Francesco Furlani drove a three-wheeled Piaggio Ape TM 703 from Italy to Nordkapp, Norway’s North Cape. He covered more than 4,500 kilometers across nine countries at speeds of just 40 to 45 kilometers per hour. The living module he carried on such a small vehicle was made using 3D printing, and it was this construction that ultimately made the entire expedition possible. The module weighs around 70 kilograms without its interior equipment, compared with approximately 200 kilograms for a comparable fiberglass construction. The material and technology were supplied by Nugae, an Italian deep-tech startup whose advantage lies in combining material, machinery, and software into a single manufacturing process.

The journey drew attention because of the vehicle’s slow speed, lack of comfort, and sheer determination required to cover thousands of kilometers at something closer to the pace of a motorized bicycle. The journey one way took around three weeks. Behind the easy-to-understand image of an adventure was a second, less photogenic story: the technology that made it possible to fit a complete living module onto such a small vehicle without exceeding its weight limits.

The camper body endured days with up to 12 hours of driving, rain, continuous vibration, wind gusts reaching 90 kilometers per hour, temperatures well above 30°C at the start, and close to 2°C near the destination. These conditions are not equivalent to laboratory certification, as Nugae itself points out, but they do represent prolonged, real-world exposure to precisely the conditions for which the component was designed.

In large-format additive manufacturing, a larger part almost always means more weight, more material consumption, and longer post-processing. For mobility applications, this can become a literal barrier, as every additional kilogram reduces the vehicle’s available payload. Here, the difference between 70 and 200 kilograms translated into what could actually be carried on the Ape alongside the shell itself: a bed, kitchen, outdoor shower, batteries, tanks, and supplies of water and food. To get all of this to the destination, the designers needed a structure capable of carrying real loads while withstanding the rigors of the road.

CoreLight3D and the UL-LFAM Process

CoreLight3D is a proprietary thermoplastic foam based on recycled polypropylene, developed by Nugae for robotic large-format 3D printing. Its density is approximately 300 kilograms per cubic meter, but when formed into thin walls and hollow geometries, the apparent density of the finished component, calculated across its entire volume including the voids, can fall to around 100 kilograms per cubic meter. It should not be confused with the density of the solid polymer, as the weight reduction comes from the combination of foamed material, internal architecture, and the printing process itself. The company works with structural walls just a few millimeters thick and geometries that place material only where it is needed to carry loads.

Performance depends on how the material, machine, and deposition path work together. The company refers to this process as UL-LFAM, or Ultra-Light Large Format Additive Manufacturing. It combines CoreLight3D material, a patented extruder, six-axis industrial robots, patented strategies for reinforcing geometries, and Nugae’s proprietary NU-Slice software. The result is large hollow or ribbed structures with internal reinforcements positioned according to the distribution of loads.

Where higher performance is required, the printed core can be combined with fiberglass or carbon-fiber skins to create a sandwich structure. This configuration increases stiffness with only a small increase in weight, which is important when the component has to withstand real-world loads. The finished component leaves the printer as a structural semi-finished part, ready for lamination, bonding, finishing, and painting. In large-format additive manufacturing, the advantage increasingly comes from connecting the material, machine, and software into a single production chain.

The Ape’s camper body itself was manufactured by a Nugae customer using a NU-Print Large machine installed at its facility. Nugae sponsored the technological contribution, including the material, engineering services, advanced CAD design, and production support. The company did not finance the expedition itself. The sponsorship covered the technology that transformed a digital file into a lightweight and viable structure.

Nautical Applications and New Fields

Nautical applications were the technology’s first major area of use, where low weight, customization, and resistance to the marine environment, UV radiation, temperature fluctuations, paints, and solvents are essential requirements. At JEC World 2026, Nugae presented a component for a 13-meter catamaran weighing 37 kilograms, printed in 42 hours and made from 70% recycled material. Beyond boats, the technology is being applied to vehicle bodies and lightweight mobility modules, architectural elements, urban furniture, stage sets, artistic installations, industrial prototypes, and custom components produced without expensive molds. In Naples, for the Garibaldi Urban Orchestra, CoreLight3D was used to create large-scale stage structures and acoustic surfaces light enough to be moved freely.

The geometric freedom of additive manufacturing also makes it possible to integrate channels, wiring, sensors, and lighting directly into the design during printing, while selective material deposition helps reduce waste. Nugae is building its print-on-place model around this principle: a distributed network of hubs created together with customers and local operators, equipped with the company’s machines. Instead of transporting very large components, only the digital design, expertise, and raw material travel, while production takes place close to the point of use.

The research that eventually led to this technology was started in 2012 by Francesco Belvisi, who was looking for optimized structures for the nautical industry that would be difficult to manufacture using conventional methods. The work brought together polymers, robotics, software, generative design, and composite manufacturing processes, fields that rarely mature together within a small company. Nugae is now headquartered in Sicily, with an operational facility in Lombardy. Behind each movement of the robot depositing material lies nearly 15 years of experimentation, patents, software development, and validation in real-world environments.