Tekniker

Introduction

Mission

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.

Legal status

TEKNIKER is a not-for-profit foundation, whose patrons and members of the board mainly come from industry. The TEKNIKER Foundation is currently part of the Alianza Tecnológica IK4, whose partners include other technological centres: Ceit, Cidetec, Gaiker, Ikerlan and Vicomtech.

Specialist field

TEKNIKER likes to define itself as a Mechatronics, Manufacturing Technologies and Microtechnologies centre. In commonly adopted terminology, TEKNIKER is a manufacturing or industrial production and design centre. It mainly specialises in:

• Designing consumer and industrial products.
• Solving problems relating to friction, wear and lubrication.
• Incorporating information technologies and communications in the plant.
• High precision, miniaturisation and micro/nanotechnologies.

Industrial sectors

The industrial sectors with which TEKNIKER works most closely generally come under the wide concept of manufacturing production. along with other areas that are mainly certain sectors emerging around revolutionary new technologies:

• Machine tools and their accessories
• Metal mechanical processing
• Auxiliary automotive industry
• Energy
• Aerospace
• Mechanical capital goods
• Biomedicine
• Electronics and ICTs
• Key scientific installations
• Chemistry

TEKNIKER and business development

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. Since the early nineties, TEKNIKER has been involved in setting up around twenty new business initiatives to a greater or lesser extent. Most of these initiatives were in the industrial sector. Particularly noteworthy are:

Organisation to which TEKNIKER belongs

• IK4 Research Alliance
• MARGUNE: Cooperative Research Centre in High Performance Manufacturing
• CIC MICROGUNE-CMIC: Cooperative Research Centre in Micro/Nanotechnologies
• EITE: Eusko Teknologi Ikertegien Elkartea – Basque Association of Technological Research Centres
• SARETEK: Basque Network of Science, Technology and Innovation
• EUSPEN: European Society for Precisión Engineering and Nanotechnology
• CIRP: International Academy for Production Engineering
• WEARCHECK: International Group of oil analysis
• STLE: Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers
• ICFG: International Cold Forging Group
• AEM: Spanish Maintenance Association
• AEC: Spanish Association for Quality
• ESReDA: European Safety, Reliability and Data Association
• ELI: European Laser Institute
• SECPhO: Southern European Cluster in Photonics and Optics