The research centre Tecnalia Research & Innovation has been recognised
in Europe as one of the benchmarks in the Factory of the Future.
Its DEMAT project, which reduces the energy consumption of machine tools by
30%, has been selected as one of the best projects of the year in the field of
manufacturing, as a result of the benefits it will be bringing to the sector.
The project was presented at Industrial Technologies 2012, a forum held in
Aarhus, Denmark, from 19-21 June. Promoted by the European Commission, it is a
leading European event for the over 1,000 experts in nanotechnologies, advanced
materials and new manufacturing systems who attended.
During this event Tecnalia presented a total of seven research projects,
among which featured DEMAT (Dematerialised Machines). This project won an award
as one of the best European Projects of the year in the manufacturing sector
from among the more than 900 submitted. This award recognises projects with a
great economic and social impact, and seeks to encourage Europe’s
competitiveness through the creation of new products and processes.
DEMAT is a new way of designing machine tools and aims to maintain the
features these machines have at present while using the minimum amount of
material possible. This way their productivity and quality are maintained but
with a minimum consumption of material and energy resources, which enables
consumption to be cut by 30%.
So what the project sets out to do is to design production systems that
ensure that a maximum added value is achieved with a minimum of material
resources. It is a research project funded by the European Commission within the
7th Framework Programme for Research.
Tecnalia is leading this project, in which another 15 European organisations
are participating: CECIMO (BE), Ibarmia (ES), Micromega (BE), CESI (IT),
NC-Service (ES), Intelliact (CH), D.Electron (IT), Missler (FR), CNR-ITIA (IT),
KULeuven (BE), EPFL (CH), Fraunhofer-ISI (DE), Bath (UK), ISW-Stuttgart (DE) and
MCM (IT).