As manufacturing industry is evolving from high-volume and commoditized production to small batch nonstandard parts production mode, WeNext has served 200,000 customers with an annual output of over 30 million parts to date. This not only reflects huge market potential, and the tremendous value of the company in the evolution of manufacturing. With the goal of establishing new, upgraded manufacturing standards for the entire industry, the company continues to scale and optimize production lines. Its growth is supported by two mega trends disrupting traditional manufacturing: 1) shorter life cycles for newly launched products and 2) the increasing number of SKUs on the market.

December 21st, 2021, WeNext, China’s largest and most experienced digital manufacturing platform, today announced its US $55 million funding round. As the largest financing this year in China’s non-standard parts intelligent manufacturing field, the round was co-led by Cathay Capital and Temasek. The new funding will be put towards R&D projects and further upgrades to the WeNext digital platform as well as expanding market share and building a global footprint in fast-growing regions.

NSK linear guides and rolling bearings find use in many advanced automation systems for plastic injection moulding processes, including the industrial robots manufactured by Campetella Robotic Center.

Mingpo CAI, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Cathay Capital: “As the largest and most active manufacturing hub in the world, it’s vital for China’s industrial sectors to embrace R&D and innovate as technology continues to advance. WeNext is taking on this challenge by upending traditional methods with its ‘Digital+Manufacturing’ approach and infrastructure that can activate future innovation more efficiently. From the very start of their entrepreneurial journey, Xueyuan and his team have been transforming the industry with a wide variety of unique services offring flexibility, shorter lead time and cost reduction to different kind of customers. At Cathay, and our industrial tech team, we remain confident in WeNext’s potential and are proud to see our global ecosystem foster its growth – which is sure to benefit businesses in China and around the world.”

Since launching in 2015, WeNext has grown to become a pioneering one-stop shop for digital manufacturing and the largest 3D printing platform in the country. The company offers the broadest selection of smart manufacturing services including 3D printing, Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining, injection molding and sheet metal production. To meet the production needs of non-standard parts, WeNext integrates AI-based software with physical manufacturing processes, creating a competitive advantage with both speed and cost effectiveness.

Another feature highly appreciated by Campetella Robotic Center is the unique Gothic arch profile of NSK’s NH/NS guides, which guarantees perfect straightness in long junction rails. The Gothic arch profile with four-point ‘X’ contact guarantees rigidity without losing the ability to compensate for small alignment errors. In addition, the four deep-groove rails are equipped with oversized balls to ensure maximum load capacity.

Since the 1980s, Campetella has developed an innovative series of Cartesian robots and manipulators that have achieved extraordinary market success, particularly in the plastic moulding sector, thanks to their high performance and reliability.

Leading cloud-based digital manufacturing service provider that offers end-to-end solutions from rapid prototyping to mass production. WeNext provides professional services such as 3D printing, CNC Machining, injection molding and vacuum casting for various industries. Founded in 2014, WeNext has served more than 200,000 users with an annual output of more than 30 million pieces. With our large and efficient digital production facilities, we could produce high quality part; reduce operation cost and production time, as short as 1 day.

In the spirit of close co-operation between the companies, NSK has begun collaborating with the Campetella Academy by presenting its most advanced linear motion solutions to help develop next-generation products and solutions.

"The market is asking for increasingly advanced and complex solutions,” Campetella added. “For a company like ours, it’s essential to keep pace with the latest technologies. At the same time, it’s vital that we transfer the knowledge we’ve accumulated to our customers, to help them achieve their business objectives. The Campetella Academy provides a meeting point for us, our strategic suppliers and our customers. It promotes the dissemination of automation knowledge in the production environment, to the benefit of all, so that everyone can strengthen their role in an increasingly competitive and challenging global market."

For many years, designers at Campetella Robotic Center have been using NSK's solutions for the realisation of Cartesian robots and many other handling systems. In particular, the company uses the latest generation of linear guides and roller bearings, chosen for their performance characteristics and absolute reliability.

Presently, Campetella Robotic Center is a leading company focused on mechanical designs and concepts, while also providing software engineering, plant installation, and industrial robot sales and aftersales assistance. Robotic solutions for the plastic moulding sector still represent core business. This solid experience has led to the company’s selection by major national and international industrial groups with multiple production needs: from unloading the part from the extruder to final packaging of the product ready for shipment to the consumer.

Campetella Robotic Center is an Italian company specialising in the production and application of industrial robots and automation systems for plastic injection moulding. Its history goes back centuries – the business was founded back in 1897 as a manufacturer of special agricultural equipment and, over the years, has accompanied hundreds of entrepreneurs along the path where craftsmanship turns into industry. While maintaining strong roots in the Marche region, five successive generations of the Campetella family have been able to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by globalisation, today serving multinational customers on all continents.

Luca Marinangeli, Purchasing Manager of Campetella Robotic Center, said: "Thanks to years of successful collaboration and mutual trust, our designers have become autonomous in the selection of components, but they often converse with NSK technicians to investigate new solutions or identify new opportunities offered by the latest technological solutions. A good example is the K1 self-lubrication system, which has been tried and tested since its introduction to the market and has become standard in all Campetella-manufactured machines wherever major linear movements are required. The K1 system allows us to guarantee maintenance-free solutions for our customers, which is a great and appreciated added value in plants that must work 24/7, year-round. It’s not uncommon for our machines to use roller bearings that must work for millions of cycles at high speeds and with very heavy loads. Since using NSK's K1 self-lubrication unit, the roller bearing block and linear guide have an operating life that exceeds that of other machine components, such as electrical cables, and never requires maintenance."

Cathay Capital Group is a global investment firm supporting companies at all stages throughout North America, Asia, Europe and Africa. By helping navigate the opportunities of globalization and sustainable transformation, Cathay is the partner of choice for companies aspiring to lead markets and make a positive impact. Its global platform connects people – from investors and entrepreneurs to management teams and leading corporations – across continents to share knowledge, the tools to scale, and achieve the extraordinary. Founded in 2007 with a strong entrepreneurial heritage, Cathay Capital now manages over $4.5B in assets, has completed over 220 buyouts, growth and venture capital investments with the global reach and local expertise from offices in Paris, New York, Shanghai, Munich, San Francisco, Beijing, Singapore, Shenzhen and Tel Aviv.

These are just a few of the many examples that show how the fruitful collaboration between two sector leaders contributes to their mutual success, fostering the development of a company that, in over 120 years of history, has never stopped facing new challenges for the benefit of its customers.

The issue of skills is very important to Campetella Robotic Center, so much so that it recently launched the strategic Campetella Academy project.

The experience gained in the industrial automation world has made the company’s robots a landmark in Industry 4.0 applications relating to plastic materials. This leading position is also thanks to consolidated partnerships with the world’s principal manufacturers of injection moulding machines. For each application in the plastics sector, Campetella studies and proposes the most suitable technological solution for handling and moving parts. From labelling to assembly, from quality control to palletising, the company’s design team is able to provide and implement the most suitable automatic systems that guarantee series production 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

CEO Elia Campetella said: "Our customers ask us to help them build high-productivity lines, where every element of the automation chain offers maximum optimisation, not just to guarantee high speed, but to ensure that it never breaks down or stops unexpectedly. This means that the starting point for our designers is the highest quality components and sub-systems, without which we, in turn, could not guarantee the highest quality and lowest total cost of ownership for our customers. For this reason, we ask our strategic suppliers, which include NSK, to adopt the same philosophy: quality and reliability must always be market- leading. This is the only way we can enhance the creativity of our designers who devise the many automation solutions for workpiece handling that we offer.”

Xueyuan LU, CEO of WeNext said: “China’s 10-trillion-yuan manufacturing sector relies on four core processes: 3D printing, CNC machining, injection molding, and metal sheeting. These are widely used to produce a range of essential products including consumer electronics, medical equipment, and unique models for the automotive industry. However, a lack of proper standardization has led to low production efficiency for SMBs, representing the bulk of the market. Digitalization in manufacturing can bring more flexibility throughout the entire process and fundamentally improve efficiency, particularly for non-standard parts. Unlike high-volume and commoditized manufacturing, we’re committed to serving the non-standard and diverse needs of our clients as we grow further and to delivering ever better products and services.”