Fagor Automation has accepted a new challenge: the design and manufacture of a high precision encoder for space applications. We have joined forces with companies from the aerospace sector in Gipuzkoa and the Basque Country to participate in the HI-Prest project, led by Sener. We will join forces in order to bet on a local network of suppliers and compete for large international projects, and we will work to give added impetus to the project.
Open to diversification
According to José Emilio Oti, Director of Research and Development, “the cooperative has traditionally focused on the machine tool sector, although it has always been open to diversification“.
José Emilio Oti underlines that, due to the demanding requirements demanded by aerospace projects, the HI-Prest project “will involve research into new technologies, the acquisition of knowledge and the improvement of production processes within Fagor Automation”.
In turn, José Emilio Oti indicates that it will be an opportunity to improve the products for the sectors in which Fagor Automation is already present, and thus be able to increase the technological differential with respect to other companies.
Increasing the technological differential
According to the Research and Development Director of the cooperative, “Gipuzkoa already has a powerful network of suppliers for the aerospace activity” and affirms that there is a great potential for growth: “That is why we believe it is interesting to enter this market”.
The main objective of the HI-PREST project is to achieve a high-precision scanner demonstrator from a consortium of companies in the Basque Country, resulting in a competitive and innovative product capable of being offered in space programs of the European Space Agency (ESA) or the American space agency (NASA). In this way, the entire manufacturing value chain of this type of components will be trained, in order to turn the consortium partners into reference suppliers in the design, development and manufacture of sub-micrometer precision and high stability mechanisms in critical applications and environments.
The Tu Lankide portal includes in this video José Emilio Oti’s statements on the HI-Prest project.