QiTech Industries: Inventors in the third dimension
Balancing studies and startup? As Simon Kolb relates, it was not an easy task: “Things were pretty stressful in the first year,” recalls the 21-year-old. He and his co-founder Milan von dem Bussche have been growing their company QiTech Industries for almost three years. The young startup works in two areas. First, recycling old plastic, turning it into filament – the feedstock for 3D printers. And second, designing and building vital systems for 3D printing, such as a filament winding machine.
Kolb was already an enthusiastic robotics club member in his school days, and it wasn’t long before he had the idea of founding a company. An inventive spirit is still an important part of the company’s work to this day: the founders, with the team of three they have now built up, develop the software and most of the components themselves. Again, it’s not an easy job. “If you take care of the mechanical engineering, software and electrical engineering yourself, you bring yourself a whole lot of difficulties,” says Kolb with a laugh.
But that doesn’t deter the young entrepreneurs. “To begin with, we spent ages looking for a control system that could be programmed the way we wanted,” says Kolb. When they got stuck, they developed their own industrial controller, designed the necessary control board and constructed an air-cooling system. This allowed them to program in the desired environment and shield the component more reliably from electromagnetic radiation. Some of the expertise they needed came from Google, and some from talking to experts. They have 200 square meters of workshop space in an industrial park at their disposal for tinkering, including heavy machinery and a high-voltage power supply. “It’s fascinating what we learn from this work,” says Kolb. In the long term, the in-house development should also pay off financially. Achieving this means larger volumes. “The outlay to begin with is of course much greater,” says Kolb.
After their first stressful year with the double workload of university and startup, the team has found a new rhythm. The founders order all the parts they need shortly before the exam phase, return to their studies during the delivery period, then dedicate two or three intensive months to development, assembly and delivery. “After that, the cycle starts all over again,” says Kolb.