Apparecchiatura per ricoprimenti PVD realizzata da INFN e installata presso Eurolls SpA

At the University of Udine, the first industrial PhD on surface treatments with the collaboration of INFN

Antonio Carabillò, Production and R&D Manager at Eurolls S.p.A., recently received his industrial doctorate from the University of Udine.

His research activity, aimed at the optimisation of PVD coatings on rolling and profiling rolls, testifies to the potential of a long and fruitful collaboration between academia and industry that involves not only the University of Udine, but also Eurolls S.p.A. and the INFN National Laboratories of Legnaro.

Eurolls is a company specialising in the manufacture of products and services for the tube and wire processing industry that, from the province of Friuli, has been able to expand by opening new production sites around the world.

Its relationship with INFN began in 2016, when the company’s management realised that to remain competitive in the global market it was necessary to be technologically advanced, and found in INFN the ideal interlocutor for its needs. Thus was born a technological research project dedicated to the study of anti-wear PVD coatings on rolling rolls and the creation of a prototype deposition machine that could be used for industrial research.

The project is a success and triggers other forms of collaboration and transfer not only of technology, but also of knowledge: Carabillò, in fact, is hired in Eurolls’ research and development department after completing a master’s degree in Surface Treatments for Industrial Applications organised by the University of Padua and INFN, and the company itself becomes a sponsor of the subsequent editions of the master’s degree, the training value of which it possesses. At the same time, joint research activities continue through the R4I Multi Rolls project financed by the INFN, which aims to optimise PVD techniques to create wear-resistant multilayer coatings on rolling rolls.

This PhD represents the culmination of a success story that, starting from a commissioned research project, has allowed a company to expand its technology portfolio, introducing new products and gaining global competitiveness and, at the same time, has allowed INFN to carry out its technology transfer mission, enhancing its knowledge and technologies through important industrial and local spin-offs.