A company from Blankenheim is cooperating with scientists from Belgium / financial support of 3,000 Euro

Cross-border cooperation, know-how exchange and then grant of a 3,000 Euro financial support:

The Blankenheim ceramic producer „hightech ceram“ (htc) cooperates closely with „Sirris“, a research centre for technical industrial ceramic located in Lüttich. Thanks to the special support program “EarlyTech” this cross border technology exchange is supported with a voucher of 3,000 Euro. Iris Poth, head of district economic promotion, had handed over the promotion note to Dr. Detlef Steinmann, managing director of the Bankenheim company.

The company “hightech ceram” will use the money to produce high quality ceramics via 3D-printing. This is not easy as the ceramic components will shrink during the production process by about one third of the starting size. The exact shrink rate depends on various influencing factors. A lot of specific know-how is needed in order to fabricate the blanks in such way that the exact size and shape are obtained at the end. The specialists from “Sirris” in Lüttich  are searching  just in this area. The contact was recently made via Michael Franssen, the technology scout of Euskirchen district. Already from the first meeting it was clear that the Belgian competences are exactly in line with the requirements from “hightech ceram”.

It showed that the cross-border technology transfer was supported by subsidies:  In the frame work of the “EarlyTech” project a 3,000 Euro voucher was granted for the first trials. “EarlyTech” is intended to  allow companies to use knowledge from the entire Maas-Rhine Euregio. “This is the first voucher in this project to be awarded and it shows that companies from the Euskirchen area can benefit from Euregio. Mr. Franssen appeals to companies to take this chance.

Article form citizen magazine and official gazette of the Blankenheim community - edition March 2018