Andaltec offers nearly 900 technological services to 157 companies from eleven countries in 2021

The Plastics Technology Center (Andaltec) has provided nearly 900 technological services to 157 companies and entities in eleven countries throughout the year 2021. The data support that the center is a fully consolidated entity at international level, since Andaltec offered services to clients located in Romania, France, Italy, Czech Republic, India, Germany, Netherlands, United States, Morocco, Spain and United Kingdom. These figures mean that the technology center's international client portfolio has grown by 20% in the year just ended.

The areas of Prototypes and Laboratory have concentrated most of the demand for technological services in the last twelve months. In Prototypes, activities such as the machining of parts, additive manufacturing, vacuum casting molds and the design, manufacture and validation of pre-series products for sectors that do not conform to the parameters of large-scale manufacturing have stood out.

As for the technology center's laboratory, the most requested activities have been migration tests, accelerated aging tests, biodegradability tests, dimensional control of products and characterization of materials. It should be remembered that Andaltec is accredited by ENAC to carry out global migration tests in olive oil, in aqueous simulants by immersion, by bag and by filling.

Other services in great demand have been the development of innovative plastic materials and the work carried out by the Lighting Area, especially related to the automotive sector. In addition, the Engineering Area has been active in the development and simulation of products prior to their launch on the market. Finally, Andaltec has helped its customers to successfully reach the industrialization process of different products made of plastic material.

R&D projects
2021 has been a year with an important activity in the development of R&D projects. The center's researchers have executed a significant number of innovative initiatives in collaboration with companies and entities in Spain and other countries. It is worth mentioning the participation of the center for the first time in a Cervera project, the most important call for R&D projects for technology centers in Spain. The "Agrupación Cervera Agromatter" project aims to reuse agricultural waste, which is very abundant in Spain, to develop biomaterials with high added value within the framework of the Circular Economy. The researchers are already working on the development of new bio-based or reinforced plastic materials with agricultural waste, which will have applications in sectors such as the automotive, packaging and food industry.

At the international level, work has continued on the European projects LIFE-COMP0LIVE, led by Andaltec, which seeks to develop a new generation of biocomposites based on olive pruning waste, and ESSIAL, focused on improving the performance and functionalities of laminated magnetic circuits through laser surface texturization. The execution of four R&D&I projects financed by the Department of Knowledge and Innovation of the Regional Government of Andalusia through FEDER funds has also continued. In addition, 129 R&D&I projects for different companies and private entities were carried out during the year, a figure 30% higher than that recorded the previous year.

Incorporation of new equipment
The center has incorporated new scientific equipment in 2021, allowing it to expand its range of technological services and improve several of the services it already offered previously. Thus, the laboratories now have a universal testing machine, which improves the service previously provided, new chromatographs, flammability cabinets and a solar aging chamber. The Lighting Area has a new luminance chamber and the Packaging Area has a new multilayer film extruder and a new compounder.

Source: Andaltec