This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 726558.
Disruptive innovation through new tool steels with unique thermo-mechanical performance for material forming applications.
These results present an average of the data obtained in several tests under different conditions in plastic injection moulding, hot stamping and die casting applications, with different conditions and applications.
Reduce your cycle time and improve component quality by higher heat extraction rates and faster heating and cooling times of your tools, dies and moulds.
Improve your cost-effectiveness using high thermal conductivity tool, die and mould material, supplied pre-hardened or hardenable by a short & easy low temperature precipitation hardening.
Improve your tool and mould durability and reduce your invest costs in substitute tools or operation costs caused by production stops and repair works.
Exploit short and easy low temperature hardening with 80% of energy savings compared to conventional harden and temper tool steels, and combine with reduced energy consumption in component production, plus positive impact of lighweight.
Improve your productivity & produced part quality
Make your tools last longer & reduce production halts and repairs
Reduce your tool manufacture invest costs & lead times
Increase geometrical flexibility & improve produced part quality
FASTEEL grades:
ROVALMA participates in matchmaking event promoted by the EIC pilot and Saint-Gobain
The European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot and Saint-Gobain promoted a matchmaking day for startups and scaleups working in the sector of advanced materials and innovative manufacturing technologies. On 22-23 May 2019, ROVALMA was one of the 15 companies pitching and meeting Saint-Gobain in Paris.
The companies in attendance were selected based on their innovative approaches to advanced materials and innovative manufacturing technologies, among others. From the corporate side, there were representatives from Saint-Gobain.
ROVALMA shared its vision for disruptive Material Solutions that optimize the cost and resource efficiency of industrial component production (e.g. composites, plastics, light alloys), significantly reduced part costs & lead times, improved geometric flexibility & environmental balance. “Our new high thermal conductivity mold/die steels enable highly accurate, large, complex, high-strength, lightweight parts”, explains Pere Ferrer, Project Manager at Rovalma’s Application Engineering Department.
Thomas Kinisky, Senior Vice-President, Chief Innovation Officer and Chairman North America stressed the importance of working with smaller companies: “Startups and scaleups are sensing what happens in terms of technology and in terms of markets. If we can embrace them and bring that sensing into Saint-Gobain, take that external view and internalise it, it’s a big benefit for us as a company. It makes us speeding up our development, finding business models that we weren’t event thinking about, and finding technical concepts that we had never seen before. Open innovation is definitely a priority for us.”
Minas Apelian, Director NOVA External Ventures, highlighted the quality of companies he met: “The European Innovation Council has a great network of SMEs that it’s connected with. The entrepreneurs I met today are highly passionate and very diverse in the projects and the thinking. I’m certain the ideas presented today will be an inspiration for our business teams.”
“We’re very happy to have participated in this matchmaking day promoted by the EIC pilot business acceleration services in St-Gobain. We believe our solutions can be of enormous benefit for St Gobain and a partnership with St Gobain can help us significantly scale-up our business”, states Pere Ferrer.
The purpose of the EIC Corporate Days is to promote business between big corporates – which are always looking for innovative solutions to improve their products and services – and the SMEs funded by the EIC pilot.
ROVALMA S.A. (www.rovalma.com) was one of the 14 companies funded by the EIC pilot that travelled to the Electrolux Innovation Factory in Italy to share its vision and explore business opportunities with Electrolux managers and partners.
On 30 October, the recently inaugurated Electrolux Innovation Factory hosted the EIC Corporate Day, aimed to unleash the Open Innovation potential by connecting some selected SMEs to promote business opportunities and to support projects to accelerate innovation together.
Matching Electrolux’s ambitions with companies funded by the EIC pilot, it provided the background for a fruitful networking and pitching event in Porcia, Italy. ROVALMA had the chance to pitch its disruptive FASTCOOL mould steels to an audience of more than 50 Electrolux managers and partners, followed by one-to-one meetings with curated stakeholders in order to explore the best way to go about a partnership or business venture with Electrolux.
Talking about the event, Beatrice Maestri, Open Innovation Manager at Electrolux and co-founder of the Electrolux Innovation Factory, highlighted the importance of the matchmaking event, having two main benefits both for Electrolux and the SMEs. “On the one hand, it enables our colleagues to experience the Open Innovation approach, being directly involved in investigating innovative solutions; on the other hand, it allows the SMEs to reach Electrolux and to promote themselves and how their products could be beneficial to fit our company challenges, facilitating prospective cross-collaboration between internal and external ecosystems”
“I am very glad to have had the chance to attend the Electrolux day. For me it was a unique and enriching experience and it was a pleasure to meet so many great people from such a successful corporation. We believe our solutions can be of enormous benefit for Electrolux and a partnership with Electrolux can help us significantly scale-up our business”, states Pere Ferrer, Project Manager at Rovalma’s Application Engineering Department.
ROVALMA would like to express its deep gratitude to the EIC-Summit 2018 organizing team of EASME, led by its Director, Mr. Julien Guerrier, for the great agenda arrangement and the hosting of the summit. The event has provided ample opportunities to meet, discuss, network and bridge the information and communication gap between SME-innovators on the one hand and corporate technology scouts and financial investors on the other hand to bring Europe’s most innovative products and technologies faster to the market. During the EIC-Summit, SME innovators could also learn how to best protect their innovations, how to effectively scale up their business and to access big corporations, improve corporate management and market penetration with the support of experts and enter specific geographic markets. Special thanks go to Mr. Jean-David Malo, Director of Open Innovation and Open Science of the EC, for the provided insights on the future evolution of the EIC funding for innovators and to Mr. Viorel Peca, Head of FET Unit, for the informative workshop on R&D seed funding for radically new / high risk future technologies within the FET OPEN framework.
ROVALMA’s Managing Director, Isaac Valls, had the pleasure to attend the “Airbus 2018” organized by the SME Instrument in cooperation with AIRBUS, on January 29/30th, 2018, in Hamburg. ROVALMA thanks the EU and AIRBUS cordially for hosting this great pitching event and giving it, together with 29 other SME-Instrument champions, the exceptional opportunity to pitch our innovations to AIRBUS.
We would like to point out the high innovation and technology level of the products and services exhibited by the SME-Instrument champions who attended the event. In ROVALMA, we are proud of being members of the SME Instrument Community and we strongly believe that thanks to our joint efforts we are contributing to the well-being of the European citizens and the technological development of the European Union. We would like to express our gratitude once more to the EASME and AIRBUS representatives who made such an enriching and supportive event possible. It was an honor and a privilege to be there.
Mr. Isaac Valls, Rovalma’s Managing Director, attended the 18th International German Die Casting Conference at the EUROGUSS Trade Show in Nuremberg, Germany, and held a presentation about our new high thermal conductivity steels for die casting.
The conference was very well attended by numerous companies and institutions of the die casting industry. The organization was excellent and ROVALMA had the opportunity to discuss its new technologies, for which it receives European co-funding for the up-scaling, to leading industrial and scientific experts in the field of die casting.
ROVALMA’s Managing Director, Isaac Valls, presented our new generation of high thermal conductivity steels for die casting at the GDC Tech 2017.
The event took place in Mumbai (India), October 5 -7, 2017, addressing issues related to the use of lightweight materials in the automobile industry on the Indian Market. The multi-faceted agenda of GDCTECH covered these issues particularly for components made through aluminium die castings and forgings. A big thankyou goes to the organizers of the highly interesting and informative event!
The 3rd edition of Diesel Powertrains 3.0 took place on the 11th and 12th of July in Ludwigsburg, Germany. This conference offered multiple opportunities for mutual exchange between engineering experts and industry representatives working on current and future powertrains, Diesel powertrain layout and configuration or in the fields of Diesel engine development and their formulation. The Diesel Powertrains 3.0 Scientific Committee selected Mr. Isaac Valls’ topic as one of the presentation titles to be included into the conference program, so he participated with his speech titled “High thermal conductivity tool steels to increase the strength-to-weight ratio and the process productivity of the casted light alloys power train components”.
On the 2nd of July Rovalma participated at the 36th IDDRG Conference “Materials Modelling and Testing for Sheet Metal Forming”. The conference, that took place from July 2nd to July 6th 2017, was hosted by the Chair of Metal Forming and casting, a research institute at the Technical University of Munich. It brought together more than 140 speakers all around the world.
The IDDRG conference is a gathering for the world’s leading production specialists and researchers from all over the world for fruitful discussions on challenging technical topics in sheet metal forming technology. Mr. Isaac Valls, Rovalma’s Technical and Managing Director, participated with the speech titled “Extending the range of high thermal conductivity tool steels to boost the productivity of press hardening and reduce the tool manufacturing time and cost”.
Rovalma participated in the 10th edition of the Aluminium Two Thousand World Congress, which was held in Verona, Italy, June 20-24, 2017.
The event took place at the PalaExpo Congress, at Verona-Fiere, and brought together “Aluminium and light alloys” specialists, creating a formidable opportunity for industry managers, technicians, researchers, technology suppliers and expert speakers to exchange information on the latest developments, improvements of the technologies, and the future trends for the strategic materials of aluminium and light alloys for the manufacturing industries.
Our Technical and Managing Director, Isaac Valls presented the latest developments in high thermal conductivity tool steels for die casting under the presentation titled: “Increasing the solidification rate and shortening the cycle time by using high thermal conductivity tool steels, in dies and moulds of casting processes”.
From May 30th to June 1st, 2017, Rovalma participated in the MOULDING EXPO, which took place in Stuttgart, Germany, together with our Distribution Partner in Germany, STM Stahl.
The MOULDING EXPO is an International Trade Fair for Tool, Pattern and Mould Making, with a special focus on plastic injection moulding and composite forming applications. The event provided a great opportunity to meet with our customers in the region, and also to talk to many new cooperation partners from Germany and other geographical markets, and present them our new high thermal conductivity FASTEEL materials. Many thanks to our customers and new cooperation partners for visiting us, and to STM Stahl, for a great week.
Please, click here to read an article about Rovalma’s participation at the Moulding Expo published by the German-Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Spain:
Spanish web page
German web page
We would like to thank the Institute of Indian Foundrymen, Chennai Chapter, for inviting us to participate to the 7th Aluminum Conclave that took place in Chennai on April 28-29th. Our Technical and Managing Director, presented our new FASTEEL products with a presentation about “The main benefits of high thermal conductivity tool steels, for dies and moulds of casting processes».
It has been a veritable pleasure to participate in the Conclave and to be given this great opportunity to manifold exchange with experts in this field about the advantages of our upcoming FASTEEL products.
The photo shows Rovalma’s Technical and Managing Director, Isaac Valls participating to the Conclave.
On March 22-24th, Rovalma participated in MECSPE together with our Distribution Partner in Italy, Bre-Men Acciai.
MECSPE is the reference fair for the manufacturing industry in Italy. There were 11 thematic halls that offered the visitor a complete overview of materials, machines and innovative technologies that represent the Italian way to industry 4.0. Link to the web page: http://www.mecspe.com/en
It was a great opportunity to present Rovalma’s upcoming FASTEEL products, to our industry partners from Italy and other European countries. Many thanks to the organization and, specially, to Bre-Men, for a great event.
The photo shows Rovalma’s Sales Manager (Joan A. Sala) and our Applications Engineer (Pere Ferrer) at our shared booth.
We are greatly honored having been invited to give our presentation on «Increasing Cost Effectiveness of Die Casting Dies by Using High Thermal Conductivity HTCS Tool Steels for the dies», during Alucast 2016, International Conference & Exhibition at Bangalore, Dec 1 – 3, 2016. We would like to express our deep gratitude and send our best congratulations to the organizers for the perfect hosting of this great event.
We also like to thank the European Union for supporting our participation in this event in connection with our SME-instrument co-financed Fasteel project. The Alucast 2016 exhibition provided a great platform for illustrating the advantages of our Fasteel products compared to conventional steels, and for meeting up with and presenting our products to numerous users of die casting materials.
The photo shows Rovalma’s Technical and Managing Director, Isaac Valls, together with our distribution partners, the Lakshmi team, at their booth.
On October 10/11, 2016, our Management Team joined the SME Instrument Innovators Summit in Brussels. It was a great opportunity to share experiences, learn from peers via workshops and meet with business partners and potential investors. Once again, we thank the SME Instrument Team for organizing and inviting us to participate in this event.
On September 29th we participated in the Spanish Foundry Congress organized by «Metalspain» in Bilbao. Every year the most outstanding national and international Foundry Professionals meet in Bilbao providing practical technical solutions related to the Foundry Industries. Rovalma made a presentation about its new high thermal conductivity tools steels up-scaled in the FASTEEL project and their benefits in comparison with conventional steels.
Link to Spanish Foundry Congress Video: goo.gl/PtI01z
Picture: Dr. Anwar Hamasaiid presenting Rovalma’s High Thermal Conductivity Tool Steel Solutions.
Thanks again to the SME instrument Team for inviting us to participate at the MARIMATCH exhibition in Hamburg.
On September 8th we participated in the Matchmaking organized by the «Enterprise Europe Network». During the session, registered participants were able to request 30 minutes individual business meetings with other participants facilitating networking for small and medium-sized companies. Rovalma also introduced its FASTEEL project to other companies also awarded with Horizon 2020 projects. We found the sessions very interesting providing us with very useful information and peer contacts.
The following day, we had the opportunity to visit the Marimatch fair and met potential customers.
We would like to thank the SME Instrument Team for inviting Rovalma S.A. to attend the Welcome days that took place on the 5th and 6th of July 2016 in Brussels.
During these two days, representatives of EASME and invited speakers from other entities addressed aspects with regard to the SME Instrument Phase 2 projects, in particular expectations, goals and an efficient realization and capitalization of the projects. Furthermore, the attendees were given the opportunity to learn about and exchange highly valuable experience with precedent SME champions.
We are sure that the provided information as well as the experiences shared with our SME Instrument colleagues will be very useful to us all.
Without any no doubt, two highly interesting and fruitful days! Many thanks again to the SME Instrument Team, the speakers and the attendees!
The European Commission, within the frames of Horizon 2020-SME-Instrument-Phase 2, has positively evaluated the project FASTEEL and approved funding for the next 2 years.
Disruptive innovation through new tool steels with unique thermo-mechanical performance for material forming applications.
Since the mid 80’s, vehicle weights have increased despite the importance of vehicle weight on driving dynamics, agility, and fuel consumption. The trend of ever-increasing weight of cars has been curtailed in recent years, predominantly motivated by CO2 emission targets and correlated penalties, through the increased use of composites, plastics, light alloys and advanced and ultra-high-strength steels. The increasing use of components made of these lighter materials can reduce car weights and life cycle emissions very considerably.
The previously mentioned light-weight components have to be produced by an appropriate material forming process, such as plastic injection moulding, die casting of light alloys, resin transfer moulding (RTM), hot stamping, and forging amongst others. In all these processes, dies, moulds, and in general terms tools, are used to shape the components. Besides the geometrical shaping functionality, the tools play an important role as heat transfer media and in controlling the heating and cooling rate mechanism during the forming process. Shaping components with these new materials often requires tailored heating and cooling of the corresponding forming tool, along with specific tool surface features and mechanical properties that can respond to the rheological and tribological behavior of the component material and to the resulting thermo-mechanical solicitations during part production. Traditionally used hot work tool steels types, such as 1.2343, 1.2344, 1.2365, etc., do not combine all these required properties to ensure a reproducible and cost-effective forming of the components made of these innovative materials. Especially the low level of thermal conductivity and the mechanical and surface properties under working conditions of tools made with traditionally used tool materials limit the introduction of components made of light weight, high strength materials to the relevant industries.
As pioneer of the high thermal conductivity hot work tool steels, ROVALMA SA has successfully developed and verified a prototype hot work tool steel, that offers very high levels of thermal conductivity, along with high levels of tribological and mechanical properties. The flexibility offered by FASTEEL, especially in terms of machining, welding, surface treatments, fast and easy hardening, tool size, large range of working hardness, etc., means that FASTEEL can be applied as high performance tool material across many applications combined with the related advanced heating, cooling and surface technologies, allowing the production of large and geometrically challenging lightweight pieces made from advanced component materials.
In this SME phase 2 project FASTEEL will be demonstrated and evaluated by several market leading clients in the automobile components sector, in the different key production processes – plastic injection moulding, die casting and hot stamping-, to assess FASTEEL’s performance at producing high strength, large, lightweight components.
Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU research and innovation programme. Almost €80 billion of funding is available over seven years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private and national public investment that this money will attract. Horizon 2020 will help to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth. The goal is to ensure Europe produces world-class science and technology, removes barriers to innovation and makes it easier for the public and private sectors to work together in delivering solutions to big challenges facing our society.
As part of the Horizon 2020 programme, the European Commission is hand-picking potentially disruptive businesses to invest and support as part of the SME Instrument.
FASTEEL aims at taking up in the market a new tool steel material for hot work in three hot forming applications: plastic injection moulding, hot stamping and die-casting.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 726558.