3D Printing for Sustainable Viticulture – How Sculpteo Shields Chouette’s sensors for eco-friendly growth
04 December 2024: Chouette, a specialist in precision viticulture and Sculpteo, a pioneer in 3D printing, have joined forces to enhance vineyard management by combining smart sensors with custom-designed casings. This synergy not only enhances the precision of vineyard monitoring but also promotes environmentally friendly practices, aligning with the industry’s sustainability goals.
Chouette develops sensors embedded in cameras mounted on agricultural machinery. These high-resolution images are analyzed using artificial intelligence and agronomic models, enabling:
– Optimized input use: precise modulation of phytosanitary product dosages
– Replanting assistance: pinpointing missing or unproductive vines
– Growth monitoring: analyzing vine foliage development
– Disease and deficiency detection: identifying mildew, dieback diseases and nutrient deficiencies.
This approach allows winegrowers to adopt more sustainable agricultural practices while improving the quality and yield of their harvests.
3D Printing for sustainable agriculture
To ensure their sensors are durable under demanding climatic conditions, Chouette teams up with Sculpteo for weatherproof sensor casings using Multi Jet Fusion and Flexible Ultrasint® TPU01. These lightweight, durable casings are designed to withstand the challenges of agricultural machinery, effectively shielding the sensors from external elements.
Léo Chassery, embedded systems engineer at Chouette, explains “3D printing enabled us to design and mass-produce a custom model in record time, which is essential if we don’t want to miss the start of the wine-growing season.”
Alexandre d’Orsetti, CEO of Sculpteo, adds “This project perfectly illustrates how additive manufacturing can quickly address specific needs while offering sustainable solutions tailored to today’s challenges. Together, we are transforming agricultural practices with cutting-edge technologies.”
A partnership for a more sustainable future
As pioneers in the field of vineyard monitoring, this collaboration reaffirms a commitment to providing winegrowers with increasingly efficient and sustainable solutions, redefining the standards of precision viticulture.
About Chouette
Founded in 2015 in France, Chouette offers a precision viticulture solution to support winegrowers in decision-making, particularly in optimizing input use while ensuring harvest security. Today, over 100 vineyards, representing more than 30,000 hectares, trust Chouette. In February, the French leader in agronomic diagnostics successfully completed a 5 million Series A funding round to accelerate growth, expand its solutions across France and Europe, and continue developing services for winegrowers.
About Sculpteo
Sculpteo, a pioneer and specialist in digital manufacturing, offers an online 3D printing service. Sculpteo provides an online platform to securely upload 3D files and select from 75+ materials and finishing options. Professional engineers and technicians produce parts on industrial 3D printing technologies before sending them to businesses and individuals worldwide. Based in Paris and San Francisco, Sculpteo offers on-demand 3D printing and manufacturing at a large scale for start-ups, SMEs, and design studios. Sculpteo offers its professional 3D printing service alongside its expert Design Studio to help businesses integrate additive manufacturing into their product development and production systems. Sculpteo was created in 2009 by Eric Carreel and Clément Moreau and is led by Alexandre d’Orsetti, former director of Sculpteo’s design studio. BASF New Business GmbH acquired it in November 2019.
www.sculpteo.com
