A memorandum of mutual understanding was signed in Chelyabinsk between South Ural State University and the company SMS group – world leader in producing metallurgic equipment. SMS group has been working with SUSU for more than 5 years; students of the university complete internships at the subsidiary’s companies in Russia and Germany.
Acting Vice President of the Department of Technical Services Pino Tesè, who is also a professor of the SUSU department "Metal Shaping Processes and Machines", came to the University to sign the agreement.
Together with the largest university in the South Ural region, the company SMS group will found a laboratory for additive technologies, “Mechanics, Laser Processes, and Digital Manufacturing Technologies,” which will be led by professor of the National School of Engineering, Saint-Etienne (ENISE, France) from SUSU, Marina Samodurova.
“Additive technologies are one of the prospective areas for engineers to develop surfaces with necessary technological and physical properties by applying powder coats, including the methods of laser welding,” says Marina Nikolaevna.
Laboratory staff will include university research staff, post-graduate students, and alumni with the necessary experience in this area. In the first stage, the location for the laboratory was chosen (at SUSU in the laboratory building) and a list of necessary equipment was formed.
During the signing of the partnership agreement, SUSU rector Aleksandr Shestakov stressed that the university’s development depends in great part on the serious and promising tasks that will be before the university.
“The laboratory which is to be built at the university has a lot of prospects. The number of orders for the research which we’ll be doing increases every day in Russia. Our task is not only to work with our investors, but to also become one of the best in Russia,” noted Aleksandr Leonidovich.
As Pino Tesè stressed, the laboratory will focus on solving to main tasks: the completion of the necessary scientific research, and the practical application of developments on the newest equipment.
“The company SMS group has been working in the Ural region for 75 years already. Chelyabinsk as a whole, and South Ural State University in particular, are very important to our development. We need qualified staff. I am also very happy about the founding of this laboratory, as the knowledge we’ll gain from the laboratory’s work will spread to every corner of the world,” says Pino Tesè.
We’d like to add that after the memorandum’s signing, a team of specialists from SMS group will come to Chelyabinsk and solve the technical issues of the project with SUSU researchers.