ASCAMM Foundation is a Technology Center located near

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, at the

Vallès El Vallès (or simply Vallès) is a historical county in Catalonia, Spain, located in the center of the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range. It is nowadays represented by two separate administrative divisions ( ''comarques'') which are part of the Barcelon ...

Technology Park. the origin of this Foundation was the

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

Association of Enterprises Mould-Makers and Die-Makers, in

: Associació Catalana d'Empreses constructores de Motlles i Matrius.

Overview

ASCAMM is an active agent within the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

research and development to

innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity ...

value chain, its objective is to increase the competitiveness of companies in a wide range of industry-based sectors. The main activities of this

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

are: * Research and development projects * Product and process advanced engineering * Specialized technical and professional training *

Technology transfer Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...

* International co-operation initiatives The organization currently employs 100 people, mainly engineering graduates and doctors. It was founded in 1987 for research purposes. In 2007, Ascamm had a turnover of 7.3 Million euros. More than 60% of income is from direct innovation services to

Small and medium enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Bank ...

. The facilities of the technology centre have 6000 m² of built space with top-level laboratories and equipment:

injection molding Injection moulding (U.S. spelling: injection molding) is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting molten material into a mould, or mold. Injection moulding can be performed with a host of materials mainly including metals (for ...

machines, machines for microprocessing, pressure

die casting Die casting is a metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mold cavity. The mold cavity is created using two hardened tool steel dies which have been machined into shape and work similarly t ...

machines, materials laboratory, laser

sintering Clinker nodules produced by sintering Sintering or frittage is the process of compacting and forming a solid mass of material by pressure or heat without melting it to the point of liquefaction. Sintering happens as part of a manufacturing ...

and

incremental sheet forming Incremental sheet forming (or ISF, also known as Single Point Forming) is a sheet metal forming technique where a sheet is formed into the final workpiece by a series of small incremental deformations. However, studies have shown that it can be appl ...

stations, comprehensive

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...

CAM Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the bind ...

/ CAE workstations, complete

metalworking Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale ...

workshops and

mechatronics Mechatronics engineering also called mechatronics, is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on the integration of mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering systems, and also includes a combination of robotics, electronics, ...

.
In the ASCAMM sphere, 3 technology-based

spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...

companies have been created: Neosurgery and Hexascreen, oriented to

biomedical engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic). BME is also traditionally logical sciences ...

applications, and Plastiasite, related to

knowledge engineering Knowledge engineering (KE) refers to all technical, scientific and social aspects involved in building, maintaining and using knowledge-based systems. Background Expert systems One of the first examples of an expert system was MYCIN, an appl ...

innovative applications. ASCAMM participates actively as RTD performer in the

Seventh Framework Programme The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europea ...

of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. Likewise, the Center also participates in local (Catalan and Spanish)

public funding A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

initiatives.

Main R&D areas

ASCAMM aims at opening new R&D lines to fit industry necessities and opportunities. The center's efforts focus in the application of new or improved technologies by third parties to solve problems and their transfer into potential practical benefits. During the past 20 years ASCAMM has carried stable activity in the following fields: * Materials:

polymers A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic an ...

, compounds, shape memory alloys,

smart materials Smart materials, also called intelligent or responsive materials, are designed materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, moisture, electric or magnetic ...

... * Processes:

rapid manufacturing 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

, intelligent manufacturing, micro manufacturing,

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

, multimaterial and micro-moulding, laser

and milling, * Knowledge:

, collaborative working environments, non-technological innovation approaches,

expert systems In artificial intelligence, an expert system is a computer system emulating the decision-making ability of a human expert. Expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning through bodies of knowledge, represented mainly as if� ...

for industrial processes,

knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain of manufacturing design and production. The design process is inherently a knowledge-intensive activity, so a great deal of the emphasis for K ...

, advanced training programmes... The acquisition of new technologies equipment is done through public funded projects and occasionally by contributions from private companies. Once completed the project goods acquired with public funds remains in Ascamm to provide services to third parties. This have caused conflicts of interests between the services resulting from the activity of Ascamm and business partners to consider that Ascamm makes deslleal competition in its market.

Accreditations

* ASCAMM was the first organization to obtain the label of "Technology Center" from the Department of Labour and Industry of the

Generalitat de Catalunya The Generalitat de Catalunya (; oc, label=Aranese, Generalitat de Catalonha; es, Generalidad de Cataluña), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia politically organizes its self-government. It is formed b ...

. * ASCAMM is a CIT (Centre of Innovation and Technology) and an OTRI (Office for the Transfer of Research Results) recognized by the MICINN (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation).

Highlighted memberships

* OPTI Foundation (Monitoring Centre for Industrial Technology Foresight): founder-member and leading centre in industrial design and production technologies. * Founder-member of FEDIT (Spanish Federation of Innovation and Technology Entities). * Founder-member of ACT (Association for Technological Cooperation). * ASERM (Spanish Rapid Manufacturing Association).ASERM Membership
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References

External links

Ascamm homepage

Plastia homepage

Hexascreen homepage

Neos Surgery homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ascamm Industrial design firms Research institutes in Catalonia Organisations based in Barcelona