The Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu has presided over the start-up act of our SoldAvanza project, a rotary friction welding machine manufactured at Berkoa Machine Tools. In his speech, the Lehendakari congratulated us on this great advance in the machine tool sector.
Our facilities have been attended by Arantxa Tapia, Minister of Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Ane Beitia, Mayor of Elgoibar, Josu Arraiz, Councilor for Urban Planning, José Pérez Berdud, President of AFM Cluster and Xabier Ortueta, General Director of AFM Cluster, who have been received by our president, Iñigo Arriola, and our General Director, Andoni García Abad. The event was also attended by Jaione Ganzarain, General Director of Lortek, and Ixaka Egurbide, Director of the IMH.
For his part, our General Director, Andoni García-Abad, warmly thanked the Lehendakari for the support he has given us with his presence to a small and still young company, but with an ambitious development plan such as we have in Berkoa.
The SoldAvanza project consists of a Rotary Friction Welding test bench in which new systems with advanced technological capabilities for the welding process are developed. The innovations carried out together with Lortek, a technological center specializing in joining technologies, focus on a new process control system (BLSC 4.0) using embedded sensors, as well as new drives or subsystems that allow multi-process capabilities and multi-material manufacturing.
The project was financed by the CDTI (Centre for Industrial Technological Development) with the aim of being able to carry out trials, tests, homologations, change of other joining technologies to rotary friction, subcontracting and training courses at the Berkoa facilities. It is a technology that is being used in more and more sectors: automotive, agricultural, railway, tools, etc.
Currently, we are manufacturing another welding machine of up to 50 tons for IZAR Cutting Tools, S.L.A. from Amorebieta, with fast steel joint with F-114 for drill bits. In the short term, at Berkoa Machine Tools we intend to consolidate ourselves as the main manufacturer of Rotary Friction Welders in the state. At the export level, in these six years of life we have delivered machines to France, Romania, the USA, the United Kingdom and India. Although originally our machines were aimed at the automotive sector, right now we also work for the aeronautical, agricultural and capital goods sectors.
