Partner presentations

 

ABB AB

ABB AB
Contact: Åke Öberg or Anna M Andersson

For ABB, being the major supplier to the global electric power market, one technology area that is essential for the competitiveness of many of our products is electrical contacting. We have thus identified the need for new contact materials which can combine increasing perfor-mance demands such as stable contact resistance, low friction coefficient and wear, high re-sistance to corrosion, mechanical and thermal stability etc. with business demands such as low cost and high productivity. The MAX family of materials is a strong candidate to fulfill these demands, and they are a prioritized research activity at ABB.
 

 

Alstom Power AB

Alstom Power AB
Contact: Niclas Lindqvist 

The company is the world leader in integrated power plants for the production of electricity and air quality control systems. Alstom has solutions for all energy sources (coal, gas, nuclear, fuel-oil, hydropower, wind) and is a leader in innovative technologies for the protection of the envi-ronment (reduction of CO2 emissions, elimination of pollutant emissions). Alstom is providing the conventional island for the future EPR nuclear power plant in France. The Group is also de-veloping CO2 capture processes and has integrated this technology in pilot plants in Germany and USA. Alstom has more than 80 000 employees. In FunMat their interest is sensors for process and emission control in Power Plants.

 

CemeCon AG

CemeCon AG
Contact: Christoph Schiffers 

With 350 employees, 270 of them in Würselen close to Aachen, CemeCon is one of the most successful companies specializing in the coating of machining tools. The company offers a comprehensive range of services.

At the Würselen location, CemeCon operates one of the largest coating services Centres in Europe and is also represented in the USA, China, Scandinavia and the Czech Republic with company and production sites.

Coatings increase the performance of tools in almost all machining applications and allow economic processing of modern materials such as glass-fiber reinforced plastics, magnesium and aluminum, which are already in standard use in the aerospace industry and car manufacturing.

One milestone along this road was the development of smooth diamond coatings, which make us the world leader for diamond coatings. Today, diamond-coated precision tools are also an essential part of printed circuit board production.

For modern machining operations such as hard processing, CemeCon, with second generation supernitrides, is setting tough challenges for the competition: the ultra-smooth coating materials of the SN² and HSN² group provide optimum machining results for a variety of materials with excellent surface qualities and extreme durability.

High-performance coatings are designed for the various requirements of customer applications in close cooperation with our engineers. Our coating expertise for the design of a coating is based on our many years of experience and the development of the available coating materials. Using state-of-the-art production technology, hi-tech coatings for precision tools and components result from the technical adaptation of the substrate, geometry and coating to the application. For special applications such as the coating of non-conductive materials like ceramics or non-conductive coating materials, special materials are designed and produced if requested by the customer.

 

Ford Motor Company and Volvo Cars

Ford

Contact: Jaco Visser 
 

The Ford Research and Innovation Centre has a long history of (especially) exhaust gas sensor research. They are currently heavily involved in work to meet the very challenging emissions and safety standards for diesel and hydrogen power trains. Ideas for new diesel sensors are low-cost sensors to accurately measure ammonia, oxides of nitrogen, and exhaust gas re-circulation (with an intake oxygen or carbon dioxide sensor). The company has a special in-terest in the MAX-Phase materials for Ohmic contacts to SiC-FET sensors and new high-temperature stable sensing layers for these sensors. Volvo Cars in Göteborg may also be in-terested to participate.
 

Impact Coatings AB

Impact Coatings AB

Contact: Henrik Ljungkrantz

Impact Coatings has since 1997 developed technology and custom relations within thin film coatings by physical vapor deposition (PVD). PVD is a well-established method for depositing thin films of ceramic, metals and alloys e.g. in production of semiconductors, optics, tools and engine components.

Impact Coatings acts as an industrialization partner for new products utilizing thin films. Many companies have their coatings produced by Impact Coatings. It has developed an effective PVD production system for small parts in large volume, which makes it possible to utilize thin films on products where it is unbeneficial by conventional systems. This new system is technically verified and produced with good profit. A patent is approved for the deposition system.

Recently, Impact Coatings participated in sensational development of MaxPhase thin films. MaxPhase is a newly discovered ceramic material with good conductivity potential for replacing gold on electrical contacts. By patent, Impact Coatings has the rights to explore MaxPhase for contacts in low-power electronics applications. Thereby, Impact Coating has a unique chance to be established on the international market with a unique deposition process in Impact Coatings new deposition system.

 

IonBond Sweden AB

Ionbond Sweden AB

Contact: Greger Håkansson

Ionbond Sweden AB is in the business of job coating of PVD/CVD for the Scandinavian Manufacturing Industry. The company has an ongoing need for research and strengthened competence in the field of advanced surface engineering to apply functional coating materials on different parts for our customers. This concerns in particular carbon-based materials and also different combinations of Ti, Al, Cr, Si, C and N.

Ionbond Sweden AB has many years of positive experience in working together with the re-searchers in Linköping as the company has been involved in many cases of efficient technol-ogy transfer.

In addition, the company has over the years hosted a number of diploma workers from the research group of the applicant and Ionbond Sweden AB has hired staff graduated from Lin-köping University. The CEO Greger Håkansson has also a PhD in Materials Physics/ Thin Films Linköping University from 1991. So, without doubt, a direct access to the application-inspired research performed by the applicants group in Linköping is a progress factor for Ionbond Sweden AB.
 

Sandvik Tooling Sverige AB

Sandvik Tooling Sverige AB

Contact: Mats Ahlgren  

The Sandvik Group is a high-technology engineering company with 47 000 employees and annual sales of approximately 86 billion SEK.

Sandvik develops, manufactures and markets high value-added products with a large R&D content. The Group consists of three business areas: Sandvik Materials Technology focuses on products in stainless steels, special alloys of titanium, nickel and zirconium as well as ceramic materials for high temperature application, Sandvik Mining and Construction which concen-trates on rock-excavation equipment including cemented carbide tools and wear parts, and, world leading Sandvik Tooling specializes in tooling systems and cutting tools of cemented carbides, ceramics and extremely hard materials such as diamond. The export value of the Tooling production in Sweden approaches 5 billion SEK annually; hence, the metal cutting sector is an important industry segment in Sweden.

This VINN Excellence Centre within the area of nano-scale materials can be foreseen to be of strategic interest not only for Sandvik, but also for a broad segment within Swedish industry. Nano-scale functional thin films will create opportunities for new as well as optimized product solutions within areas such as cutting tools; wear parts and components with other functional surfaces. In order to understand and predict suitable process routes and properties of nano-scale materials it is of utmost importance to combine synthesis, advanced characterization techniques and modeling by atomistic calculation methods. FunMat comprise world-class competencies within all these areas.
 

SECO Tools AB

SECO Tools AB 
Contact: Mats Johansson  

SECO Tools was founded in 1929 and is today one of the world's four largest manufacturers of cutting tools. It employs 4,100 people overall, of whom 1,100 work at the Head Office in Fagersta in Sweden, where the R&D department is located. SECO makes a broad range of cutting tools and wear parts, of cemented carbides, cermets and super-hard materials, for turn-ing, milling, threading and drilling. SECO’s business concept is to develop, manufacture and globally market products for chip-forming machining to customers with exacting quality, ser-vice and cost-efficiency demands.

The cutting products account for about 90 % of the total turnover. The main European pro-duction units are situated in Sweden, the Czech Republic, Italy, France and Germany. The company also has overseas production operations in the USA and India. About 90 % of all cemented carbide cutting tools are coated with ceramic materials deposited by CVD or PVD processes. Even though steel and cast iron will remain the predominant manufacturing mate-rials, a continuously ongoing trend of shifting into more and more heat-and corrosion-resistant materials together with new machining methods as machining in hardened state and in dry condition, put new demands on improved wear and heat resistance of the cutting tools in the future. SECO meets these challenges by continuously developing the properties of materials, coatings and geometries.

SECO has since 1990 project collaboration with the Thin Film Div. at Linköping. The present industry graduate student project concerns nano-composite coatings deposited with arc evapo-ration. This new family of coatings offers an enormous field of opportunities for developing films with tailored properties for different machining applications. For SECO, it is of utmost importance to collaborate with strong research groups/clusters in this area in order to speed up the exploration of the opportunities. It is also strategically important for us to secure IPR in the field and this is being done through patenting, frequently together with the researchers.
 

SenSiC AB

SenSic AB

Contact: Ulf Thole  

SenSiC AB was founded in 2007 as a spin-out company from Linköping University. SenSiC AB specializes in designing, developing and producing gas sensors for applications involving high temperature or harsh conditions, contributing to a higher efficiency of monitored processes and a cleaner environment. SenSiC's gas sensors are based on Silicon Carbide (SiC) Field Effect Transistors, the wide band gap and chemical inertness of SiC allowing operation at high temperatures and corrosive environments. A wide range of gases can be detected by using different kinds or combinations of gate materials (e.g. catalytic met-als) that can interact with one or more gases in the ambient in such a way that the electrical characteristics of the transistor changes. SenSiC's first product is a gas sensor for on-line monitoring and control of the combustion in small scale Bioheaters for household applications. SenSiC AB has a strong interest in MAX materials for electrical contacts to the SiC sensors for improved performance and new sensing layers for advanced applications.

 

SKF Engineering and Research Centre (ERC)

SKF Engineering and Research Centre (ERC)

Contact: Mark van Drogen

SKF, http://www.skf.com/, is the worldwide leading company on bearing development, manufacture and supply, having approximately 40,000 employees. The SKF business is organized into three business areas: Industrial Market, Strategic Industries; Industrial Market, Regional Sales and Service; and Automotive. Each business areas serves a global market, focusing on its specific customer segments.

 

SKF ERC is the product R&D and technology development centre for whole SKF group, located in The Netherlands. SKF ERC has numerous global cooperations with universities and research institutes, takes part in several national and European/international research projects and supports a large number of Ph.D. projects.

 

Understanding the tribological phenomena is crucial for the further technology development of bearings and systems. These phenomena are studied by researchers at SKF ERC within two research teams, Functional Surfaces and Lubrication. One important aspect is the role of the surface and its modifications on the tribological performance of the bearing, which fits well within the scope of FunMat.

 

Volvo Technology Corporation, Gothenburg, Sweden

Volvo Technology Corporation, Gothenburg, Sweden
 

Contact: Ann W Grant

Volvo Technology Corp. is an innovation company that, on contract basis, develops new technology, new product and business concepts for "hard" as well as "soft" products within the transport and vehicle industry.

Our primary customers are the Volvo Group companies and Volvo Car Corporation, but also some selected suppliers. We participate in national and international projects in certain strate-gic areas, organized in common research programs, involving universities, research institutes and other companies.

Our R&D work involves a number of basic areas, e.g., transportation, telematics, internet ap-plications, data-bases, ergonomics, electronics, combustion, mechanics, industrial hygiene and industrial processes, and using techniques such as systems engineering, multi-physical and chemical modelling, programming and simulation.

Beside the R&D areas, Volvo Technology offers specialist services in the areas of intellectual property protection, standardisation and information retrieval. Volvo Technology has more than 300 employees and is located at Lundbystrand (redeveloped shipyard area) and Chalmers Science Park in Göteborg, and at Volvo's establishments in Göteborg and Greensboro, USA.

Working within Volvo Technology is challenging and gives good opportunities for personal development. We always aim at working in the forefront of science and technology. There-fore, we need individuals who can create sustainable visions and concepts, "sell" them to col-leagues and customers, and realize them in a value generating way for our customers and our-selves.