OCME marked an important goal in the field of design and innovation, being among the winners of the call announced under the National Strategy for Intelligent Specialization, which saw the registration of 153 proposals submitted by companies engaged in industrial activities, agro-industrial, craft and industrial services.


M.A.F.(High reliability Autonomous & Flexible Machines for new generation filling and packaging plants with advanced optimization and logistics solutions) is the OCME project included among the 30 Innovation Agreements that the Ministry of Economic Development signed on 22 May 2020 to support research and development programs in the fields of "Agrifood", "Intelligent Factory" and "Life Sciences".

It is an important investment on the territory for a total value of 221 million euros, of which 90 million euros for the 12 projects for the "Intelligent Factory" of which OCME is part.

The three year project (January 2020 - December 2022) has a broad development vocation, mainly focused on the realization of systems of vision and artificial intelligence, applied to robotic and logistic contexts. In fact, OCME - whose DNA has always been focused on innovation and research - has taken up the new challenge offered by the current market needs, facing the radical changes brought by the convergence between Information Technology (IT) and Operation Technology (OT).

It is a matter of adapting machinery and technologies in a data-centric perspective, where the human operator becomes a fundamental extension for maintaining high performance thanks to a better human-machine interaction, made more complete and intuitive.

OCME wants to remain a global reference point and, for this reason, has outlined a multiannual plan of activities with the aim of further improving its solutions at all possible levels. And it has done so by strengthening a technological exchange with local and national authorities and research centers in order to feed a virtuous synergy and to elevate the available studies and analyses to an industrial level. The collaboration already signed with the University of Parma and the contracts being defined with the universities of Modena and Reggio Emilia certainly want ro emphasize the value that the territory and the Packaging Valley have for OCME. However, an equally important aspect is the possibility of creating a technology transfer hub that allows local companies to draw not only on the highest level of professionalism, but also to innovative approaches for a constant competitive improvement of the technological solutions proposed.

The M.A.F. project is organized according to 6 Achievement Objectives, which will be achieved with a first phase of "Industrial Research" followed by "Experimental Development":

  1. Artificial vision and advanced sensors
  2. Artificial intelligence and complex systems management
  3. Next generation machine technology solutions
  4. Integrated solutions
  5. Advanced process management services
  6. Integration and validation

The M.A.F. aims to analyze several technological and scientific areas and strategic aspects in order to create a new generation of systems for filling, palletizing/depalletizing, automatic handling and integration with other related packaging systems: transversal enabling technologies (automated vision systems, autonomous driving solutions, control logic for cooperating robotics, modules for distributed control of machines and complex processes, artificial intelligence), specific process technologies (control and dosing solutions with high precision and repeatability, mechatronic solutions integrating CPS-Cyber Physical Systems, materials and coupling methods optimized to ensure maximum durability and reliability), solutions for the implementation of high added value services (for after-sales and new business models related to the use of the numerous information available thanks to the sensor devices and systems integrated with machines and logistics systems).

The individual results, independently and/or integrated, will allow to implement and realize a new generation of products and systems not currently available on the market, with an important impact in terms of OCME's technological positioning, increased company know-how and turnover (mainly oriented, as in recent years) to export.

back to top