Several months have now passed since the new technology transfer centre "ANAXAM" was founded. Under the management of Dr. Christian Grünzweig and in close cooperation with PSI, ANAXAM is on the road to success for industry - time for a brief review.
ANAXAM - what at first glance sounds like a magic formula is the name of the technology transfer centre for advanced manufacturing based in the Innovaare park in Villigen. Started in December 2019, ANAXAM's aim is to support industry in its advanced manufacturing activities with state-of-the-art material analysis. ANAXAM stands for "Analytics with Neutrons and X-rays for Advanced Manufacturing" and was jointly founded and launched by PSI, the FHNW, SNI, the Canton of Aargau and other partners from industry. As part of the federal government's "Digitisation" action plan, ANAXAM, as a national technology transfer centre, receives financial support from both the federal government and the canton. For cooperation with industry and SMEs, ANAXAM makes use of the PSI infrastructure in the field of neutron and X-ray radiation - thus ANAXAM forms a bridge between PSI's top-level research and industry. The range of services, however, goes far beyond this function: industrial partners are supported by ANAXAM in consulting and problem analysis, in carrying out measurements and in data analysis and interpretation. "The aim is to optimize the production methods and processes of the industry partner and to create the basis for innovations in the field of advanced manufacturing," says Grünzweig, who before joining ANAXAM worked for many years at PSI directly at the interface between research and industry and therefore knows both the possibilities of research and the needs of industry.
While ANAXAM's focus at the beginning of the year was on building up the ANAXAM office and recruiting suitable, competent staff, the first successful cooperation projects have already been launched in recent months - both with SMEs and with large industrial partners, both in Switzerland and abroad. ANAXAM is currently working primarily on the development and implementation of analytical infrastructure, which will enable experiments to be carried out under customer-specific experimental conditions more efficiently than before, and will also lead to more efficient use of the available beam time and the standardization of results.
While ANAXAM supports the industry in R&D questions of practical relevance, those industrial projects that concern basic research will continue to be handled by PSI. PSI and ANAXAM will thus cover all questions in the field of Advanced Manufacturing - whether they relate to basic or applied research - in a complementary and efficient manner, in order to provide industry with the best possible support for its advanced manufacturing needs.
