Innovation applied to industrial manufacture starts in the classroom

• Danobatgroup has awarded a prize to a machining solution designed by two groups of Industrial Engineering Master’s students at Tecnun, the Engineering College of the University of Navarra in San Sebastian

• The event for defence of the projects and the award ceremony took place yesterday at the Tecnun facilities in Donostia

• These prizes are part of the industrial group’s commitment to the University community.

With the aim of bringing the reality of real manufacturing environments closer to the education community, Danobatgroup has again awarded prizes this year to projects about innovation applied to industrial manufacturing processes, prepared by Industrial Engineering Master’s students from the Higher Engineering College of the University of Navarra Tecnun. In contrast to previous events, the defence of the projects and the award ceremony was held at the Tecnun facilities in Donostia, instead of at the industrial groups facilities in Elgoibar.

The award this year has been given to the teams made up of (Iñigo Ariceta, Alex Barrenetxea, Ander Echezarreta and Eñaut Salaberria) and (Imanol Anta, Amaia Cendoya, Mikel Malcorra and Aitor Martín), who presented a solution for the machining of flanges for oil and gas, which met the precision and automation requirements demanded by the Basque manufacturer.

“For us, tackling this project proposed to us by Danobatgroup has been quite a challenge and a great opportunity to put our technological knowledge in a real manufacturing environment” explained Amaia Cendoya and Alex Barrenetxea, spokespersons for the two winning teams.

To obtain the award, the Master’s students in teams tackle the same technological challenge proposed by the machine tool manufacturer. Specifically, the challenge this year consisted of the design of a machine for machining flanges for oil and gas in an automated production environment.

48 Master students took part in total, in 12 groups. As a prior step to carrying out the project, the participants had the opportunity to receive technical-practical training on precision and 4.0 technology concepts from Harkaitz Urreta, head of Design and Precision Engineering research group at the Ideko research centre, the engine of innovation of Danobatgroup.

Once their work was completed, the students had 15 minutes to defend their projects in front of a jury made up of Mikel Arizmendi, Prof of the Industrial Engineering Master’s at Tecnun and Harkaitz Urreta.

“We have been surprised by the capacity of the students to give an effective response to a real manufacturing problem, the rigour of their technical reports, their capability for collaborative work and the soundness with which they have defended their projects” said Harkaitz Urreta.

These prizes come within the framework of the alliance established between the industrial group and Tecnun in December 2015, with the aim of tightening links with the education committee and facilitating the transfer of knowledge acquired in universities and postgraduate colleges to real manufacturing environments.

The awards are an opportunity to reinforce the training of excellence of the students, to foster technical knowledge and strengthen cross-skills such as inventiveness, the capability for analysis and team work.

About DANOBATGROUP
With a track record of 65 years in the field of technologies applied to industrial manufacturing, DANOBATGROUP has a workforce made up of more than 1300 highly qualified people. The group is an international benchmark in the machine tool sector and technologies applied to industrial manufacturing.

About Tecnun
Tecnun - Engineering College of the University of Navarra in San Sebastian contributes to the professional, scientific and human training of future engineers. Since its creation in the spring of 1961, it has maintained a balance between teaching, research and service to society, and promoting these activities as complimentary.