29 Nov Andaltec provided national and international entities with 10,000 technological services in eight years
The Technological Centre for Plastics (Andaltec) has reached the amount of 10,000 advanced technological services provided for companies, research bodies and universities from all over Spain and other countries during the last eight years. In this period, the centre has offered different services such as material definition, industrial validation testing, CAE or physical-chemical, different types of tests, prototype development, technological consultancy or optical testing. Most services have been carried out by the labs within the centre, which have increased considerably their activity due to the growing technological demand of companies working in the Packaging, Automotive and Agrifood areas, among others.
This means that, thanks to Andaltec, companies with technological deficiencies and lacking specialised staff, have been able to fulfill all their customers’ demands and meet all the latest legal and industrial standards. For big companies, this is an essential resource to achieve technological advances.
Some of the most requested services to our labs are physical-chemical characterisation of materials, accelerated aging testing, biodegradability and compostability tests or metrology testing (scanning and 3D metrology). Besides, Andaltec’s lab is one of the few certified by ENAC under the ISO/IES 17025 regulation to carry out global migration testing by global submersion: UNE-EN 1186-2 and 1186-3 for oil and water simulants. The centre is also certified for other types of migration testing, using a pouch and by filling.
The activity in the Foundation has been increasing gradually since its launch in 2005 and, only in 2017, it carried out more than 1,900 technological services for companies from ten different countries. Purchase of new equipment and the ever-growing expertise of Andaltec technicians have allowed for the accelerated increase in the number and quality of this kind of services.
Andaltec’s General Manager, José María Navarro, states that these advanced technological services are just one part within the huge activity accomplished in the centre. Thus, the Foundation also conducts their own R&D projects, projects requested by companies or those which are executed through their participation in regional, national and international programmes. Companies are steadily integrating those services requested from Andaltec previously, demanding then more specialised ones. “All of this suits the final goal of creating jobs and wealth thanks to the improvement in the companies’ competitiveness, which are the ones receiving this transfer in technology and know-how”, as he points. He also regrets the impossibility of a higher contribution, not because of a lack of skilled technicians or business entrepreneurship, but due to the limitations they suffer in their scientific equipment. They hope to overcome this shortage thanks to future government funding.
Andaltec is a National Technological Centre, supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. It houses a crew of 150 qualified workers in more than 10,000 square metres of high-tech facilities. Andaltec’s headquarters in Martos possess the latest technological equipment for research, development and validation of new products and materials, as well as for process optimization.