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The manufacturer of semi-finished chemical products for surface treatment visited the new facilities on 25 May for the purpose of getting to know CIDETEC’s current capabilities and putting forward possible scenarios for collaboration.The visit was made by Ilya Ostrovsky, global technical director for light alloys, and Javier Rodrigo, the company’s technical director for Spain and Portugal.

Having completed the process to join the chemical multinational BASF, Chemetall is once again heading down the path to consolidate itself as one of the main suppliers of products for treatments in the aeronautical and automotive sectors.

The past 14^th of May the opening of the biannual 2018 Spring edition of the Baltic Conference Series (BCS) was celebrated, organized by the International Association of Advanced Materials and VBRI Sverige AB. The conference took place in a cruise ship between Stockholm (Sweden) and Helsinki (Finland), and included parallel sessions in different fields of new age technology and innovation such as Carbon Materials and Technology, Plastics and Rubber, Epoxy and Resins, Pulp and Paper Technology and Wood Technology.

CIDETEC, coordinator of Mat4Rail and WP2 leader participated in the Epoxy and Resins Conference with the oral communication “Towards a composite based carbody: Improving the FST properties of epoxy resins”, which was presented by CIDETEC´s researcher Sandra Gómez-Fernández and was developed with  contributions from HUNTSMAN Advanced Materials, AIMPLAS and RISE. This work included and overview of the latest results obtained in the development of new epoxy resin formulations with improved flame retardancy, for their further application in fibre reinforced polymers. These fiber reinforced polymers, which are aimed to be used in the railway industry, need to comply with the demanding EN 45545:2 “Railway applications – Fire Protection on Railway Vehicles”standard. Owing to the intrinsic flammability of epoxy resins, their formulation needs to be improved in order to develop safe and lightweight materials that meet the specifications of the railway regulation.

For this reason, the impact on the properties of epoxy resins by using different flame retardant approaches was depicted and discussed in this conference, analyzing properties such as glass transition temperature, onset curing temperature, thermal stability, tensile properties as well as ignitability and flame spread.

The conference counted on more than 120 participants. The active participation, feedback and questions of the attendees were an excellent demonstration of the high interest that Mat4Rail research arises.

Dr. Timothy Hall, researcher at the American company Faraday Technology, visited CIDETEC Surface Engineering’s new facilities on 21 May. Duringhisvisit, Dr.Hall, an expert in the development of new electrochemical processes based on the application of current pulses, gave a talken titled Electrochemical Engineering and Techniques in Pulse Electroprocessing. During his talk, he outlined some of Faraday Technology’s successes in using current pulse for electroplating different metals, alloys and composites and for electropolishing different materials with high technological value. Afterwards, he visited CIDETEC Surface Engineering’s new facilities, where they discussed cooperation frameworks for the joint development of R&D+i projects.

LIEBHERR-AEROSPACE Lindenberg GmbH visited CIDETEC Surface Engineering for the launching of the ECOLAND project, “Development of Eco-friendly protection procedures for LANDing gear aluminium alloys”. This project spearheaded by CIDETEC also relies on the participation of LVH Coatings (United Kingdom) and CTME (Miranda de Ebro). The project, financed by Clean Sky JU in the context of the Horizon 2020 programme, avails of a € 347,000 budget allocation for a duration of 18 months.

LIEBHERR-AEROSPACE Lindenberg GmbH is currently a reference in the European aeronautic industry as a manufacturer of landing gear and flight control and actuator systems. In this project, the company seeks to develop an alternative treatment to chromic anodising based on anaphoresis that meets REACH standards. Anaphoresis consists of applying an organic coating by immersion using electric current. It has the advantage of enabling painting without the need for preliminary priming. This makes it doubly interesting since it facilitates the reduction of application time (reducing production time by about 55 %) while replacing with a single coat two layers that usually contain Cr(VI) (substances with this element will be prohibited starting in 2024 to meet European REACH regulations), such as those produced by chromic anodising and the primers currently in use. The treatment developed in the course of the project will be mainly applied to series 7000 aluminium alloys, very often used in aeronautical applications, which require mechanical resistance. Such an improvement is expected to lengthen the useful life of the components treated by 25 % in comparison with traditional anodised and painted systems, and to reduce manufacturing costs by at least 30 %. Moreover, thanks to the new coating system, parts of more complex geometries can be treated, making it possible to design lighter landing gear.

Eric Santkin, Economic and Commercial Councillor of Wallonia, visited CIDETEC Surface Engineering installations last 15 March.

During his visit, Mr Santkinheld a meeting with CIDETEC Surface Engineering management to study the possibilities of the centre’s collaboration with the public and private entities of this Belgian region.Among other points of interest, it dealt with the different European R+D support programmes, and technological agents of Wallonia with whom research projects could be developed were identified.

One point that received special attention was the exchange of visits scheduled with the MecaTech Pole. MecaTech is a Walloon pole in competitive mechanical engineering that aims to improve corporate competitiveness in the sector by encouraging technological as well as commercial, organisational and other types of innovation. The MecaTechPole has identified four strategic thrusts on which to focus its projects: materials and surfaces of the future, comprehensive forming technologies, microtechnology and mechatronics, maintenance and reliability.The first among these thrusts offers clear possibilities of CIDETEC collaboration, which will facilitate intensified contacts between both entities in the future.