CENTIMFE - Technological Center for the Mouldmaking, Special Tooling and Plastic Industries

CENTIMFE, the Technological Center for the Mouldmaking, Special Tooling and Plastic Industries, is a Portuguese non-profit organization whose main goal is to support the technological development of the mould and plastic sectors in Portugal. Founded in 1991, it currently has around 200 associates - including companies and public institutions, being 30% of its members from the public sector and 70% from the private sector. CENTIMFE is located at the Center Region of Portugal, in Marinha Grande city.

CENTIMFE’s mission is to position itself as an interface to support the development of the Moulds, Special Tools and Plastic industries, through interaction with companies in these sectors in their different functions, acting as a technology transfer link between the Scientific and Technological System, of which it is an integral part, and the Companies, within the framework of the Competitiveness and Technology Hub Engineering & Tooling, of which is an anchor partner.

CENTIMFE as currently around 50 workers, mostly with higher formation degrees and technical expertise. Its technical intervention areas range from product and process engineering, rapid prototyping, processes reengineering, technology watch and intelligence, metrology, quality, ITs, LCA, Innovation and IPR management. It´s activities include technological research, professional training and interchanges of scientific and technical information with other related bodies at national and international level and address to the full value chain of tooling and plastic processing.

CENTIMFE is an active promoter of sectorial initiatives, in close articulation with national and European Associations of the Tooling Industry, such as seminars, technical workshops, fairs, training actions, projects and other industrial support activities, being also one of the founding members, and main promoters, of the European Tooling Platform, a MANUFUTURE’s sub-platform. Within these initiatives, it coordinates the organization of several workshops and conferences such as the International Conference RPD - "Rapid Product Development" and D2P - "From Design to Product” and provides Scientific Counselling at other international conferences.

As referred the organization acts as the natural interface between the industry, mainly SMEs, and RTD entities, promoting technical, technological and training support to SMEs in key areas for the Tooling and Plastic Industries, developing R&D projects and providing added-value engineering and support consultancy services.

Apart from being co-founder and official member No. PT10080 of the Cluster Engineering & Tooling Collective Brand, CENTIMFE is a recognized Interface Center by ANI - National Innovation Agency, within the scope of the National Reform Program (PNR) and the Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 84/2016, of 21 December 2016.

CENTIMFE is certified under standards NP EN ISO 9001: 2015 and NP 4457: 2007, its calibration laboratory is accredited by IPAC under the standard NP EN ISO / IEC 17025: 2005 to perform calibrations within the scope of dimensional and mass metrology and the testing laboratory is also accredited by IPAC under the standard NP EN ISO / IEC 17025: 2005 for conducting tests to determine positioning errors in machine tools.

CENTIMFE is certified by DGERT in the context of the development of training activities for professional training, under the terms of Art. 4 of Ordinance No. 851/2010, of 6 September.