Marina Valero Rodrigo, a student from the School of Industrial Engineering of Ciudad Real, University of Castilla-La Mancha, won the VII Acerinox Award thanks to her project “Design of printable filaments of 316L Stainless Steel master alloys.”

The event, organized by Cedinox (the Association for the Research and Development of Stainless Steel), was held yesterday, Thursday, at the Ernesto Martínez Rector’s Office Auditorium.

The ceremony was led by Ángela González Moreno, vice-rector of Innovation, Employment, and Entrepreneurship, accompanied by Francisco Javier Belzunce Varela, professor at the University of Oviedo and president of the Jury of the VII Acerinox Prize; Vicente Feliu, director of ETSII; José Antonio Castro, director of the Agency for Research and Innovation of Castilla-La Mancha and Bernardo Velázquez Herreros, CEO of Acerinox.

The jury highlighted the high quality of the finalists’ projects, among which Marina Valero’s stood out for its complexity in reaching an optimized solution for each step of the production process, going beyond the theoretical level and achieving its application in a real physical part. In the words of the winner, “the project is based on the fused filament fabrication (FFF) technique, where the filament-shaped material is deposited layer by layer, creating complex geometries in three dimensions. The innovation of the project lies in the use of master alloys, powders with useful characteristics not explored in FFF, and in the use of a shear model that allows the determination of the best printing conditions.”

Bernardo Velázquez was in charge of delivering the 3,000 euro prize, which university students can aspire to when incorporating stainless steel into their final project at the graduate or postgraduate level. The purpose of the prize is to promote knowledge of this material and its applications among young architects and engineers at the national level.

Velázquez congratulated the winner and thanked all participants for their efforts, underscoring the high level of the projects. The CEO of Acerinox emphasized that “this award is an example of collaboration between private companies and universities, and we are proud to continue increasing the number of educational institutions we collaborate with thanks to this type of initiative.”

For her part, the vice-rector of Innovation, Employment, and Entrepreneurship, Angela González, declared that “strengthening the relationship with a company like ACERINOX, whose values of excellence and sustainability we share, allows us to fulfill one of the functions entrusted to us by Law: our contribution to economic and social development, improving the quality of life of our immediate surroundings.

“The university-business relationship is based on innovation, the setting in motion of existing knowledge, and the generation of new knowledge through research collaboration to discover new solutions. The UCLM has 7 research groups (about 90 researchers) with capacities in areas of interest, such as the development of new materials or advanced materials with high mechanical performance properties, for applications in sectors in which Acerinox is present.”