The partners of FoAM-BUILD concluded the project with a final review meeting

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The FoAM-BUILD project has developed thermoplastic particle foam using newly developed raw materials, additives and process set-ups as well as a new system for the prevention of bio-organism growth that occurs at the outer surface of thermo-insulated facades.

A nano-scaled structure was used for the particle foam cell morphology to achieve the targeted insulation behaviour; new polymer blends and nano-scaled nucleating agents in combination with a new high pressure drop rate expansion process were developed to create the nano-cellular foam.

During the project Ateknea Solutions contributed to the development of a new system for the prevention of bio-organism growth. Particularly, Ateknea’s contribution consisted of developing a new facade monitoring solution including both the hardware components and the sensor data acquisition and processing software that controls the system.

The Project successfully concluded on the 31st of August, achieving the following expected results:

  • Test setup for investigation of growth of micro-organisms under dynamic conditions
  • Accelerated base coat commercially available (Alsecco Alsitop SF and Alsecco Armatop X-Press)
  • Field testing of algal/fungal prevention system in Germany and the UK
  • Halogen-free flame retardant low thermal conductivity insulation foam

Ateknea at IoT Solutions World Congress 2017

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Ateknea is among the SMEs and startups that the Government of Catalonia will host at their stand in the IoT Solutions World Congress 2017

The Government of Catalonia will participate in the third edition of the IoT Solutions Wolrd Congress, from the 3rd to the 5th of October, hosting different SMEs and startups at their stand there.

Ateknea, along with its innovative platform, Bettair, will be part of their stand thanks to Ateknea’s accomplishments in engineering and intelligent technology to measure the air quality in cities.

Ateknea Solutions is a leading European engineering company with extensive experience in supporting companies in transforming their ideas and innovative projects into valuable, profitable and feasible market solutions. Ateknea provides engineering services in the IoT domain, offering complete solutions including electronic development (hardware and firmware developments) as well as software development (telecommunications, multi-screen front-end and back-end developments) in different sectors such as Transport, ICT for Health, Agrofood, Industry4.0, Energy, Environment, etc. Ateknea also provides system integrations with Artificial Intelligence techniques such as Expert Systems or Machine Learning techniques. That is to say, Ateknea covers the entire IoT Value Chain including smart devices, networks, platforms, analytics and service provider developments.

In addition, they are now commercializing a very powerful, innovative and unique urban air monitoring system – Bettair – that, for the first time, will truly be able to map air pollution in cities on a scale previously unimaginable. It is based on a large deployment of novel, affordable, and outstandingly accurate gas sensors that use an advanced post-processing algorithm. The information gathered by Bettair will allow cities to make smarter decisions to mitigate air pollution and create appropriate urban plans for enhancing air quality.

If you want to learn more about Ateknea’s innovative product, come and visit them at the Barcelona Activa stand, where you can also find out about the other innovation and technology services that Ateknea Solutions works with.

More information at: www.iotsworldcongress.com

www.ateknea.com

www.bettaircities.com

10 Catalan companies specializing in Smart Cities, including Ateknea Solutions, have traveled to New York in search of public tenders, partners, and new clients.

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The trip, organized by ACCIÓ, a Spanish Governmental agency, began last Tuesday and ends today, Friday May 5th.

The companies’ agenda included meetings with major American companies in the sector, state-of-the-art technology companies, and public agencies of New York and other municipalities in the area. The objective being to learn about the development of Smart Cities within New York City, which is driving the policy NYC Strategy for Building Smart + Equitable City.

The representatives of the Catalan companies have presented their projects and explored access to public tenders in the region. They also visited the incubator “Urbantech Hub @ GCT”, which specializes in the field of Smart Cities and is the result of collaborations between the City of New York and companies like GE and Microsoft.

Ateknea Solutions is among the 10 participating companies in this mission. Crea Idea LAb, Digalix, Nexus Geographics, Opentrends, Starlab, Talk & Code, Thingtia, We Smart Park and Worldsensing, are among the other companies that have been participating in the activities of the past few days. All of them are specialized in the field of IoT (Internet of Things), big data, business intelligence, geolocation, sensors and urban equipment.

A key sector for the Catalan economy

The mission forms part of ACCIÓ’s strategy to boost the Smart Cities sector in Catalonia. According to a study carried out by ACCIÓ, the Smart Cities sector generates 3% of Spain’s GDP. In fact, there are 270 companies in Spain dedicated specifically to this sector, employing 116.163 workers. Additionally, €6,969 million of the total turnover of these companies comes from their activities related to Smart Cities.

 

Ateknea at “Advanced Factories” Barcelona

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Thanks to the invitation we received from Eplan, the electrical design software we are using at Ateknea, we heard about the first edition of the “Advanced Factories” conference, held at the CCIB Barcelona, located at Fórum. Our Industrial Processes department swiftly organized a visit on one of the exhibition days, as the conference’s slogan “discover the latest in machine tools, industrial automation and software to transform your business” was of interest to all the people in the department: electrical, control and automation, and mechanical.

Regarding Control and Automation, we could experience firsthand some of the latest innovations not only of the leading brands in this sector such as Eplan, Rittal, ABB, Rockwell Automation, Festo, Weidmüller and many others, but also from manufacturers hitherto unknown that may be an option for future projects such as IronTech, a company based in Girona (Spain) that is dedicated to the design and manufacturing of industrial computer hardware.
Robotics, as sector with dynamic growth, was very well represented with some collaborative robot model by brands such as Kuka, Fanuc, Universal Robots or Yaskawa.

Apart from the exhibition itself, there were a series of presentations and speeches related to Industry 4.0. There was also a “Factory Innovation Theater” that hosted short presentations of solutions and products.
If we had to highlight a particular product, we would choose the “ThinManager” by Rockwell Automation. A factory visualization management software, operating on Zero Client type screens (without operating system). The software allows managing factory visualizations, on thin clients or light clients, providing advantages such as the reduction of deployment costs, maintenance and update of the application and the possibility of connecting to the server of the application from heterogeneous devices (BYOD – Bring Your Own Device). Among the benefits are: configuration and centralized management, quick replacement of terminals, time and money savings as well as managing users by adding an extra layer of security.

Related to Machining and Manufacturing, there were large manufacturers of machining centers as well as a wide range of suppliers of parts and technical solutions for our prototypes. We were able to take a close look at new manufacturing technologies, such as the new HP 3D printer, the Jet Fusion 4200/3200, that achieves to 10 times faster print speeds, cutting manufacturing costs by half and maintaining excellent mechanical properties.

We also saw the new low cost planetary gearboxes from IGUS, which are very useful for applications without heavy loads, and guides with wear sensors, for intensive applications. We met with regular suppliers like FESTO, PROTORAPID or IFM, and enjoyed their candies.

We saw the different types of machining centers, and the different forms of machining that we use to create the more complicated pieces, and we closely checked the surface finishes of the different 3D printing technologies. We also saw the different methods manufacturers have discovered to improve FDM prints and confirm that the latest improvements made to our small 3D printer are in line with the quality of the latest machines.
Concluding with 3D Technologies, we were able to check out the latest developments in the metrology sector by leading companies such as FARO, RENISHAW and ZEISS. Within this sector, we were impressed by the 3D Scanner that allows the creation of 3D models in a wide range of sizes, considerably reducing design time and increasing accuracy when creating the model.

This first edition of the conference has been great and a second edition is scheduled from March 15 to 18, 2018. We will save the date!

A smart sensor to measure the level of gas in butane bottles

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Butano24 is a Catalan company that now ranks as one of the top Internet of Things (IoT) companies worldwide thanks to the innovative technology for their butane sensor developed by Ateknea Solutions Europe. Two demonstrators were displayed at the latest Mobile Wold Congress 2017, held this March in Barcelona. One demonstrator used NBIoT and the other one used LORA integrated by Flex. This innovation and the recognition received by the technology at the Mobile World Congress have ensured the company’s emergence as a strong player in Internet of Things.

Butano24 modernizes the process of demand for butane. The device uses a smart sensor to measure the level of gas in butane bottles and informs users via a mobile application when the butane is running low. The app also allows users to place orders online, quickly and from anywhere. At the same time, butane distributors are more in touch with the needs of their customers and can use data offered by Butano24 to analyse the buying patterns and consumption habits of their users.

Butano24 also works with other types of gas and can measure levels in all types of barrels, tanks and other gas and liquid containers.

Butano24 has received good reviews from the international press, which even listed Butano24 as one of the most “innovative” companies in the IoT sector and as well as its device as one of the six “most outstanding technologies at MWC 2017”.

VINBOT – POWERFUL PRECISION VITICULTURE TOOL

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VINBOT is an all-terrain autonomous mobile robot with a set of sensors capable of Capturing and analysing vineyard images and 3D data by means of cloud computing applications, to determine the yield of vineyards and to share information with the winegrowers.

VINBOT responds to a need to boost the quality of European wines by implementing precision viticulture (PV) to estimate the yield (amount of fruit per square metre of vine area: kg/m2).

Wineries and wine growers will be able to make accurate yield predictions to organise the production and marketing their wines, coordinating the mixing of grapes of homogeneous quality to efficiently market a range of wines by quality and price.

 

See the promocional video and know more about the project!