Tekniker


		Address	Otaola 20 - Gipuzkoa, Spain
		Phone:	34 943 20 67 44
		Fax:	34 943 20 27 57
		Email:	czuazo@tekniker.es
		Website:	www.tekniker.es

TEKNIKER is a technological centre and legally constituted as a private not-for-profit Foundation. Its mission is to help the industrial sector to increase its innovative capacity by means of generating and applying technology and knowledge in order to be more competitive. In line with its missions and origins, TEKNIKER not only provides companies with technological support, but is also involved in generating new business initiatives, which are usually technological and, often, as "spin offs" of the centre itself. Among the example, Millennium Coatings spin-off has been set-up to design and produce coating machines.

In the frame of surface functionalisation, TEKNIKER has been working from its earliest days on areas involving friction, lubrication and wear. Tekniker position at the cutting edge of this field is currently borne out by its involvement in the European integrated project: "KRISTAL": knowledge-based radical innovation surfacing for tribology and advanced lubrication".

As a natural evolution of this line of action, cutting edge research is now focusing on obtaining functionalised surfaces, i.e., with the capacity to undertake functions that are predetermined, conditioned or proportionally graduated to external stimuli. Current and future applications include anti-wear, magnetic, catalytic, optics (reflective and absorbent surfaces), hydrophilic-hydrphobic.

From machinery point of view, TEKNIKER is currently the only Spanish company able to provide integral solutions to design, construction and industrialisation of coating chambers using phase vapour deposition (PVD). The company's record in this field can be traced back to 1990 and thanks to its achievements over the years, it now has its own evaporators, controlling the industrial-scale laboratory processes, a wide range of coatings and physical-chemical characteristics and high vacuum technology in line with chamber' requirements. TEKNIKER is currently a leading European benchmark in PVD, which is confirmed by its being the lead partner in FOREMOST, the European integrated project that is developing functionalised coatings using fullerenes. TEKNIKER's record includes a wide range of applications and sectors such as metal-mechanics (cutting tools, models and matrixes, self-lubricating parts), aesthetics (fixtures for tools, locks, cutlery, taps and bathroom fittings, decorative ceramics), medical (bio-compatible coatings in prosthesis).