The Basque technological centre, Fatronik-Tecnalia, is leading the NEXT (Next Generation Production Systems' project), within the VI European R+D Framework Programme. It is the most ambitious project ever undertaken in Europe in the field of machinery and key to the automotive, aeronautics and transport sectors, amongst others. The NEXT initiative was approved by the European Commission in November 2004 and recently passed the third phase successfully. The project is forecast to end by October of this year.
All the partners involved share the goal of developing machines of the future and the business models for the production sector which will enable significant technological, industrial and social advances to take place. The objectives of NEXT are to produce more ecological machines with greater autonomy and productivity, to develop a new business model for machinery and to publish and share this new knowledge. The NEXT project is set to transform the European manufacturing industry, to meet the current challenges, such as delocating or the low costs of manufacture in emerging economies.
An external assessors' commission and the European Machine-Tool Association have satisfactorily evaluated the results achieved by the NEXT project to date - prototypes for new machines, new control algorithms and new adaptronic devices, amongst other technological developments.
More ecological machines
The first stage of the project has been a strong boost to the development of less contaminant machine tools, one of the prime objectives of the EC. This part of the project has been led by the 'Centro Ricerche Fiat S.c.p.A–CRF' from Italy with the participation of the Bizkaia-based Ona Electroerosión company and the Gipuzkoa-based enterprises, Danobat and Fatronik-Tecnalia.
The Basque technological centre has created a machine tool known as Atom (manufactured by Ibarmia), capable of welding metal plates by means of friction welding and which reduces waste in the form of metal swarf by 70%. The new Fatronik-Tecnalia machine is able to make parts for the aeronautics, automotive and railway sectors, amongst others. Enterprises like Irizar, manufacturer of buses and coaches, and CAF, specialising in rail stock, have already expressed interest in Atom.
The Ona Electroerosión company has achieved new formulations for the liquids and filters of machines, rendering them self-cleaning and thus reducing their contaminant impact. On its hand, Danobat has developed ecological grinding machines that reduce the use of refrigerant liquid by 80% and the energy consumption by 50%.
Machines with greater autonomy
Within this context, the NEXT project has developed various prototypes of intelligent machines, easier to use, capable of recognising the environment and of adapting and reacting to these circumstances; for example, to changes of temperature.
Likewise, the NEXT team has designed prototypes of autonomous milling machines which have automatic recognition of machining tasks and processes, by means of monitoring of sensors and recognition signals. It has also achieved prototypes that include the automatic fine tuning for the control of the machines. Thanks to this set of innovations, the operator can spend less time attending to the machine and a greater amount of time in activities of greater added value.
More productive machines
Within this line of activity Fatronik-Tecnalia is working, together with its partners in Montpellier (France), on a new, high-speed robotised system.
The NEXT project team uses new, lighter materials with great insulating capacity and good thermal stability - optimum properties for the components of the machines and which enable an increase in the speed of work. The new materials also increase the useful life of the components and enable savings in costs and resources.
New business models
The NEXT initiative does not restrict itself to the technical aspect and looks to new business models for machine tools where customer and manufacturer work together. The NEXT team proposes a relationship between client and producer that includes a distribution of responsibilities for the construction of machines and their operation and maintenance. In this way, the user benefits from greater participation by the manufacturer during the life cycle of the machine, while the manufacturers know customer satisfaction at first hand, enabling them to modify their products according to the real needs of the user.
Publication and training
Finally, NEXT proposes the publication of knowledge in its sphere of activity and the training of professionals. The European Commission wishes all knowledge generated in this project to be transferred to interested enterprises, particularly SMEs (small and medium-sized companies). It also wants the content of NEXT to be incorporated into university training programmes. This European body has charged Fatronik-Tecnalia, Ascamm and Cecimo AEFH to organise the worldwide diffusion of the advances achieved thanks to this project, by means of conferences, trade fairs and publications.
Participants
The Fatronik-Tecnalia led project has a budget of 24 million euros, a team of 60 people and 25 European partners, amongst whom are technological centres, businesses and universities from all over Europe. 60% of the funding come from the European Commission, 10% from national funds and from Eureka and the other 30% from participating members with the help of the European Investment Bank. The project has a web page describing in detail all the initiatives carried out: http://www.nextproject.eu/
The part of the project aimed at achieving more autonomous machinery is led by the German WZL laboratory and, to this end, European enterprises such as Siemens, Robert Bosch GmbH, Nicolás Correa S.A. (Spain), Fidia S.A. (Italy), Huller Hille/Ex-Cell-O (Germany) and Emco (Austria) are taking part.
The package involving more productive machines is being led by the University of Hannover–IFW, with the collaboration of Siemens, Robert Bosch GmbH, Nicolás Correa S.A. (Spain), Fidia S.A. (Italy), Huller Hille/Ex-Cell-O (Germany), Emco (Austria) and CeSI (Italy).
New models for marketing relations is being led by ITIA-CNR (Italy) with the participation of the Spanish Ona Electroerosión S.A. and Danobat S. Coop. companies.