FATRONIK is a Spanish private technology centre, providing research and development services to the industry. Founded in 1986, historically Fatronik has focused its activities on improving existing products and manufacturing processes and devising new innovative and added value solutions for its customers, most of them SMEs from the machine-tool sector. More recently, since 1998, FATRONIK has widened its research and development field not only to the machine-tool sector but also to the renewable energies (mainly the wind power) and aeronautics sector.

Currently Fatronik's main skills are related to the integrated design of artefacts (machines, automation and production systems, systems for renewable energy generation…) where both mechanical and control aspects are necessary, thus providing systems with a controlled real time dynamic behaviour. The enabling technologies and capabilities that should be mastered for developing such systems and that fall into the competences of the more than 35 engineers working in Fatronik include: advanced CAD design and simulation tools, behaviour modelling by FEM analysis, prototypes manufacturing testing and characterization, device response monitoring and reaction through active control strategies.

Therefore, the development of a mechatronic device such as the magneto-rheological fixture aimed at in this project fits perfectly well into FATRONIK business activities and capabilities. Moreover the large experience acquired by FATRONIK throughout these years in the machine tool sector will be very useful in order to develop a fixturing system that fulfils the requirements of the end-user partners of the project and that may be satisfactorily integrated into their current manufacturing machines and equipment.

Apart from the technical activities to be developed in the project below explained, Fatronik takes a leading role in the project, co-ordinating the rest of partners thus being in charge of the Management activities of the project.

SPASA offers integral solutions for the aeronautical sector. Since 1994 SPASA has optimised up to the maximum its production capacity of structural components, promoting its engineering systems, assembly of subsystems and structures.
SPASA covers the needs of its customers with the following products and services:
• Structural parts
• Equipped parts
• Casings and rings
• End fittings
• Subsystems assembly
• Mechanical systems assembly
SPASA has been mainly dedicated to precise machining of aeronautical metallic parts during the last 10 years. Thus it owns a vast experience on machining processes and the daily problems found in this activity.

Since SPASA does not produce large series of pieces, one of the most important problems found often is the necessity of using specifically designed and fabricated fixturing systems for each work. This increases not just the difficulties of daily work but also costs of final pieces.
The geographical markets were SPASA is present are the following: Spain, France, UK, Italy, Switzerland and US.

Highftech Engineering is a SME located at Modena, Italy. It has been constituted in 2000 as evolution of Highftech of Riccardo Corsini established in 1995.

This company is involved in mechanical design (including structural and thermal analysis in linear and non-linear field), manufacturing, prototyping (including rapid-prototyping technology) testing and integration in the following fields: Space, Automotive (sport cars), Robotic, Special machine (high-speed automatic machines), Composite structures and Technology transfer (from space to industry).

In particular Highftech Engineering is oriented to manufacture prototypes or complex parts in very low production numbers. For this reason Highftech Engineering is involved in an internal research activity to design a flexible fixture system for aluminium parts to be machined by CNC milling.

 The space field is the principal customer sector of this company (70% of its total market). Added to that it is important to remark that Highftech is involved in European Space Agency (ESA) programmes, so 100% of its market is EU with the subdivision showed in the figure.

 In other markets (Automotive, etc.) their market is 100% Italy.

Worldwide Roemheld is nowadays considered to be one of the the market leader in the field of hydraulic power workholding for metal-cutting production engineering. As expert in this field Roemheld offers with its about 300 employees at the location Laubach/Hessen a strong business base to realize high technology. Due to intense development works - partially in close co-operation with customers and partners - they do not only meet the continuously increasing demands on the market, but influence the market development by innovations pointing the way to the future.

Beside national customers, which are well looked after by 17 sales partners in Germany, export is more and more important. Already today Roemheld shows an export share of approx. 50%, which increases to more than 65% due to indirect exports. Due to subsidiaries in Great Britain, France, USA, Japan, and South Korea as well as numerous sales partners guarantee worldwide an intensive consultation, an efficient sale and an extensive service for Roemheld customers.

AIBE started its activity in 1963 and at present is specialist in production of manufacturing and verification tools and machining and precision grinding of metallic parts especially from the aeronautical, automotive and machine tools sectors.

AIBE covers the needs of their customers offering a service that include design, process engineering, construction, assembly and verification. The geographical market is concentrated  mainly in Spain and there is and small part in France and Portugal.

Their product is special tools and not universal clamping systems. AIBE has a nearly relationship with their customers and design customized solutions. More than 40 years of experience in precision machining and tooling construction with modern management and production machinery make AIBE a reference in this field.

Aviation Metallurgy Enterprise-METAV S.A. is a company that has a scope of activities including the production of:
• sand and investment castings
• precision forgings
• special steels and super alloys for aeronautics
• wheels and braking systems for aircrafts
• braking systems for tanks

S.C. IMA – METAV S.A. as a great Romanian aviation metallurgy manufacturer that has:

1. Sand casting and investment foundry – implements casting technologies with lost wax patterns. It produces thin-wall and high complexity castings in a large range of metallic materials: low and high alloyed steels, stainless and high temperature refractory steels, high alloyed cast iron and aluminum.

2. Precision forge – equipped with mechanical presses for stamping and die-forging in order to manufacture forgings made of steels and non-ferrous alloys. The range of high complexity and accuracy components, manufactured by our company includes blades and vanes for turbo-jet engines and power turbines, made in Al - and Ti – base alloys, heat resistant steels and superalloys. We also produce parts for automotive industry (connecting rods, levers for engine, universal joints, gears etc.)

3. Machine works – where the wheels and braking systems for aircrafts, brakes for tanks, bimetallic plates and sintered plates made of metallically-ceramics powders are made.

4. Mechanical testing lab (tensile tests, compression, bending, hardness determination, fatigue, fracture mechanics, creep), structural analyses (quantitative and qualitative with optical microscopy), spectral chemical analyses.

5. Steel shop – equipped with a vacuum induction melting furnace produces bars and blocks made of high alloyed steels. Among the commonly produced steel grade we mention stainless and refractory steels, high alloyed tool steels, high speed steels, special steels and Ni and Co base superalloys, Inconel and Incoloy type.

Among their clients are Ministry of National Defense, Drum-Great Britain (Aluminium castings), Terwa-Holland (brake flaps and bell cranks made in the investment foundry used in the automotive industry, shackles made in the investment foundry used for buildings and bridges), ITT Flygt-Sweden (impellers for water pumps), Semanatoarea, Daewoo and Mechanical Factory Bucharest.

The Fraunhofer-Institut fuer Silicatforschung (FhG-ISC) belongs to the Fraunhofer Society, the largest organisation of applied research in Germany. The institute with nearly 200 employees is active in the development of innovative materials and their associated technologies. Scientists, engineers and technicians cooperate in contract research projects with industrial partners. The institute has a long-term experience from many national and European R&D projects.

A focus of the work in the institute concerns smart materials for actuator and sensor applications. The materials comprise smart fluids (electrorheological and magnetorheological fluids), piezoelectric fibers and films as well as corresponding devices and systems. The activities in the field of smart fluids started in 1994 and have strongly increased in recent years. The work follows an interdisciplinary approach including chemistry, physics, materials science, engineering and information technology. Present research projects with industrial and scientific partners include the development of magnetorheological fluids for engine mounts, smart soft material based systems for haptic sensor-actuator systems in virtual reality and electrorheological fluids for automotive applications, which has attracted much attention in the media. Other currently running R&D projects concern the evaluation of new concepts for vibration suppression in milling machines and impact absorption for aircraft landing gears with magnetorheological fluids. The main research task is the development of application-adapted smart soft materials based on a profound understanding of the underlying working mechanisms of the materials. Furthermore, various demonstrators for haptic devices, clutches and vibration damping have been built at the institute. An overview on the work of FhG-ISC on the field of smart fluids is given in [F1] – [F12].

The competence team of smart materials and disperse systems, which is focussed on smart fluids and piezoelectric components presently, consists of 10 members and several associated co-workers. The team has a long-term experience in the synthesis of such materials, the characterisation of their properties, the investigation of correlations between chemical composition, structure and properties as well as the design of smart fluids with special application-relevant properties. Furthermore, expertise has also been acquired in various applications of smart fluids and in the design of mechatronic systems, which are based on them.

For the purpose of materials synthesis and characterisation sophisticated equipment is available at the institute. Electrorheological and magnetorheological fluids can be produced in quantities of some litres. For the detection of the change of the rheological properties of smart fluids in strong electric as well as magnetic fields special devices have been built. Advanced methods for the characterisation of viscous and viscoeleastic properties and the time-resolved behaviour of the fluids and of their sedimentation stability have been developed. A broad variety of analytical equipment for the characterisation of further properties of the materials like size distribution of the particles in the smart fluids, morphology, chemical composition, thermal stability, etc. is also available.

A group of researchers and developers is advancing the field of unconventional actuators at the industrial development Centre for Innovative Production (ZIP) and the research Laboratory for Process Automation (LPA), both institutes belonging to Saarland University. The unconventional actuator types studied and developed at LPA and ZIP include piezoelectric and magnetostrictive actuators, those based on electrorheological and magnetorheological fluids as well as other less known types. A strong activity covers the development of the power and control electronics necessary to implement these unconventional technologies effectively in technical applications.

Since the early 1990s, LPA has investigated the rheological properties of electrorheological (ER) fluids and more recently the thermodynamic properties of magnetorheological (MR) fluids as well as developed various prototypes and demonstrations using these electrically controllable fluids.

In the recently successfully completed national project ALAS funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), LPA investigated physical properties of MR fluids and contributed to the design of an active automotive motor mount based on MR fluids. A wide range of high-quality analogue, switching and hybrid power amplifier designs covering power ratings from 12 W to 3000 W, output voltages from 12 V to 6000 V and currents up to 80 A (pulse), some of which are now commercially available by the spin-off company D*ASS mbH, have resulted out of publicly funded and industrial R&D projects over the past years.

The experience of ZIP in European RTD projects goes back the mid 1990s when it was involved in the concerted action ECAMMA and the follow-up project MADAVIC. Since then ZIP co-ordinated the completed aeronautics project MESA and is a major contributor to the follow-up project MESEMA which began in January 2004.