The Regional Minister for Education, Jokin Bildarratz, accompanied by the Deputy Regional Minister for Vocational Training, Jorge Arévalo, visited our facilities where the manufacture of the 13 Ikasmak machines acquired by the Department of Education through the Deputy Regional Ministry for Vocational Training to equip the Integrated Vocational Training Centres of the Basque Country is being completed.

Throughout the visit, the Minister and the Deputy Minister were accompanied by the Mayoress of Elgoibar, Ane Beitia, the President of AFM Cluster and General Manager of Fagor Automation, José Pérez Berdud, the Vice-President of AFM Cluster and General Manager of Loire Gestamp, César Garbalena, the Vice-President of AFM Cluster, and the General Manager of Fagor Automation, César Garbalena, the Vice-President of AFM Cluster and General Manager of Loire Gestamp, César Garbalena, the General Manager of AFM Cluster and President of IMH Campus, Xabier Ortueta, the General Manager of IMH Campus, Ixaka Egurbide, and the Director of the IMH Integrated Vocational Training Centre, Alaitz Bastida.

The Ikasmak machines have been designed jointly by Berkoa Machine Tools and the IMH Integrated Vocational Training Centre. Berkoa has been in charge of the industrialisation process, while the IMH has worked on the didactic specifications of the machines. Fagor Automation has also played a decisive role in the control, feedback, electronics and motorisation of the machine.

The uniqueness of Ikasmak is that it is a machine that combines the characteristics of several machines that can be found in an advanced manufacturing educational environment in a single machine. Specifically, Ikasmak works in manual format like a manual lathe and milling machine, and in automatic format like a lathe or CNC milling machine. These features also make it a multifunction milling-turning machine. The machine is designed in a modular fashion so that a variety of additional capabilities can be added, and is intended for use in equipment assembly training processes. With the right training modules, the equipment can be used to accelerate the training of trainees and teach everything from basic machining processes to combined computer-controlled processes.

Andoni Garcia-Abad and Olatz Alberdi, together with Jokin Bildarratz and the rest of the companions, have also visited the IMH. There they were able to visit the new design space equipped by the Education Department, the didactic manufacturing workshop, the Additive Village and the Innovation Area.

See: Ikasmak