Last September, the Cádiz industry entered another level of competition. The inauguration of the new Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CFA) has catapulted Cádiz R&D to the forefront of the technology division. The President of the Council, Juanma Moreno, inaugurated the … When summer returns, a center called to be the beacon of innovation and industrial development in the province. This center opened after ten years of ups and downs, back and forth, pushing and pulling. Finally, in 2029, the Andalusian government decided to reset the counter and once again promote a key project for the economy of Cádiz.
The CFA is a testing laboratory for R&D. It is located upstairs in the Puerto Real shipyard and it was not easy to get to its opening date. The CFA is an industrial environment which, equipped with the necessary equipment and resources, It will allow companies, on their own and with the appropriate technical support services, to develop technologies that are easily applicable and transferable to their production processes.
The launch of this center, unique in Europe, dates back to September 2016, when the then President of the Board of Directors, the socialist Susana Díaz, and the companies Airbus and Navantia decided to create a specific center for the study of joint synergies of the naval and aeronautical sectors. However, the project experienced several vicissitudes and there were even fears of losing its European funding. It was the new government of Juanma Moreno that, starting in 2019, saved the project from ostracism until it was put back on track. Nearly a decade later, it’s a reality. The interior of the warehouse is divided into five large industrial zones for the development of new projects. Thus, space has been reserved for robotics, welding, additive processes, lasers, process control and automation. This new infrastructure will allow Andalusia to strengthen its advantageous position in the industrial field, since community production in this area has increased for nine consecutive months.
Indeed, if we take as a reference the progression recorded from January to July, Andalusia grew 12 times higher than the Spanish average (7.3% versus 0.6%). The CFA joins the Project Accelerator Unit as a lever to promote major initiatives identified as strategic, due to the added value they bring, for Andalusia.
Biomedicine and construction
Currently, the first drafts of the new CFA were received in October. More specifically, there is already interest from biomedical companies (devices, implants, etc.), others linked to construction (search for sustainable materials), but also renewable materials to channel their projects through this new complex.
Featuring 1,700 square meters of state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, this new complex will enable businesses to grow innovative projects of different typess, since it will serve as a meeting point between universities, technology centers and the companies themselves, allowing technical development and the manufacturing process to advance hand in hand, creating an innovative ecosystem.
As an example of the equipment hosted by the CFA, an investment of 4 million euros was allocated to a large format polymer 3D printing cell with two independent robotic arms capable of printing simultaneously to manufacture assembled parts. One arm prints and the other machines in the same station, which makes it possible to produce parts measuring up to seven meters.
Different Types of Industries
We are talking about a center intended to develop the technological challenges of the future. The naval, aeronautical, biomedical and other sectors are here to help us with cutting-edge equipment at European level to try to solve the challenges they face and thus help the industry to develop and increase its productivity with greater employment growth. And the technological capacity of the CFA is of an unattainable level even in Europe. Likewise, the CFA assumes a stimulus for what should happen in the future.
The technical management of the CFA was entrusted to Fidamccenter of excellence in R&D&i in composite materials with more than 20 years of experience. His experience with large companies such as Airbus, Navantia, Talgo or Acciona guarantees that the CFA is born with a multi-sectoral approach, aiming at the real transfer of knowledge and the promotion of talents.
The birth of the CFA is an initiative of the Government of Andalusia articulated through a public-private collaboration, with the objective that companies linked to the transport sector, particularly aeronautics and naval, have a specific space in Puerto
Real for developing technological innovation projects and thus being able to accelerate the transfer of knowledge resulting from
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