Olmar reaches an agreement with CERN, one of the most important research centers in the world, for the manufacture of a new autoclave.
Our more than 75 years of experience on the front lines of innovation and technology have led us to collaborate with CERN, the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Thanks to OLMAR’s experience in projects related to aerospace activity and our contribution to the development of high-tech products, we have signed an agreement with CERN for the manufacture of a new Autoclave.
CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) is currently the most important research laboratory in the world. Founded in 1954 in Geneva, today it has the support and participation of 23 member states of the European Union. Among its workers are more than 12,000 scientists from more than 70 different countries and it is estimated that 50% of all particle physicists in the world work directly or indirectly for CERN in international collaborations.
CERN has impressive facilities spread over an area of 6km2 that include twelve buildings located on both sides of the border between Switzerland and France, very close to Geneva. Furthermore, beneath its surface there are 34 km of tunnels and caverns more than a hundred meters deep, enormous structures intended solely for experimental physics.
Within this spectacular work of engineering is the largest particle accelerator in the world, known as the Hadron Collider, LCH (Large Hadron Collider), the largest scientific machine ever built.
THE LHC, a challenge to engineering and gravity
The LHC is a ring with a circumference of 27 km that is located 100 meters underground and whose interior is the emptiest place in the Solar System. It is also the largest “refrigerator” in the world since for its operation it needs to cool the electromagnets that make up its magnetic field to -271.3 °C, a temperature close to absolute zero and colder than that existing in outer space. This is because the heating of the particles when they collide with each other generates temperatures 100,000 times hotter than the interior of the Sun. In this circuit the highest speeds in the world are reached, as particles are accelerated by up to 99.9%. of the speed of light, the speed limit in the universe.
With these impressive characteristics, it is not surprising that CERN searches the market for the best companies for the design and manufacture of the equipment that makes up this laboratory, including autoclaves for the treatment of composites (carbon fiber). The extreme characteristics required by this particle accelerator could only be carried out with high-performance equipment and the most advanced materials at a technical and design level. At Olmar we already have proven experience in the aeronautical industry and the aerospace sector thanks to the work of our autoclaves for treating composite materials (carbon fiber), so we know the technical demands required and we trust our solutions to face the more demanding parameters in each cycle.
CERN applications in our daily lives
Thanks to CERN accelerators it is possible to recreate the conditions that occurred immediately after the Big Bang. In this way it is possible to study particles that only existed during the formation of the universe and observe the laws of nature or reveal the mysteries of the cosmos.
However, there are also practical applications that are closer to our daily lives. CERN research has contributed to discoveries that have allowed, for example, the creation of security scanner equipment, medical instruments for diagnosing diseases or improvements in cancer therapies. But if there is an invention that has changed our way of life, it is the appearance in 1990 of the World Wide Web, the most important global information store that has completely revolutionized communication between people.
OLMAR, faced with a top-level opportunity.
Several Spanish companies have previously participated in international CERN projects, such as in the design and assembly of mechanical support modules in carbon fiber, since carbon fiber composite materials perfectly covers the needs of rigidity and thermal stability that your experiments require.
Now it is Olmar’s turn to provide high-tech solutions through our autoclaves for carbon fiber and composites, using our most advanced technology to participate in the discoveries of the future.