THE EXPERT'S VIEW
IK4-TEKNIKER has become an outstanding player in terms of conceptualising, developing and industrialising sensoring devices thanks to its extensive technological and integration capabilities.
Industry 4.0, the internet of things, point-of-care, wearable devices, etc., are some of the terms we use in our daily lives. All of them, regardless of their target sector (industry, consumer goods, medical, entertainment, infrastructures, etc.) involve a measuring component connected to a number of basic parameters of physical-chemical magnitudes that are used to develop new products or deliver added value to existing solutions or products.
High performance integrated measuring technologies have been developed so that sensors can be adapted to new technologies in view of the current level of demand.
It is, however, difficult to incorporate these capabilities to functional solutions that must meet stringent requirements in terms of cost, size, certification, regulation and, above all, reliability in measuring operations.
To deal with this challenge, IK4-TEKNIKER offers a range of technological and integration capabilities that have placed the technology centre at the forefront in terms of conceptualising, developing and industrialising sensor devices for an extensive range of applications and sectors.
The Basque centre has developed an integral product development methodology that embraces concept validation, measuring techniques and allows for the development of prototype families and test benches. Moreover, it enables the industrialisation and certification of any solutions developed and provides support for maintenance and life cycle management actions once integrated in the market.
This approach allows IK4-TEKNIKER to guarantee a correct development of feasible prototypes and products in record time. It also gives the customer more freedom to forge ahead alone or continue alongside the centre at the end of each stage.
Amongst all the existing potential measuring principles, IK4-TEKNIKER offers advanced capabilities for the integration of photonic and optoelectronic sensing solutions.
The development of products by means of photonic inspection techniques requires an in-depth knowledge of the different components to be integrated such as light sources, detectors, optics, micromechanics, electronics, signal acquisition and processing, physical-chemical analyses, machine-to-machine interfaces, regulations and certifications applicable in each case.
This knowledge, together with the emergence of highly advanced detectors and emitters (with more features, smaller in size and low cost) has opened the door to the development of monitoring systems for many applications. In this regard, and for the purpose of achieving more profitable solutions that can achieve higher levels of reliability, the centre is currently collaborating with some of the most innovative suppliers in the field of micro spectrometers and light sources.
IK4-TEKNIKER specifically offers fully stand-alone solutions that analyse the chemical parameters of solid or liquid samples by applying visible or infrared ultraviolet spectrometry techniques (NIR-SWIR), although it does pay special attention to the reliability of measurements and cost-effectiveness of a given solution. These are but a few application examples: sensoring devices used to monitor wine fermentation, the quality of olive oil, nut sorting, detection of water in lubricants, etc.
