A collaborative initiative called 3Dstore, spearheaded by the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) alongside the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and steelmaking giant CELSA, has brought an unconventional solution to a persistent industrial challenge: unplanned machinery failures.
The consortium has engineered a monitoring system driven by a solid oxide battery fabricated through additive manufacturing, capable of detecting early warning signs of equipment malfunction in demanding factory settings.
Additional research partners, including CIC energiGUNE, a Basque center specializing in electrochemical and thermal energy storage, and the University of Castilla-La Mancha, contributed to the project’s development.
ICREA professor and IREC’s Head of Nanoionics and Fuel Cells, Albert Tarancón, framed the initiative’s broader ambition: “to monitor and digitalize strategic industries such as the steel sector.”
How the System Operates on the Factory Floor
At the core of the technology sits a solid oxide battery engineered to function under extreme temperatures while supplying energy to a low-consumption electronic unit with cellular connectivity. The battery’s 3D printed construction allows for precise material usage and geometry tailored to fit specific deployment needs, a flexibility that conventional manufacturing would struggle to match.
UOC led the design and field deployment of the electronic hardware, installing it directly on the shaft of a rolling mill at CELSA, a machine that flattens steel bars into structural profiles. The device continuously captures vibration and temperature data from the shaft, enabling engineers to anticipate failures before they occur.
Xavier Vilajosana, UOC’s Vice President for Research, Transfer and Entrepreneurship and an ICREA professor, noted that catching these faults in advance would prevent production halts of “at least four to eight hours,” with associated costs reaching “hundreds of thousands of euros” given the operational intensity of steel production.
Beyond Reliability: The Energy and Sustainability Angle
CELSA underscored a dimension of the technology that extends beyond mechanical uptime. When a rolling mill stops unexpectedly, the furnaces feeding it, running at 1,200 degrees Celsius to keep steel at working temperature, continue consuming gas regardless. Preventing breakdowns, therefore, also cuts unnecessary energy expenditure, translating into both cost savings and a smaller environmental footprint.
Looking ahead, the research team aims to expand this monitoring approach to additional stations across CELSA’s production line, with potential applications stretching well beyond steelmaking.
“Monitoring this type of industry is complex, but at the same time necessary, because these are highly complex processes that require maintenance which, if predictive or preventive, helps to avoid major issues,” Tarancón concluded.
Researchers also pointed to critical public infrastructure, bridges, tunnels, and road networks, as future candidates for this kind of 3D printed, battery-powered sensing technology.
Predictive Maintenance Through Additive Manufacturing
The 3Dstore project targets a persistent gap in heavy industry: the absence of self-powered, reliable sensing systems capable of operating continuously in extreme environments where conventional electronics degrade rapidly.
Real-world deployments are already proving the case for embedded predictive intelligence. The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has developed sensor-based methods to monitor wear and tear on 3D printed maraging steel components, using measurements to predict when parts will degrade or fail before they actually do, an approach that has since expanded to machine-learning techniques applied to stainless steel parts.
On the process monitoring side, Addiguru’s in-situ monitoring technology achieved 96% accuracy in detecting swelling and layer distortion in additive manufacturing builds, identifying anomaly signals up to 100 layers earlier than conventional optical monitoring, demonstrating how early detection directly translates into avoided failures and saved production time.
What sets 3Dstore apart is the energy layer. Most predictive maintenance systems still depend on wired power or battery packs that need replacing, a logistical liability in extreme industrial environments. A solid oxide battery built by 3D printing, shaped to fit and engineered to operate at high temperatures, removes that dependency. It doesn’t just monitor machinery. It keeps itself running.
3D Printing Industry is inviting speakers for its 2026 Additive Manufacturing Applications (AMA) series, covering Energy, Healthcare, Automotive and Mobility, Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Software. Each online event focuses on real production deployments, qualification, and supply chain integration. Practitioners interested in contributing can complete the call for speakers form here.
To stay up to date with the latest 3D printing news, don’t forget to subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter or follow us on LinkedIn.
Explore the full Future of 3D Printing and Executive Survey series from 3D Printing Industry, featuring perspectives from CEOs, engineers, and industry leaders on the industrialization of additive manufacturing, 3D printing industry trends 2026, qualification, supply chains, and additive manufacturing industry analysis.
Featured image shows 3Dstore project. Photo via IREC.
