TEKNIKER CELEBRATES ITS 40-YEAR TECHNOLOGICAL ALLIANCE WITH THE INDUSTRY

The Tekniker research and technology centre in Eibar is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a rating of “very positive”. In four decades it has registered 258 patents, created 31 companies, witnessed a turnover of 24.1 million euros in 2020 and the implementation of 321 projects.

As explained by its General Manager Luis Uriarte, “at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s, the industrial fabric of the region needed to ensure the quality of mechanical metal production. The Eibar School of Armoury responded to that need by founding an independent metallographic laboratory known as Tekniker”. During its initial years of activity and “with the unequivocal support of the institutions”, the laboratory was converted into a technological centre specialised in manufacturing technologies. “This specialisation increased in line with the needs of the industrial fabric and a continuous process of international projection until it became a benchmark centre”.

Tekniker has been a collective project throughout its history. However, Mr. Uriarte highlights that “all great projects need great leaders and both Iñaki Goenaga and Alex Bengoa have undoubtedly been the great leaders of this project. Iñaki was the entrepreneur, the person at the head of a metallographic laboratory who would take it to its maximum expression within the framework of the School of Armoury. Once that goal was achieved, he felt no qualms in taking the next step and turning the facility into an independent laboratory.

After Iñaki’s premature death and twenty years at the head of the centre, Ramón Bueno guided the orderly handover to Alex Bengoa, who has also made his mark.   In Mr. Uriarte’s own words, “he has been our leader, companion and friend over the last twenty years of Tekniker’s journey. His professional legacy and personal qualities have left their mark on us and will be a reference for the future of the organisation”. His commitment to maintaining the bond between Tekniker and the city and region has been key to the development of the Eibar Technological Park. The technological centre will continue to pursue this project because, as its director has said, one of its current goals is to focus on completing the development of “Zone II” of this technological park and attracting high-technology companies dedicated to sectors such as electromobility, space, health equipment and devices.

Tekniker’s specialisation plan for the future will focus on areas such as surface engineering, advanced manufacture and EICTs applied to production with the aim of providing solutions for key industries and their social and economic challenges. As Mr. Uriarte warns, “industry must be intelligent, resilient and sustainable and respond to the process of digitalisation. The energy sector must move toward no carbon emissions, whereas the health sector has to deal with an aging population requiring personalised care and solutions to pandemics”.

In this context, the specialisation plan includes cross-cutting technologies that contribute to facing these challenges: functional and active surfaces, materials and components and artificial intelligence embedded in products and processes. All of the above seen as a global challenge within a framework of sustainability.

The General Director of Tekniker also mentioned that, in addition to the specialisation plan as the natural pathway for development, the centre has set its sights on hydrogen, electromobility, sustainability and artificial intelligence embedded in products and processes. He concluded by saying “we are a group of 300 enthusiastic and ambitious professionals intent on developing state-of-the-art technology and transferring it to the industrial fabric but sufficiently humble to know that we are facing global challenges and we will need the assistance of companies, public authorities and other technological centres and universities”.

Source: Empresa XXI.