Hardware development
an institution dedicated to research and development on new technologies and presenting the impacts of these technologies to the public. 404 cooperates with the industry in the areas of software and hardware development, product development and consulting. All R&D projects involve young engineers and give them the opportunity to work on real industry challenges. In 404’s mission of educating future engineers one of our aims is to help bridge the gap between education and the industry.
Our R&D focus are 3D printing technology, IOT, and pharmaceutical and laboratory technology. In the past 10 years we developed several solutions for different sectors and built up 4 spin-off companies. Some of them are presented below.
Zavod 404 is always open to collaborations and partnerships. Let’s get in touch!
CastQC
We are part of the EIT RawMaterials co-funded CastQC project partnership. In two years we will optimise the new quasi-crystalline aluminium alloy QCalloy!
Due to its composition and method of production, this aluminium alloy will enable a 30% lower consumption of aluminium for production, which has grown by 150% in the last 15 years! Products made from this alloy will maintain the same mechanical properties as the currently most used aluminium alloy, reducing the carbon footprint throughout the aluminium life cycle.
CastQC project is funded by the EIT Raw Materials Innovation Community.
Partners: Iskra ISD Group; Kolektor; University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Department of Materials and Metallurgy; ZAG Slovenija, TEH-CUT d.o.o. and Zavod 404.
Webpage: https://castqc.eu/
WOOL2OOP
Geopolymer technology for the development of mineral wool waste value chains.
WOOL2LOOP provides new smart demolition and sorting technologies combined with a novel analysis method for mineral wool waste that enables separating the material based on its suitability for alkali-activation. Geopolymer technology, on the other hand, makes it possible to use mineral wool waste as a valuable resource for new ceramic or concrete-type products as pioneered by University of Oulu, Finland.
The role of Zavod 404 in the project was to build a machine for 3D printing of geopolymers and to identify mixtures for printing in the form of gels.
This project has received funding from the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 821000.
Leading partner: Saint Gobain Finland
Webpage: https://www.wool2loop.eu/en/
Results: https://www.wool2loop.eu/en/deliverables/
Respirator DIHAM
The partners of the "DIHAM" respirator came together during the COVID-19 crisis. Our goal was to develop a prototype of a life-saving respirator that could be fully produced in Slovenia, with Slovenian components and know-how. We managed to bring this initiative from complete chaos to a working prototype, with a pro-bono effort.
It is a so-called turbine pressure respirator (without an inflatable bellows) intended for the most critical patients, with severely damaged lungs, who can no longer breathe on their own and need a medically adapted dosage of air and oxygen mixture.
Zavod 404 designed and produced 3D-printed parts of the respirator.
Partners: LOTRIČ Metrology, DOMEL, Technology Park Ljubljana, EKWB, BPMC and Zavod 404.
Presentation video: https://youtu.be/l4lTdEm74ss