Gunnebo’s Innovation Hub Celebrates its First Birthday
The Bari innovation team, with Samuel Salvador (front right)
A major investment in innovation, digitalisation and product development
Using a 3D printer to make the prototypes, the Gunnebo Safe Storage Innovation Hub is developing technologies to deliver real-time information, such as whether a safe is under attack.
This is just one of the projects currently under way at the Gunnebo Safe Storage Innovation Hub, which was established one year ago in Bari, southern Italy. Another is a smart remote lock, while the Hub is also collaborating with Gunnebo’s Hamilton business in the USA on an app for its drive-up solutions.
The Hub marks a major investment in innovation, digitalisation and product development at Gunnebo and is a big step towards the company’s goal of becoming a world leader in new technologies for storing and protecting valuables. The Hub brings together a growing team of innovation specialists who have the focus and drive to push the boundaries of valuables protection and support our customers to develop their businesses and solutions.
Inside the new innovation laboratory
The Hub is based at the Universitá degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro. Gunnebo chose this location because there is excellent infrastructure for innovation and a vibrant technology community.
Innovation work is focused on five main areas: innovative locking systems, remote access and connectivity, authentication technology, IoT cloud platform and new materials. Throughout these innovation projects there is a focus on sustainability in terms of improving the product lifecycle.
Some of the projects are still at the ideas stage, such as developing technologies for manufacture and assembly directly on site. Meanwhile, the Hub is refining the EverydaySafe, which has already entered the commercial phase.
The Hub has now opened a new laboratory for product development. For example, the lab enables automatic testing of locks as many as 30,000 times.
“In the new laboratory here, we can now do prototypes of specialist electronics and proofs of concept,” says Samuel Salvador, Digital & Software Innovation Lead at Bari.
“We have also established a local network with local universities exploring opportunities for collaborative research. We already have a very good collaboration with Bari University.”
The number of employees has gone from four last year to 12 today, plus three trainees from the Upskill trainee programme.
Read more about the innovative solutions developed by Gunnebo Safe Storage here