13th International Tooling Conference - Tooling 2025

Research and development program as a solution for competitiveness of the Brazilian toolmaking sector

26 Mar 2025, 09:30

20m

Room 2 (Grand Hotel Trento)

Keynote - Highlight lmprovements in efficiency Materials, Properties & Microstructure

Speaker

Dr Ana Paola Villalva Braga (Institute for Technological Research)

Description

Since 2019, the Brazilian government has been implementing programs to develop the automotive supply chain. One of these programs, entitled "More Competitive Brazilian Toolmakers", seeks to overcome the challenges faced by toolmakers with low productivity and technological lag. The main objective is to train the tooling chain for automotive products, seeking to achieve global competitiveness. Aligned with the government's commitment to neo-industrialization and innovation, the program focuses its initiatives on optimizing deadlines, costs, and quality throughout the various phases of the tooling production life cycle. In doing so, it seeks to prepare Brazilian toolmakers not only to meet the national demand in vehicle manufacturing but also to achieve a prominent position in the global market. The program also promotes research and development as complementary tools to create an ecosystem that favors collective efficiency through collaboration between the various actors in the chain, including toolmakers, assemblers, system suppliers, universities, and technology centers. This collaborative approach results in product differentiation, strengthening of cooperative ties, and access to the diffusion of technological and organizational innovations, inputs, specific solutions, and specialized labor. Thus, it aims to maintain a healthy balance between competition and cooperation. 28 Research, Development, and Innovation projects were engaged in the first 5 years of the program, proposing improvements in the various phases of the tooling production life cycle in search of increased durability, repairability, productivity, and applications in innovative materials and processes. The projects were and are being executed through partnerships between 39 Science and Technology Institutions and 164 companies (toolmakers, assemblers, systems manufacturers), with support from representative entities. Some projects focused on basic and disruptive research, while others were looking to solve problems with higher TRL. The total financial contribution committed was approximately 33 million dollars.