The AZTERLAN Metallurgy Research Centre has announced its new metallic powder atomization capacities within the presentation of the results of Basque Government’s AZPITEK program. The event has had the participation of Mrs. Arantxa Tapia, Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment of the Basque Government, Mrs. Estíbaliz Hernáez, Vice Minister of Technology, Innovation and Digital Transformation, and Mr. Alberto Fernández, Director of Technology and Innovation, along with representatives of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance and the of the Technology Centers and CRCs belonging to the alliance.
The event was chaired by Dr. Beatriz González Ciordia, General Director of BETSAIDE S.A.L. and President of the AZTERLAN Foundation.
The research work that is being carried out in the field of metallic powders offers important opportunities for the metal-mechanical transformation industry, and will have an impact on the design and application of metallic materials and components.
The potential applications of this technology includes:
- Applying advanced coatings that provide components with greater resistance to corrosion, wear or thermal fatigue.
- Manufacturing multi-material components.
- The opportunity to converge or hybridize manufacturing technologies that will make it possible to gain flexibility to manufacture components with complex geometries or special characteristics (highlighting weight reduction, or the possibility of manufacturing parts with thinner walls and reduced sizes).
In order to improve the capacities related to this field of research and development, the AZTERLAN Technoloy Centre has incorporated new capacities to manufacture metallic powders by incorporating ultrasonic atomization equipment, as well as other peripheral equipment, dedicated to the manufacture and handling of metallic powder.
As announced by PhD. Garikoitz Artola, General Manager of AZTERLAN, “with these new capacities we can create high-quality metallic powders from wire or bars of different alloys or metals. Its use is intended to develop high performance materials and applications in the field of basic research, working on low TRLs”. Garikoitz has also highlighted that it is a unique equipment within the Basque Science, Technology and Innovation Network, being “complementary to the capabilities of other technology centers that operate in areas closer to the industrialization of processes and higher TRLs”.
AZTERLAN’s metallic powder atomization facilities are also equiped with other fundamental machinery and infrastructure for the handling and characterization of metallic powder: an ultrasonic sieve, a Hall funnel, a scale and a hygrometer; as well as peripheral equipment aimed at their maintenance (ultrasonic cleaning chamber and ATEX suction equipment).
Announcement within the presentation of the results of the AZPITEK program
The presentation of these new capacities has been carried out in the context of the communication of the results of Basque Government’s AZPITEK program, which has funded this new infrastructure. The event has taken place at the headquarters of the AZTERLAN Metallurgy Research Centre.
The presentation was attended by the Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Mrs. Arantxa Tapia, the Deputy Minister for Technology, Innovation and Digital Transformation, Mrs. Estíbaliz Hernáez, and the Director of Technology and Innovation, Mr. Alberto José Fernández González, as well as by representatives of the BRTA and the centers belonging to the alliance. In her speech, the Minister recalled that the AZPITEK program was “created in 2021 to help the Technology Centers and Cooperative Research Centers of the Basque Science and Technology Network to update and acquire new scientific-technological infrastructures, to continue responding to the socioeconomic challenges of the Basque Country from science and technology” and recalled that since its creation “it has managed to reinforce 51 scientific-technological infrastructures, with a total investment of 26M€ distributed among RIS3 strategies; Smart Industry, cleaner Energies or Health projects”.
In the name of AZTERLAN, PhD. Beatriz González, president of the AZTERLAN Foundation and General Director of the BETSAIDE S.A.L. iron foundry, has thanked the Basque Government for the “trust put on AZTERLAN to make the bet for this new research line possible and helping reinforce the capacities of the technology center”. Mrs. González has also highlighted the importance of this type of support “to reinforce the R&D&i infrastructure of the Basque Country”.
In this same line, the General Director of AZTERLAN has valued the support that AZTERLAN already received in the 2021 call of the AZPITEK program that made it possible to incorporate the EBSD Technology (Electron Backscatter Diffraction) and a new Axia ChemiSEM Scanning Electron Microscope, which have helped “consolidate the research capacities of our Technological Center specialized in metallurgy”.
