CATEC has been awarded one of the Advanced Manufacturing Awards organized by Advanced Manufacturing, Spain’s largest advanced manufacturing industry event, held in Madrid on November 5 and 6.
CATEC received the award in the category of “Disruptive Technology in the Production Process” for the HTSMART (High Temperature Superconductors for Compact Fusion Reactor) project, an initiative in which it participates alongside other partners and companies and which is focused on the design, prototyping, and validation of high-temperature superconducting magnets for ultra-compact fusion reactors, using additive manufacturing technology (3D printing). The award jury selected this project in recognition of the innovation that this technology can bring to the field of manufacturing components for fusion reactors in the future.
The objective of the HTSMART project is to design the most compact and efficient magnetic confinement fusion reactor possible, with self-sufficient tritium production, based on spherical tokamaks with negative triangularity and HTS coils. CATEC’s work on this initiative is focusing on researching metal alloys and manufacturing the structure of HTS coils with integrated cryogenics using DED metal additive manufacturing technology, including sensors to monitor temperature (20K), deformations, and vibrations in real time. The project is part of the CDTI’s ‘TransMisiones 2024’ call for proposals, and also involves the University of Seville, Elytt Energy, Skylife Engineering, and INESPASA.
The awards ceremony took place at the Advanced Manufacturing fair, held at IFEMA Madrid. The award given to CATEC was collected by Irene Heras, Senior Researcher at CATEC, who emphasized that “we are very grateful for this award, which consolidates our work and line of activity in the field of Smart Industry and Advanced Manufacturing, developing and researching additive manufacturing technologies that will shape the future of various sectors and the production industry in general”.
She also pointed out that the award-winning HTSMART project is based on Tokamak SMART, Spain’s first spherical tokamak and the only one in the world capable of operating with different plasma shapes (including negative triangularity), which is installed at the University of Seville and has been generating its first plasmas since this year.
“HTSMART is yet another step forward and will enable the development of the most compact, efficient, and economical magnetic confinement fusion reactor possible, with self-sufficient tritium production, based on spherical tokamaks with negative triangularity thanks to HTS coils or high-temperature superconducting magnets. These magnets have revolutionized the international nuclear fusion landscape, paving the way for even more compact, efficient, and economical fusion reactors”, emphasized Irene Heras.
Along with CATEC, other companies and entities were awarded prizes in the categories of “Most Innovative Technology in Composite Manufacturing,” “Best Automated Production and Robotic Integration,” “Smart Factory: Best Connected Production Chain,” “Best Innovation in Product Design and Development,” “Best Product Testing and Quality Control,” and “Best sustainable project and circular economy”.
Participation in Advanced Manufacturing Madrid 2025
CATEC received this award during its participation in Advanced Manufacturing Madrid 2025, the 17th edition of Spain’s most important industrial innovation fair, where we participated with our own stand (stand AGC4) located in Pavilion 10 of the venue, with the presence of our colleagues Irene Heras and Sebastián Romero. In this exhibition area, we had the opportunity to present and showcase our Smart Industry and Advanced Manufacturing technologies and capabilities for different industrial sectors, as well as to establish contacts and hold meetings with companies and entities specialising in this field.
In addition, we also had the opportunity to participate in the 6th Composite Materials Conference organized by the Spanish Association of Composite Materials (AEMAC), held within this fair. At the conference, our colleague gave a presentation entitled “Reuse of uncured prepreg waste for the manufacture of valuable components for the aeronautical industry,” in which she spoke about DIRECTOR-A.
