ALDAKIN Wins Prestigious Award for Advancing Robotic Machining and Safety in Manufacturing

ALDAKIN, an associate company of AFM Cluster—the organization representing advanced and digital manufacturing in Spain—was honored by the European Association of Manufacturing Technologies (CECIMO) for its ‘exceptional’ project titled ‘Elimination of human exposure to potentially carcinogenic dusts and increase of robot performance in the machining of composite parts’.

This milestone marks one of many achievements for the company, which has branches in Aizoáin (Navarra), Vitoria-Gasteiz (Álava), and Andoáin (Gipuzkoa). ALDAKIN anticipates closing the year with a turnover of €15.5 million, two million more than the previous year.

Outshining finalists including the German company Trumpf, the world’s largest machine tool manufacturer, and the Fraunhofer Institute, ALDAKIN’s Innovation Director, Ibai Inziarte, accepted the prestigious award. The award ceremony held in Brussels saw the Navarre delegation accompanied by Sergio Pérez, Director General of External Action, Government of Navarre.

The MTI Innovation Award, a recently established prize, aims to recognize top innovations in the machine tool sector. In its inaugural edition, over 30 projects were submitted, with three selected as finalists by a panel of international experts. The CECIMO MTI awards signify a significant step forward for the industry, laying the groundwork for acknowledging pioneering contributions within the machine tool sector.

Kerstin Jorna, Director General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs at the European Commission, lauded the event, stating, “European industry is at the forefront of sustainable manufacturing, and the Commission is committed to supporting the adoption of clean technologies and advanced manufacturing solutions. CECIMO is a great opportunity to see European innovators at work.”

Competing against the German Fraunhofer Institute and Trumpf, ALDAKIN emerged victorious with its project showcasing a machining robot designed to replace conventional milling machines in machining composites. The robot achieves impressive results, vacuuming 98 percent of generated dust while attaining a remarkable accuracy of +/- 0.15 mm. This level of precision, three times higher than conventional robots, surpasses the tolerance requirements of the aerospace industry, which typically demand tolerances of less than +/- 0.25 mm.

Original source MMI