Tridi: From idea to production
Tridi digital production and design center, which will meet the needs of entrepreneurs to produce prototypes for three-dimensional (3D) modeling and production, will help numerous R&D projects and ventures with the process. Today, we are complaining about the fact that Turkey is not a producing but a consumer society. A new center may be one of the first steps of change for those who feel that no one is trying to develop something new. More than 1,000 prototypes and over 50 industrial design projects are planned for the year-end at ITU Magnet Fab Tridi. The center has 19 3D printers, two laser cutting machines and four computer numerical control (CNC) machines. With the support of Istanbul Development Agency (ISTKA) and ITU ARI Teknokent, ITU Magnet Fab Tridi, the most comprehensive digital production center carried out with digital processes from the idea to the product, opened its doors. ITU Teknokent, which covers R&D operations of giant telecom companies such as Türk Telekom, also provides 5G tests.
THE LASER-CUT SILICONE MOLD
ITU ARI Teknokent, which has developed a system focused on innovation and sustainability in cooperation with Tridi, aims to create value in prototyping and pre-mass production processes from large, medium and small-scale enterprises to industry, from students to individual users. ITU Magnet Fab Tridi offers industrial 3D printing, silicone molding, laser cutting, surface treatment and design services as well as a common production and working area for those who want to take part in the production.
ITU TAKES THE LEAD
In his keynote speech at the inauguration event, Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır said that while there were only two technology development zones in Turkey in 2001, now there are 84 technoparks, 61 of which are currently in operation.
“Our technoparks have so far reached $4 billion in exports and $119 billion in sales,” Kacır said, adding more than 40,000 researchers are working in over 5,000 technoparks. Noting that the Ministry has provided the technology development regions with TL 984 million in direct support, he said ITU ARI Teknokent was ranked first among all technology development regions in the performance index ranking by the Ministry in 2017. “I wholeheartedly congratulate our rector, technopark managers and entrepreneurs who contribute to the whole process,” he added.
The ITU Rector, professor Mehmet Karaca, expressed his joy at the inauguration of ITU Magnet Fab Tridi, Turkey’s most comprehensive digital production center, stressing that in the production center, which will create value for the future, innovation and digitalization, they offer 3D printers, laser and CNC machines to a wide range of audience that will create value in innovation and digitalization from large, medium and small-scale industries to students and to other individual users.
“As you know, hardware entrepreneurs and R&D-oriented companies, in particular, have prototyping and special mass production needs to realize their projects,” he said, adding that “we are opening doors to a new era that creates value with the Tridi production center which meets needs with cuttingedge technologies and modern software infrastructure. We continue to give direction and support to the national and domestic production targets of our country as a university.”