\ Aeronautical Research into the manufacture of high-speed turbines

Last July, the CDTI (Centre for Industrial Technological Development), an agency governed by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, approved a CIEN programme grant for the Futuralve project, submitted by a business consortium of six companies. The main objective of this project is for business partners, universities and technology centres to develop advanced material and manufacturing technologies for the new generation of high-speed turbines.

The CIEN (National Business Research Consortia) strategic programme has been developed by the Spanish government and funds major industrial and experimental research projects implemented by the effective collaboration of business consortia.

The technologies to be developed in Futuralve include:

The development of new lightweight materials capable of withstanding high forces at high temperatures.
Additive manufacturing processes to open new possibilities in design, a high percentage of use of raw materials, and a reduction in the time before they are launched on the market.
The optimized final processing of the new materials, as they are harder and their machine tooling is much more difficult than for conventional steel.

The project started in May 2015 and will end in April 2019, with an overall budget for the consortium of around 10 million euros. Together with ONA, the consortium has another five industrial partners: ITP (leader of the project), Metalúrgica Marina, Mizar, Renishaw and Sariki. The companies of the consortium will outsource in turn jobs to nine technology centers and universities: AIMME Instituto Tecnológico Metalmecánico; the Center for Advanced Aerospace Technologies (CATEC); the CEIT technology center; Ideko; IMDEA Materiales; Lortek; Mondragon University; the Prodintec Foundation; and the University of the Basque Country.