Smart manufacturing

Our industry digitalisation proposal is backed by a multi-disciplinary team with the necessary competences for an efficient and effective deployment of 4.0 transformative actions, based on the deployment of a wide range of enabling technologies: Industrial IoT, data analytics, predictive maintenance, computer vision, virtual and augmented reality, cybersecurity, etc.

From our clear goal of driving business competitiveness, we actively collaborate with industrial companies to design their strategic thinking and roadmap towards the Industry 4.0, and we develop projects with the greatest business impact according to the previously defined strategy, to:

• Provide consistent, real-time information that facilitates greater virtual remote surveillance of processes and assets and decision-making about their status at critical times, monitoring and replanning activities thanks to the integral support of Artificial Intelligence.
• Increase productivity through time reduction and cost savings, and minimise quality issues by mitigating the impact of manufacturing defects.
• Redesign and diversify sources of income by intensifying digital services and offering added-value services that ensure market differentiation.

We evolve means of production and mechatronic systems to give them autonomy, flexibility, multi-functionality, and reconfigurability, being committed to new machine architectures, and providing them with intelligence and flexibility to automate different applications and processes. We also develop flexible programming solutions that enable robotics and automation systems to incorporate greater autonomy and adaptation capabilities to changing work environments. That way:

• We transform machines into systems capable of adapting to changes in production and to the environment, so that automation solutions can be adapted to different conditions and manufacturing references, thus enabling increasingly autonomous manufacturing systems.
• Manufacturers can provide higher-productivity and higher-reliability equipment to a very competitive and highly-demanding market when prioritising investments.

We integrate new robotic paradigms and adapt solutions to the new industrial context that demands a greater collaborative work between people and robots, to facilitate the interaction of people with these new automation systems in a more natural and intuitive way, enabling remote operation of monitoring and interaction functions.

We develop innovative solutions for cross-sectoral issues associated with the introduction of new materials, advanced manufacturing processes, and bonding processes, thus impacting the entire chain from the design and calculation to the validation of component performance. We also contribute to the improvement of material performance through different treatments to increase their durability, strength, multi-functionality, etc. Our goal is to optimise processes by seeking greater productivity, applying and combining the right materials in the right place, in order to meet the efficiency and sustainability goals allowing industrial companies to align with the requirements of its value chain and remain competitive in the future.

We have more than 40,000 m2 of laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment and methods, and rely on multi-disciplinary teams capable of addressing complex needs and problems, as well as tailored studies and tests. Our materials experts perform selection of, characterisation, in-service performance, failure analysis, residual life, and life span extension tasks. We perform standardised tests in compliance to international standards as well as tests based on the particular specifications of industrial sectors. Thus, manufacturers in multiple industrial sectors can validate their new developments with us, from their prototypes to the final products.

The future scenario of the industry poses a need for redesign of its processes, materials and products, in order to respond to global demands for environmental sustainability and eco-efficiency.

Supporting companies in addressing these challenges:

• We offer customised diagnostics and solutions for the life-cycle analysis of the environmental footprint, we also assess the advantages of technological alternatives for your ecodesign strategy, to redesign processes, materials and products using alternatives that meet the global demands for decarbonisation, environmental sustainability and eco-efficiency
• We help monitor and optimise the energy consumption of industrial plants, and provide a variety of technologies for heat insulation and recovery, so that energy-intensive companies can directly tackle one of their most important cost items.
• Smart solutions guaranteeing more information, traceability, purity and efficiency in material resources recovery under circular economy paradigms, thus achieving direct improvements in the income statement through the recovery of materials for appreciation.

We provide solutions that affect the entire chain of additive manufacturing process, thanks to our expert knowledge of materials, machines, and processes in a wide range of fields of application. With this we seek to offer manufacturing alternatives that result in greater environmental efficiency and waste reduction, and to enable logistic and manufacturing alternatives that solve traditional supply issues.

We characterise raw materials and apply our methodology for the design of alloys; we design the components to be manufactured together with process simulations; we develop the technology to be integrated into machines guiding processes, hybridizing additive and subtractive manufacturing; and we monitor the quality of the parts through non-destructive techniques. All of which is focused on applications in multiple industrial sectors as well as construction, food, and health.