Abstract:

In order to achieve the critical mass of both human resources and equipment, able to generate high quality research results, many universities from Romania have concentrated their resources into research centres.

Also, the link with industrial companies, the most important employers of the graduates, and consequently, the main “trend-setters” of the content of the educational process, was strengthen by means of this research centres.

The Metal Forming Research Centre is a distinct research unit within "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu. This is one of the first centres of this kind within the Romanian higher education system and it was founded under the framework or the TEMPUS interuniversity programme.

The structure and activities of the centre were established similarly to other research units in the field of plastic deformation from Europe. The centre has within its structure research facilities, laboratories, offices, library, which totals a surface greater than 400 square metres.

The continuous development of the centre over the years has made it possible to be evaluated and recognized in 2002 as a research centre according to the Romanian National Council of Scientific Research within Higher Education criteria.

The team of the centre includes research and teaching personnel (15 persons), Ph.D students (6 persons) and auxiliary personnel (3 persons).
The Metal Forming Research Centre acts as both research and technology transfer pole within the highly industrialized area of Sibiu. The automotive industry is the most important industrial branch within the area and most of the industrial companies are acting within this field.

Consequently, the main research themes tackled within the centre somehow linked with metal forming thematic, which has a lot of application within the automotive industry:
- Developing new equipment and technologies (conventional and non-conventional) for metal forming
- CAD\CAE\CAM approaches in metal forming
- Optimization of the mechanical structure of presses and other technological equipment by means of Finite Element Method analysis
- Modeling and dynamic simulation of technological processes
- Developing new automation systems for technological equipments
- Assessment of the environmental impact of the industrial technologies and waste management
Typically, the main steps unfolded when developing a research program with industrial partners are
- Identification of the potential customers interested in using the research outcomes, mainly companies from automotive industry, in the geographic area covered by the Centre (Sibiu county, Transylvania region, Romania, and/or companies from abroad);
- Selection of the main expected outcomes of the experimental program, by means of a workshop with the industrial partners;
- Unfolding the research;
- Technological transfer of the results to the partner companies.

The centre also provides technical support services for industrial partners, including:
- Support in technology transfer
- Technical assistance in the development and implementation of new projects and / or products
- Carrying out measurements or determinations on specific equipment
- Performing technological operation on the machines
- Elaboration of technical reports

Keywords:

Research centre, technology transfer, industry.