Navarre researches new materials and manufacturing technologies for the aerospace industry

Regional Minister Irujo and Regional Minister Fanlo visited the NAITEC technology centre in Noáin, where they learned about the latest advances in materials to obtain more competitive, efficient and sustainable products.

 

The Regional Minister of Industry and Ecological and Digital Business Transition, Mikel Irujo; and the Regional Minister of University, Innovation and Digital Transformation, Patricia Fanlo; visited this morning the headquarters of the NAITEC technology centre in Noáin / Noain, where they learnt about the latest advances in functional materials, advanced manufacturing technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for different types of industry, such as aerospace.

During their tour of the facilities, Irujo and Fanlo were accompanied by the General Director of Science, Technology and Innovation, Agurtzane Martínez; and by the General Director of NAITEC, Estibalitz Erauzquin.

Councillor Irujo highlighted the work of NAITEC and recalled that ‘the aerospace sector is an emerging sector in our community. Twenty years ago it was practically non-existent and in the last 15 years the number of companies has grown by more than 100%. I am convinced that in the next 15 years we will be facing a consolidated sector’.

Along with the aerospace sector, Irujo highlighted that the automotive and mechatronics technology centre ‘is carrying out pilot tests of new technologies applied to sustainable mobility. Navarre continues to take steps to promote innovation in mobility and move towards this new social and industrial paradigm, thanks to the collaboration of agents such as NAITEC’.

For her part, Fanlo underlined ‘the fundamental role that innovation plays in Navarre in order to promote sectors as booming as aerospace, which is a key opportunity that we cannot miss and which requires close collaboration between different organisations, companies and the Administration itself’.

In this sense, the Regional Minister assured that ‘European funds, together with other tools of the region, such as the Navarra R&D&I System (SINAI), to which NAITEC belongs, are helping to promote and strengthen research in this field, turning Navarra into a territory of excellence’. Finally, the Regional Minister thanked ‘the work carried out by this technology centre in terms of knowledge, innovation and the generation of new capacities’.

NAITEC projects

NAITEC is currently working on several projects to develop functional materials and new manufacturing technologies to obtain more competitive, efficient and sustainable products.

The ability to formulate materials with specific properties, together with the mastery of the manufacturing process, have positioned Navarra in a situation of competitive advantage, becoming a technology supplier for national and international companies such as Airbus, Viscofan, Red Eléctrica or Azkoyen, related to cutting-edge sectors such as aerospace, quantum computing and sustainable mobility. Not to mention that these industries require cybersecure environments for their operations, which has made it necessary to apply strict security standards within these facilities.

To respond to the demands of these sectors, NAITEC has specialised facilities, such as the Functional Additive Manufacturing Laboratory, the Composite Materials Laboratory and the Nanotechnology Laboratories. The representatives of the Government of Navarra were able to see first-hand some of the applications developed by NAITEC and its most advanced equipment, such as the Neotech AMT 15XBT 3D electronic printing system, the first of its kind in the world.

AI solutions for industry

During the visit, there was also time to explore the contribution of AI to technological and productive development.

Despite the popularisation of AI, the industry still faces difficulties to obtain all its benefits, because each company requires a unique treatment tailored to its specific characteristics.

In this regard, NAITEC combines its experience in electronic products, sensors and AI to create customised solutions, capable of operating on hardware platforms with limited resources, and offers its experience to companies through IRIS Navarra Digital Innovation Pole, an initiative promoted by the Regional Government.

Among other use cases, Irujo and Fanlo tested the operation of an artificial vision system for recognising people or objects and a robotic arm that replicates the movements of a person. They also learned about different projects in which AI has been applied, together with data analytics, to improve the efficiency of different processes and offer predictions on demand, production or maintenance needs, for example.

This visit highlights Navarra’s commitment to innovation at the highest level to boost companies in their sustainability and digitisation objectives.