Surface Engineering

The event included EAST FORUM 2018, the annual meeting of the European Academy of Surface Technology.

Organised by CIDETEC Surface Engineering, the 32nd International Conference on Surface Modification Technologies gathered together the leading international agents and reference institutions at Donostia Technological Park to promote and spread advances in these disciplines and facilitate the establishment of collaboration channels between scientists and engineers in all the fields related to this activity.

Held from 27 to 29 June, the conference finished a programme that included 5 plenary talks, 82 oral presentations and 25 posters in a total of 10 sessions. On concluding, the conference granted the prize for the best poster to Dr Natalia Tintaru of Vilnius University, Lithuania.

On its side, the European Academy of Surface Technology awarded the 2018 EAST-Schwäbisch Gmünd Prize to Dr Nhat Truong Nguyen of Erlangen-Nuremberg University, Germany, who gave a talk entitled Thermal dewetting of noble metals on anodic TiO2 nanotubes leads to significantly enhanced photocatalytic H2 generation.

Several social events took place during the conference, to the benefit of closer ties between the participants. Among these events, the welcome party given at the San Sebastián Aquarium and the gala dinner held at Miramar Palace were to be underscored.

On 19th and 20th of June, CIDETEC Surface Engineering hosted the CARBODY collaborative workshop between Mat4Rail and PIVOT Shift2Rail projects.

The objective of this workshop was to revise the specifications gathered for the development of the novel composites and joints that are being developed at Mat4Rail  in order to be able to be later implemented into PIVOT carbody demonstrators. Additionally, results from the fire and mechanical testing from the first materials developed at Mat4Rail were shared with PIVOT.

It was a productive meeting with high collaboration between rail manufacturers, rail service suppliers and top researchers. The participants provided valuable input to make both projects progress and put shape together to the composites and joints for the trains of the future.

More info: http://www.mat4rail.eu/

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.