Grottaglie,
26 october 2007 University of Rome Tor Vergata La
Spezia
The ceremony to present the
winners of the Premio Innovazione
Finmeccanica took place at Alenia Aeronautica's Grottaglie plant
today. Now in their fourth year, the aim of the Innovation Prize awards is to
enhance the value of research and innovation within the Group. Since the start
of the initiative in 2004, more than 2,000 proposals have been submitted,
involving 6,000 people. Of particular note has been the increase in the number
of entries from employees based overseas: from 10 projects in 2004 to 203 in
2007, thus confirming the international nature of the initiative.
Premio
Innovazione Finmeccanica - open to all Group companies - were created to promote
value creation through research and development, that is fundamental to growth
and competitiveness. This year, 750 proposals were submitted, from which 73
finalists were chosen. The selection of the three equal winner projects was made
by a committee chaired by Professor Nick Lieven, Head of Aerospace Engineering
at Bristol University (UK), and comprising professors and researchers from this
University - a centre of academic excellence in the aerospace sector, with which
Finmeccanica has a long history of fruitful collaboration.
One of the
three prizes went to MBDA, which has developed a Linux-based operating system
able to fully utilize the capacity offered by new multi-core microprocessors,
that enable calculations to be made in real time using several CPUs on a single
microchip. The many potential applications of this system range from graphics
simulators to navigation, radar systems and video games. Research on this
project was carried out in cooperation with the
Oto Melara, a company whose activities are increasingly
focused on protection and security, received one of the awards for the system it
patented and produced to protect vehicles deployed in danger zones from pressure
wave damage generated by improvised explosive devices. The system is a shield consisting of composite panels
of foam, ceramics and metal that become flexible in the event of a collision,
providing protection for the underlying vehicle structure and, above all, its
occupants. Though devised to increase protection for armoured
vehicles such as the Ariete, Dardo and Centauro, the system can be applied to
any vehicle.
The third award went to Alenia Aermacchi, which produced
hardware and software that optimizes the design and bending properties of tubing
in hydraulic systems, generating substantial savings and making the manufacture
of aeronautic and aerospace platforms more efficient. This technology has the
potential to be used by all Finmeccanica Group companies that use hydraulic
circuits, and may be licensed to third parties.
During the ceremony,
Antonio Cetronio of SELEX Sistemi Integrati received the Patent of the Year
award for patenting a special power transistor using PHEMT (Pseudomorphic High
Electron Mobility) technology and the related production process. The electronic
components used in PHEMT technology are essential to mobile phone manufacture
and are of particular interest for satellite communications and advanced radar
systems. The award was also made in consideration of Antonio Cetronio's
expertise in the area of gallium arsenide and nitride technology, which are
recognised all over the world.
There were also two special mentions. The
first was for Luciano Armato of Oto Melara, who, together with design colleagues
from the technical department at the
The second special mention went to Davide Bonaffini of Ansaldo
Breda for the development of an analytical tool to quantify the environmental
impact of the production, use and decommissioning of a "typical product". This
leads to Environmental Product Declaration certification, which summarizes the
main technical, energy and environmental characteristics. The analysis enables
simulations to be carried out that identify optimal solutions in terms of
eco-design, materials, technologies and costs.
This award highlights the
Group's commitment to environmental protection.
Pier Francesco
Guarguaglini, Chairman and CEO, commented: "These awards demonstrate
Finmeccanica's focus on process innovation and individual talent. We are
convinced that to be successful in the high technology sector you need to give
people free rein and enable them to work with tools and methods that can bring
out the abilities of each person. Only in this way can we obtain important
results in the context of finding additional applications in sectors other than
Aerospace, Defence and Security".
The Grottaglie plant, the venue for the
2007 Innovation Awards, has a strong symbolic value as it is the production
location for two of the main sections of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the world's
first commercial aircraft to be made using carbon fibre rather than aluminum,
based on a patent held by Alenia Aeronautica.
