ITA and the Aragonese SME MIJU are part of a consortium of 10 companies European partners in a project called TDM-SEALS, funded by the European Commission. 7th EU Framework Program through the Research in Research instrument. benefit of Associations of SMEs, whose objective is to develop technical solutions to problems common to a large number of small and medium-sized companies in specific industry sectors. These projects are aimed at SME associations, which receive the necessary funding from the EU. to subcontract R&D agents to develop new products and services for the knowledge and transfer it to the associations, and that they transfer it to the associations. transfer in turn to their members.
The objective of the project, coordinated by the ITA, is to develop a new process for surface texturing of elastomeric seals integrated into the molding process itself.
The European rubber and plastic gasket industry is facing an unprecedented a series of difficulties that threaten their competitiveness, such as the price increases in the price of materials, pressure to maintain prices, and the by end-users, and competition from other countries, and the with low manufacturing costs. One way to increase competitiveness is to design and manufacture higher value-added products, controlling the intellectual property rights of the production processes. manufacturing.
One of these higher value-added products is the seals of high performance seals, capable of operating at very high temperatures. pressure, without any type of leakage and with long durability. This type of leakage reduce costs associated with maintenance and repairs of the hydraulic or pneumatic equipment of which such equipment is a part. reduce the energy consumption associated with the dynamic friction or minimize emissions of polluting products into the environment, such as hydraulic oils or lubricating fluids.
The performance of dynamic seals is closely related to the following with the friction between the gasket material and the surface against the sealing. A high level of friction leads to higher friction generation heat, which causes a higher rate of wear, thus causing the gasket to deteriorates prematurely, resulting in leakage and failure of the component of which the gasket is a part.
Over the past few years, the scientific community has demonstrated that the friction between two materials can be significantly reduced. by means of surface texturing of one of the surfaces. This The technique consists of making a series of micro craters in the surface. The resulting microtexture is capable of drastically reducing the coefficient of friction without affecting the sealing properties. No However, these treatments should be applied by means of a post-processing, usually using laser techniques, which prevents their implementation in industrial-scale manufacturing processes.
The objectives of the project are the development of a process of manufacturing of sealing gaskets with reduced friction, by means of surface texturing integrated into the molding process, and the reduction of the potential difficulties associated with the process of by the development of new coatings capable of reduce adhesion between mold and elastomer.
The project has a duration of 3 years, with a consortium that integrates 4 European associations of SMEs -BPF (UK), PLASTIPOLIS (France), SPIF (Sweden) and ASSOCOMAPLAST (Italy)-, 3 SMEs -MIJU (Spain), DMX (France), and 3 SMEs -MIJU (Spain). and BARBIERI (Italy)- and 3 research centers – Leibniz Universität Hannover (Germany), INSPIRALIA (Spain) and ITA (Spain).
