GradoZero, S.r.l. - Eng.D. Enrico Cozzoni - Senior Scientist and Project Manager
Recherche partenariat En recherche de financements
GradoZero represents 2 Italian SME (we are located near to Florence), Grado Zero Espace SRL, born more than sixteen years ago, involved in materials R&D and advanced manufacturing processes.
Grado Zero Innovation SRL, born in 2013,involved in product development and prototyping: it incorporates an Industrial Design Lab.
We have, in Grado Zero Innovation, a Dept. specifically involved in Life Cycle Engineering, including all the facilities to prototype and test the product that we develop. One important scope of this Dept. is the study of technologies for recovery precious/valuable materials from waste streams, and the development of material solutions and products incorporating these, reprocessed. We are extremely active in supporting the development of sustainable and circular models of supply chains, including the possibility to pilot-testing the production of protective garments, safety equipment, sensors and sensing systems, and advanced textile-based material solutions (also in 3D structures).
The fields of application covered by GradoZero span from Automotive and Aerospace (Transportation), to Construction & Buildings, Biomedical, safety and protective equipment and Advanced Wearables (PPE, Healthcare & Wellbeing, Wearable Computing and HMIs), textile products (including outerwear and sportswear clothing - Fashion and Garments), Military & Defence, Yachting, Marine Technologies and Nautical products and equipment, Energy.
The materials exploited by GradoZero:
- Composites and nanocomposites (based on polymer as well as metal matrices).
- Polymers and biopolymers.
- Shape memory materials:
- Meso-, micro- and nano-porous materials (especially carbon-based):
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- Graphene and other carbon-based nano-materials. Also in applications in which these materials are used for storing Hydrogen and Methane.
- Hydrogels and Aerogels:
- Natural and inorganic/synthetic (technical) fibres (Spider Silk, Carbon, Basalt Glass, Quartz, Silica, Boron, and many others).
- Special polymers (self-healing/self-repairing):
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The technologies (linked to materials) exploited by GradoZero:
- Metallurgy of special steels; Development of new technologies for the production of alloys with prescribed thermal and elastic properties: soft magnetic alloys, magnetic alloys, alloys with high Ohmic resistance, thermostatic bimetals highly sensitive and with increased sensitivity, shape memory alloys, damping alloys or Invar alloys, Nitinol, wear-resistant alloys, multifunctional materials.
- Development of technologies for the production of materials based on (nano-)ceramics (carbides, oxides, borides, nitrides, metal-ceramic); , low-temperature non-vacuum sintering powder materials.
- Development of adaptive and stimuli-responsive materials: with stimuli coming from the exterior - thermal, magnetic stimuli, electromagnetic/acoustic waves, or with stimuli that involve the action of surface forces (alloys, polymers, elastomers, hydrogels, foams, fibres/fabrics, 3D structures); , SMAs; SMPs; Shear Thickening Fluids (STFs), Magnetorheological Fluids (MRFs), Ferrofluids; Magneto Caloric Fluids (MCFs).
- Development of different classes of Metamaterials (mechanical Metamaterials: Phononic/Auxetic/Metafluids).
- Polymer-based (nano-)composites and “smart” coatings.
- Piezoelectric and piezoresistive materials - LTM Sensory Glove by GZE (piezoelectric and piezoresistive materials):
GradoZero has several patents and licenses on materials and technologies. GradoZero is also specialized in coating and finishing technologies, including hydrophobic and super-hydrophobic, moisture retention, anti-microbial, anti-scratch, anti-corrosion, self-healing, thermal and electromagnetic insulation, anti-reflection, anti-UV and protection against abrasion, bio-fouling and radiations.
Thanks to its multi-disciplinary team made of complementary technical figures spanning from chemists and materials scientists, to mechanical and aerospace engineers, to product integrators and designers, GradoZero is able to offer a 360° service on product, from the development of the PoC (“proof of concept”), to the analysis of the industrial value and supply chain.
GradoZero takes particularly into account all the product Life Cycle, including eco-efficiency of the manufacturing process and the recycling and reuse of materials at the EOL. GradoZero applies, in its developing and prototyping chain, the ECO Design and Design for Dismantling & Reuse approaches. Design-driven innovation and circularity indicators, defined through the LCA, constitute the major innovation that GradoZero is able to apply in terms of sustainability. From the analysis of the operational metabolism on which the products and components consume their use phase, the Company, using a special IT-based approach, is able to identify new business models and new supply chain concepts through which completely reinvent a value added “life” for the disassembled materials, so providing a more sustainable and eco-friendly way to conceive products and components.