Just a few hours remain before 2018 comes to an end. We leave behind a year that has brought us great satisfaction and allowed us to make important strides, starting with the change in our company structure from an Srls to an Srl and the arrival of new partner Giovanni Di Grezia, 3DRap’s IT Manager. There have been so many projects and collaborations that have put 3DRap in the spotlight time and again throughout 2018, with numerous accolades for our team:
- 3DRap case study. The Deloitte DIGITA Academy at the San Giovanni a Teduccio university campus in Naples chose our company as a case study, giving us the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with the future entrepreneurs and professionals of Industry 4.0
- An unforgettable Saturday. Engineer Nicola Materazzi, who designed the Ferrari F 40, the most beautiful car of all time, invited us to his home: we spent 5 hours listening to the incredible story and invaluable advice of a motorsport icon
- The F 40, as we were saying. We were able to admire and touch Materazzi’s masterpiece, hardly believing our eyes, at Drive Experience in Modena, the event organized by Davide Cironi
- Our special entry into real-world motorsport. For the first time, we took to the track with our logo on board two Sim racing Motorport cars, becoming a Formula Predator sponsor
- The launch of Create. To get even closer to our customers, we launched Create, the platform that makes it possible to turn ideas into tangible objects based on your own designs
- The hand controller. One project in particular made us proud: the hand controller for people with disabilities that made its way around the world
- Open-source Poly. The first biodegradable, portable, battery-powered multitool 3D printer, the smallest of its kind and a symbol of the value of open innovation, became open source on Instructables
- 3DRap in the automotive sector. We entered the automotive sector with replacement parts for two legendary Fiat cars: the dashboard fascia for the 1980 127 Sport and the Fiat logo for the Panda 30
- The Lamura Award. We took first place in the inaugural “Start up evolution Lamura 2018” competition thanks to the hand controller project
- Expanding our machinery. A new technology joined our workshop: a computer numerical control (CNC) milling machine that enabled us to make a generational leap and improve the build quality of our products
- At Maker Faire Rome 2018. For the second year in a row, 3DRap was selected to represent Campania at the largest event dedicated to innovation, where we showcased our sim racing products
- Collaborations and partnerships. The University of Tor Vergata’s Formula SAE team and the Roots clothing brand chose our logo, which also appears on the BMW of Arturs Bondars, the young Latvian champion who trains on simulators using our steering wheels
- Amazon opens its doors to 3DRap. On Black Friday 2018, we made our debut on Amazon Europe and saw a surge in sales
- The Lamarck Award. By taking part in Smau Napoli 2018 with our range of sim racing products, we received the award dedicated to Italy’s most promising startups
- 3DRap Academy is born. We want to share the know-how we have gained through experience, so training courses in Modeling, Product, Industrial and Interior Design will begin in January
Media Coverage and Future Plans
We have also made several TV appearances, most recently on Rai 3 from Smau Napoli 2018, and have been featured in national publications such as Il Corriere della Sera and Automoto.it. We hope they will continue to cover us and our future projects. We have many in the works, and we want to reveal a few of them:
- We will enter Formula Predator with our first steering wheel made for real racing cars, marking our move from sim racing into real-world motorsport
- We will continue developing innovative solutions derived from motorsport for use in simulation, drawing on our valuable partnership with Megaride
- The Create platform will be expanded to include technologies such as CNC, and immediate payment via Paypal and Bitcoin will be available
- We will create a new line of premium products using high-quality materials such as aluminum, carbon fiber and plexiglass, thanks to the arrival of the CNC machine in our workshop
- We will take part in the next international Smau event, probably traveling to London, and we will seize every opportunity to keep exchanging ideas with organizations like ours
2019 will be full of new developments, and we will be even happier if you share them with us! The 3DRap team wishes you a year full of success!
