STIRWELD

As part of its research and development activities at GANIL, the CEA (GANIL’s supervisory authority) has developed an invention for manufacturing aluminium vacuum chamber tubes equipped with new hardened flanges. The friction stir welding process is the essential technique used in this innovation.

This invention, entitled ‘Vacuum chamber assembly component and method for manufacturing the assembly component’, is the subject of a priority patent in France and was filed in April 2016. In 2019, an application for extension was also filed in the United States.

The company STIRWELD (35 – Rennes), which specialises in friction stir welding (FSW) solutions and was involved in the implementation of the prototype for this invention, wished to obtain a licence for the industrial and commercial exploitation of the patents protecting the invention in order to expand its product range.

In May 2022, the CEA and STIRWELD signed a five-year patent licence agreement to develop aluminium vacuum chamber tubes as a commercial product.

This patent licence agreement is part of a technology transfer process promoting the industrial exploitation of innovation.