News

Fernando Araujo de Castro (NPL, UK) is new Chair and teams up with Vice-Chairs and Secretary for next steps in the network’s development

The European Metrology Network for Advanced Manufacturing enables new and enhanced metrology methods to assure the quality of manufacturing processes and the resulting products.

This helps European industries to meet high-precision requirements in quality assurance along the entire manufacturing chain - from advanced materials and smart manufacturing systems, to components and products.

The network aims to help a wide range of manufacturing sectors remain at the ‘cutting edge’ of Industry 4.0 where metrology input is essential, by promoting collaboration and cooperation between the metrology community and stakeholders from industry, academia and others. The most challenging needs related to metrology for advanced manufacturing are addressed in a newly published Strategic Research Agenda.

New Chair and Vice-Chairs for the EMN

Earlier this year the EMN for Advanced Manufacturing elected or re-elected a new Chair, three Vice-Chairs and Secretary.
 

Chair: Fernando Araujo de Castro, NPL (UK)

Fernando is a Principal Scientist and Department Head of Science at NPL, the UK’s National Metrology Institute. As a renowned metrology expert, he advises government and R&D agencies worldwide and has authored key strategic documents shaping UK and European metrology. He was global Chair of VAMAS, where he oversaw pre-standards research work across 15 technical areas involving more than 300 organisations in 40 countries. Fernando has delivered more than 80 invited talks in 20 countries, is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and IOM3, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey. Fernando previously served as Vice-Chair for the EMN’s section on Advanced Materials.

“I am honoured to take on the role of Chair of the European Metrology Network on Advanced Manufacturing. Manufacturing is vital for Europe’s competitiveness, and metrology plays a critical role in providing the confidence needed to accelerate innovation, to ensure high quality manufacturing and to allow governments to regulate effectively, safeguarding both the environment and public health. 

I look forward to working collaboratively with our network members and stakeholders to advance measurement science and standards that meet the evolving needs of industry and society, driving progress across Europe's advanced manufacturing sectors.”

Vice-Chair Advanced Materials: Luca Boarino, INRiM (Italy)

Luca is Technology Director, member of the INRiM Scientific Board, Head of the Sector Advanced Materials and Devices (https://amdgroup.inrim.it/home) of the INRiM Division “Advanced Materials Metrology and Life Sciences”, Italian representative of VAMAS (http://www.vamas.org), Co-organiser of the Symposium Altech at EMRS, and author

of more than 200 international publications. Luca’s research interests are related to nanofabrication, self-assembly and silicon nanowires.

“Over the past 15 years, thanks to the EURAMET Metrology Research Programmes and Partnership, collaboration among European National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) has been greatly strengthened, creating valuable personal relationships in addition to scientific results within the framework of Joint Research Projects.

In this critical period for the European community, the field of advanced materials is taking its first steps with a coordinated effort and a common roadmap.

One of the priority actions for the EMN within the Advanced Manufacturing board should, in my opinion, be to align the resources of the EURAMET community dedicated to production, characterisation, and certification of advanced materials with active European initiatives, offering the unique capabilities of NMIs to other European Partnerships working in the field. This will involve continuous interaction between the EMN and key European Partnerships and companies working on advanced materials for manufacturing, participating in and organising events that foster collaboration and project proposals.

I am firmly convinced that European NMIs are ready to establish long-lasting and effective cooperation with the main entities working in Europe in the field of advanced materials for Advanced Manufacturing and standardisation, and my efforts will be dedicated to achieving this.”

Vice-Chair Smart Manufacturing Systems: Daniel O’Connor, NPL (UK)

Daniel is the Science Area Leader for Dimensional Metrology at NPL and has been re-elected as Vice-Chair. He joined the institute in 2014 coming from an academic background in the field of plasmonics and nano-optics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, and Member of the Institute of Physics, the European Microscopy Society, the European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology, and a Sustaining Member of the American Society for Precision Engineering.

Daniel has published several high impact journal articles. While he is interested in dimensional metrology at all scales, his specific area of expertise at NPL is in the design and implementation of novel sensor systems and advanced data processing techniques for traceable non-contact critical dimension metrology, areal surface topography measurement and defect detection at the micro- and nano-scale, focussing on applications in the Advanced Manufacturing sector.

“As Vice-Chair of the European Metrology Network for Advanced Manufacturing in the Smart Manufacturing Systems section I am committed to support the steering and coordination of EMN activities, in particular to ensure that our Strategic Research Agenda remains up to date, technically relevant, and attractive to all of our members as well as the wider advanced manufacturing industry across Europe.

I hope to work with EMN members to deliver against the real stakeholder metrology needs that have been identified and help Europe to lead the world in achieving the zero defect, zero delay, zero surprise, zero waste, and zero risk goals promised by metrology enabled advanced manufacturing.”

Vice-Chair Manufactured Components and Products: Antti Lassila, MIKES (Finland)

Antti is an expert in dimensional metrology and precision measurement, currently serving as Research Team Leader of the Length Metrology unit at VTT MIKES Metrology, the Finnish National Metrology Institute. He has a PhD in Technology and over three decades of experience. He has contributed extensively to optical and dimensional metrology, nanometrology, and dimensional interferometry. Antti has led numerous international R&D projects and chaired EURAMET’s Technical Committee for Length.

“In the position of Research Team Leader of VTT MIKES Length, I have had an excellent opportunity, over more than 20 years, to take part in EURAMET, European Metrology Research Programmes, the Metrology Partnership and EMN Advanced Manufacturing co-operation. These programs and alliances are very important for VTT MIKES when we are developing our capabilities for customer needs and strengthening our cooperation with national and international stakeholders. For these reasons I’m very motivated to contribute to the EMN and further develop it towards integrated European Metrology concept.

The Manufactured Components & Products section deals with a very important aspect of industrial manufacturing. This is how to metrologically verify that manufactured components and products meet their specifications, at a time when novel manufacturing techniques and product types are coming in to use or to market frequently. Requests for inline/online quality control capabilities with high accuracy are intensifying and wide range of novel metrology techniques are proposed. So, there is plenty to do for National Metrology Institutes to be able to serve European industry needs.”

Secretary: Anita Przyklenk, PTB (Germany)

Anita is head of the working group Gears and Threads at the department of Coordinate Metrology in the division of Precision Engineering at PTB, Germany’s National Metrology Institute. She previously worked as a Satellite Test Engineer at Magson GmbH, Berlin, Germany, and as a research assistant at the German Institute of Geophysics and extraterrestrial Physics at the Technische Universität Braunschweig.

“I have been secretary for this EMN since it was founded in 2021. Tackling challenges such as the transition to circular economy for a cleaner and more competitive Europe as well as the development of advanced technologies for the citizens is of utmost importance for the well-being and prosperity of European societies. This task can only be achieved jointly in collaborative efforts, so that approaches from a wide variety of disciplines, of which metrology is one, come together to cross-fertilise each other.

I am convinced that bringing people together from research institutes with European cutting-edge companies and decision-makers from politics pushes the capabilities of metrology for advanced manufacturing further and therefore underpins European competitiveness by producing products of highest quality. Herein, key aspects are the responsible use of resources, human-centred manufacturing processes as well as the sustainability, reusability and recyclability of manufactured products - not only for ecological reasons but also for economic reasons.”

EURAMET congratulates the newly elected and re-elected team and wishes them all the best for their new roles and terms.

Sincerest thanks are extended to the previous office holders who led the EMN Advanced Manufacturing during its founding phase and first important developments:

EMN Chair Harald Bosse (PTB Germany) and Vice-Chair Manufactured Components and Products Alessandro Balsamo (INRiM, Italy).

European Metrology Networks

EURAMET has established a set of European Metrology Networks (EMNs) to help ensure Europe maintains a world-leading metrology capability, based on high-quality scientific research and an effective infrastructure, that meets the rapidly advancing needs of stakeholders.

The EMNs serve as European points of contact in their fields and cover topics including advanced manufacturing, energy transition, climate and pollution monitoring, quantum, laboratory medicine, mathematics and statistics, radiation protection, sustainable food and smart specialisation.

The EMN for Advanced Manufacturing was developed and supported by the joint network project 19NET01. EMPIR projects are co-funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the EMPIR Participating States.

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