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It will also participate in the upcoming European Partnership for Advanced Materials (IAM4EU)

The Innovative Advanced Materials Initiative (IAM-I) was officially launched on January 30, 2025, in Brussels with more than 260 members from across Europe, including SMEs, large corporations, universities, and expert centers in Advanced Materials. The association is expected to surpass 300 members by the end of the year. IAM-I will play a key role in shaping European policies on innovative advanced materials, acting as the private entity that will oversee the emerging IAM4EU partnership (Innovative Advanced Materials for Europe), once the agreement with the European Commission is signed, scheduled for late March.

CIDETEC is involved in this initiative not only as a member of the association but also as part of its governing bodies, represented by Dr. Elena Jubete, Business Developer for European Programs at CIDETEC Surface Engineering. On January 31, 2025, IAM-I held its first General Assembly, where the representatives for its governing bodies were elected. Dr. Jubete was chosen for one of the four European seats for technology centers within the association’s delegation. This means CIDETEC will actively contribute to the strategy and decision-making process within the initiative, bringing its expertise in research and development of innovative materials.

The initiative will play a crucial role in building a European research and innovation ecosystem that accelerates the development and commercialization of sustainable advanced materials and associated technologies, aligned with the principles of the digital and circular economy. Specifically, the co-programmed European partnership “Advanced Materials for Europe” (IAM4EU), which is about to be formalized, falls under the Horizon Europe program. Its goal is to establish a strong R&D agenda based on resilient and circular value chains, cross-cutting technologies, and innovative methodologies. IAM-I will work closely with the European Commission (DG Research, DG Grow) and other stakeholders to define key areas of intervention, promote training and education in advanced materials, and position these materials as fundamental enablers to address Europe’s social and environmental challenges.

Through its participation in this high-impact initiative, CIDETEC reaffirms its commitment to innovation and sustainability, contributing to the development of advanced materials that will shape the future of European industry and society.

The system has been designed by the project to detect defects generated by corrosion in oil and gas installations.

The setup of a pipeline demonstrator designed by members of the CUIDETEC (Corrosion Under Insulation DETECtion and prediction in steel pipes) project consortium is ready and has been operating at CIDETEC Surface Engineering facilities for already 1 year. This Project aims to develop a procedure for the maintenance of oil and gas installations based in an automated system with hardware and software tools for the management of the pipelines and equipment integrity affected by Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI). The system has been designed to detect, localize, and quantify defects generated by corrosion.

The demonstrator is currently installed on the terrace of CIDETEC Surface Engineering building. Prior to the heat-insulation setup, artificial defects were generated on the pipes to simulate the CUI. This demonstrator undergoes thermal cycles, simulating the conditions of an operating pipeline in the oil and gas sector.

Detection tests of corrosion defects have been carried out by using Non-Destructive Techniques, including a pulsed current transducer and an electromagnetic acoustic transducer which, combined, allow to measure through the insulation, estimate the defects dimensions due to CUI and generate a mapping of the wall thickness over the detected areas. The defects have been successfully identified by the sensor coupled to a robot which allows it to move across the pipeline and is also able to rotate 360 degrees.

CUIDETEC is an international project whose participants are Innerspec Technologies UK, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon GmbH, Nuromedia GmbH, Robolan robotic engineering, Design Business & Verification Services (DBV), and CIDETEC Surface Engineering.

This Project is funded by the joint program Eurostars-3 with co-funding of CDTI, and the Research and Innovation Europe Horizon Framework Program of the European Union. Its execution period started in January of 2023 and will end in December of 2024.

A project progress meeting was hosted by CIDETEC Surface Engineering last October.

CIDETEC Surface Engineering will offer greater flexibility to develop sustainable materials.

CIDETEC Surface Engineering has incorporated innovative, fully automated Filament Winding and ATL (Automatic Tape Laying) equipment, supplied by Mikrosam, a global leader in composite manufacturing technologies. This advanced equipment will provide CIDETEC Surface Engineering with greater flexibility to develop sustainable materials, especially through its 3R technology (recyclable, repairable and reprocessable epoxy resins), from which currently active projects, both European (Cubic, Genex) and regional (EcoH2Mov, Hi-Mugi), will begin to benefit.

“This equipment will allow us to take our developments to the next level, contributing to the use of more sustainable composite materials in the Energy, Aerospace and Automotive sectors,” says Dr. Eva García-Lecina, Deputy Director of CIDETEC Surface Engineering.

This new equipment incorporates specialized software that allows both wet and dry winding (towpreg), in addition to the precise placement of unidirectional prepregs tapes. This equipment allows CIDETEC Surface Engineering to strengthen its leadership in advanced materials technologies.

Experts discuss the future of epoxy resins and their role in creating recyclable materials within the CUBIC project.

CIDETEC Surface Engineering was the venue for the second training session of the academic program under the CUBIC project, organized in collaboration with Specific Polymers on October 9th. The event gathered 21 participants interested in exploring the journey of epoxy resins, from their discovery to their use in vitrimer technology, to develop more sustainable composite materials.

The training addressed the challenge of replacing petroleum-derived monomers with bio-based alternatives and the potential of adaptable covalent networks, which enable the creation of self-healing, moldable, and recyclable materials. Additionally, the use of 3R epoxy resins patented by CIDETEC Surface Engineering in the production of circular materials was highlighted, with a particular focus on their chemical, mechanical, and thermoforming recycling processes.

This session provided researchers with a valuable opportunity to acquire and share knowledge on the new generation of sustainable resins and composite materials.