AIMEN Technology Centre is a Non-Profit Innovation and Technology Centre highly specialized in materials and in advanced manufacturing technologies applied to materials processing, robotics and automation. AIMEN is a highly professionalized organisation specialised in the fields of Materials Science, Manufacturing Process Engineering, Control Engineering, and Laser Processing. Main R&D activities focus on laser-based manufacturing of metallic and composite materials, including additive manufacturing, laser-coatings and laser surface treatments, laser-based surface functionalization, automated fibre placement and 3D-printing technologies for the fabrication of functional components and prototypes, and assisted by means of off-the-self and innovative monitoring and control systems for improving process parameters towards higher products´ quality and performance. Other research activities are devoted to the development of flexible manufacturing for 0-defect system configuration through human-robot collaborative operation, augmented reality, development of intelligent adaptive manufacturing systems (monitored, CPS, reconfigurable and autonomous systems, embedded control systems, artificial intelligence), design and developing of quality-based inspection systems, process control and tailored-based sensor monitoring. All together feeding advanced simulation-based and data-driven models to extract information and generate new knowledge by correlating design-engineering-process-quality-in-service-and-recycling data throughout a novel digital thread method created along the production and manufacturing value chain.
Alberto Fernández-Vicente began his professional career at the National Center for Metallurgical Research (CENIM) in Madrid (Spain) where he completed his doctoral thesis (Dec 2001) in the field of processing and characterization of high-carbon steels. He also stayed at the University of Stanford and Texas in Austin to complete his study on the high-temperature mechanical characteristics of these materials. Between March 2002 and December 2003, he joint SIDENOR as researcher on rolling and finishing processes of special steels by participating in different RFCS projects. In December 2003 started to work at AIMEN Technological Centre as Senior Research leading different Regional, National and European projects focusing on laser-based processing, heat treatment and coating of metallic components. As of 2015, Alberto directed its technological interests to the development of advanced monitoring systems for evaluation of the quality and performance of materials feedstock and products at industrial scale and in real-time conditions. More recently (2019), Alberto begun to work on the application of digital-and-sensor-based methodologies onto automated/robotized manufacturing of composites aimed at the development of new process-and-materials-related knowledge for optimized processing of composite structures and products. He is currently at the position of business developer at AIMEN promoting the R&D interests of the composite manufacturing group.