The University of Salamanca leads the international project of innovation for the intelligent and sustainable growth of the plastic industry in the European Southwest Space “INTERREG SUDOE COMPRESSer”, whose meeting celebrated in the USAL was chaired by the Vice-Rector of Research and Transfer, Susana Pérez Santos.
The total budget of this project amounts to 474,189 € and the principal investigator of the initiative is Roberto José García Martín, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Salamanca. Also takes part research staff from the higher Polytechnic School of Zamora, the higher Polytechnic School of Avila and the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering of Béjar, developing together with the University of Aveiro (Portugal), the Polytechnic Institute of Burdeos (France), and the spanish companies Plásticos Durex and New Fire Ice, among others entities. This project pretends to offer an innovative solution within the containers used to store liquids and pressure gases in the European Southwest Space, being an important part of the industrial activity. The goal of INTERREG SUDOE COMPRESSer consists in the development of new pressure containers manufactured with composite materials (MC), providing an innovative solution regarding the most advanced technologies of the market. For this reason, the main challenges that must overcome the project, are the complex design using accurate modeling techniques to reduce it, the development of more profitable and efficient models in order to reduce the cost of using MC, and the multifunctionality of MC, that it will be enhanced with nanocomposites and techniques to improve the electrical conductivity. In addition to the aforementioned collaborating entities, to this initiative the next entities are added to strengthen the link with the market and the knowledge transfer: Cualitis Formación S.L. (Spain); Hoya de la Vega S.L. ‘EXTISAL’ as trademark (Spain); University of Santiago de Compostela Applied Financial Assessment Group VFA (Spain); Pôle de compétitivité EMC2 (France); and Composite Solutions LDA (Portugal). With all this, the obtained final product will be an innovative solution with great potential in the competitiveness of the plastic industry, in the MC and in the manufacture of pressure vessels in the SUDOE space. Thus, the new container will offer superior performance in terms of use, health and cost compared to current containers, and can be used in various sectors such as hospital, automotive or food, among others.
