These engraved glass is produced and manufactured the encóders linear and Rotary for automation and control systems

Fagor Automation has officially opened its new technological facilities of opto-electronics, in a ceremony presided by the Lehendakari of the Basque Government, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, and by the President of the General Council of MCC, Jesus Catania. Engraved glass that is used in the systems of catchment or encóders occurs in these facilities and manufactured the encóders linear and Rotary for automation and control systems. The complex also includes a logistics center automated and Roboticized, serving the three production plants for Fagor Automation in Usurbil, Eskoriatza and Mondragón.

The investment, comprising buildings and production equipment, has risen to 15 million euros which, by their highly innovative character, has benefited from aid from the provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, in the Center for technological development and Industrial (CDTI), the Basque Governmentthe Central Administration and MCC. Historically, innovation has been a differential element of fagor automation, which has allocated between 10 and 12 percent of its sales, now occupying to 21 per cent of the total workforce.

Fagor Automation, which last year celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, is the only national company dedicated to the development and manufacture of products for automation and control of machinery, mainly for the machine tool sector, being the second largest in the world of optolectrónicos of measurement devices5th in control systems numerical and leader of its sector in Spain. This exercise provides check-EUR 65 million, 18 percent more than in 2005, of which 80 per cent correspond to international sales, aimed primarily at China, Taiwan, Brazil, United States, Italy and Germany.

It has strategic, as it produces engraved glass which is then used in the manufacture of the catchment systems, position or encóders. Technology and equipment have been developed by the own Fagor Automation, in collaboration with companies and universities in first line, both domestic and foreign.

The result is facilities of the highest level in the field of industrial measurement, which allow to manufacture products of very high accuracy (up to + 500 nanometers, equivalent to 2,000 times less than a millimeter). A precision Nano that only manage two companies Japan and Germany in this field. Before developing its own technology, Fagor Automation dependent on external suppliers, for etched glass incorporating the encóders or catchment systems.

These encóders are that, through electrical signals, are responsible for transmitting the exact positioning of a process, which is reflecting on the screens of the numerical controls and viewers levels, which according to the received position signalgovern automatic machine tools.

This technology of optical precision also applies in other advanced metrology-related sectors, such as high-level medical equipment, devices for tracking satellites etc. So the domain of this technology, gives Fagor Automation of an important "know-how" to offer products in new business.

The recording of the Crystal process comprises the following phases: preparation of the glass, chromium deposition, deposition of resin, exposure to the light and revealed. Used equipment includes vacuum tanks, deposits of baths with cleaning, resin, drying etc. furnaces, machines in preparation for the development and commercial processing.

The sophisticated level of control and precision of the process, required to have a building that is protected to the maximum number of internal and external interference. To minimize the effects on the mechanical stability, especially with regard to vibrations, the machinery of the process is located on a floating floor that isolates it from any external disturbance.

Also requires a thermal of up + 0. 01 C, cleaning with clean rooms and equipment working in class 100, humidity and pressure of the working environment control. All this is guaranteed by a computerized system that controls all these variables.

New facilities for Fagor Automation in Eskoriatza (Guipúzcoa)

Zone of preparation for the recording of the glass

This new production facility has different types of rooms, depending on the conditions of temperature, humidity, pressure etc. It has been designed as a surround set of clean rooms, from lowest to highest degree of cleaning with a system of locks and quarter with positive pressure, which enables to achieve progressively a temperature control of up + 0, 1 ° C in the most demanding areas.

Productive space consists of a mechanical workshop and other electronic. In the mechanic they machining the reading heads of the encóders, aluminium profiles that protect the etched glass and other processes leading to the Assembly. The components of the reading heads, which are adjusted in scanning beam and are checked individually are mounted in the electronic workshop. All the optoelectrónicas sections are equipped with dissipative floor, to guarantee the no-generación of electrostatic charges.

Then, the reading heads with the rules (which are the result of integrating the Crystal in the aluminium profile), are assembled from the mechanical workshop and was tested as a whole. Finally, recording the corresponding graph of control of precision that is delivered to the client along with each encoder or collection system.

Adjustment of signals of head room

Logistics Centre has two established functions: as a finished product warehouse and warehouse of raw material. The finished product is arranged in boxes and pallets with its corresponding barcode that identifies the content. Warehouse distribution is done via transelevadores robots that distribute the material by adhering to a series of algorithms.

The entire process is automated and is managed by a specific software, integrated into the global system of the company.

A view of automated logistics centre.

Fagor Automation starts its activity in 1971 in the electronic field of the GrupoFagor. In 1980 it reaches their autonomy as independent cooperative with the name of Aurki, adopting its current name of Fagor Automation in 1990. It is the only national company dedicated to the development and manufacture of products for automation and control of machinery, mainly in the machine tool sector.

Fagor Automation has always assigned a key role in research and development (r & d), which has historically devoted a large proportion of its sales (10/12 per cent), even in the hardest years of the crisis of the early 1990s. Currently, about 90 people, 21 percent of its workforce of Mondragón-Eskoriatza-Usurbil, is dedicated to r & d and they work more than 50 do so in future developments.

The products it manufactures Fagor Automation integrates several technologies, which include: software control in real time, digital and analog hardware, power, design of specific integrated circuits: ASICs, analog and digital control, design, systems development 16/32 bit multiprocessor, optoelectronics, software for 3D simulation, Photolithography.