next step in innovation and in the digitalization process that is taking place in all industrial fields in the world. When it comes to smart design, our customers will only need to specify what they want in terms of performance for their products, and with just the click of a button, our software application will be able to generate in real time the best possible design outcome, ready for 3D-printing, says Bruno Maffei, optimization engineer at Coral Solutions.

– The challenge for many contractors is to design and manufacture parts that meet their customer’s specifications and requirements. They spend a lot of time and resources in engineering, testing, certifying, and manufacturing a suitable part, before shipping it to their customers. With AWs, it is possible to generate an optimized smart version of the desired part in seconds, because all the engineering, optimizing, testing and certifying has already been taken into account, he adds.

– What is the most important to us is to deliver excellence and innovation at a competitive cost. For instance, manufacturing an impeller with traditional means has an average cost of 600 dollars, to which one has to add all the operational costs. With metal 3D-printing, the production cost of the same part is estimated between 30-40 dollars, and the operational costs are dramatically reduced once an AW is put into place, says Iver Finne.

– Coral Solutions is betting on the future: smart design, additive manufacturing, and AWs are just few of the many examples of how we can disrupt the industry for the better, bring innovation, create value for our society at large, and tangibly take a step forward in preserving our environment, he concludes.