Club program 2023
2023-11-08 Northvolt battery campus in Västerås
Northvolt's battery campus in Västerås has 1100 employees of 85 nationalities developing the next generation of battery technology. There is a full-scale production facility for anodes and cathodes and battery cells. Tests are performed to determine mechanical strength and performance. Simulations are performed to determine the performance of the battery throughout its lifetime.
Nothvolt's Natalie Bruno talked about how the construction of the campus has been carried out, today's operations, development plans for different battery technologies and the current status of the start-up of the production facility in Skellefteå.
2023-11-08 Small modular light water reactors
In an attempt to create the conditions for a new nuclear power program in Sweden, a national knowledge center, ANItA, has been established. ANitA is a collaboration between government, academia and industry whose focus is on small modular light water reactors. The idea behind ANItA is to, through research and development work, produce knowledge-based decision-making bases in order to be able to effectively introduce new nuclear power technology in the country.
Professor Ane Håkansson described why nuclear power is a technically attractive technology and reported how ANItA works with Sweden's future energy supply.
2023-10-25 Historical Diversity on the Internet
Please see the Swedish page!
2023-09-20 Technology Award Ceremony and KASI Technologies
The meeting began with Gunnar Flisberg presenting the first recipient of VBIK's technology award, Lars Erik Juhlin, who died suddenly on October 29, 2022.
Lars-Erik Juhlin worked within Hitachi Energy's HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) division for just over 50 years. He had cutting-edge expertise in system technology, control and regulation, device and system protection, electrical and mechanical dimensioning of devices.
NESS from KASI Technologies
KASI Technologies in Smedjebacken manufactures an in-house developed product, NESS, which converts petrol and diesel cars into electric hybrids.
The company's founder Isak Löfgren talked about the company and its product NESS (New Electrified Supercharging System).
The promising technology has led the EU to invest up to SEK 80 million in the company.
NESS can be fitted to 98% of Europe's passenger and light commercial vehicle fleets, saving up to 20% in fuel consumption.
Isak Löfgren got the idea for NESS already 15 years ago, and with a background in the automotive industry, he saw an opportunity to reduce fuel consumption in the fossil-fueled vehicles that are already on our roads today.
2023-08-31 Visit to Hitachi's new factory for HVDC and SVC valves in Smedjebacken.
We visited Hitachi Energy’s new production site in Smedjebacken, where thyristor valves for classical HVDC and SVC are assembled, together with IGBT valves for FACTS.
The former print shop has been transformed in record time into a modern HVDC factory and was inaugurated in November last year and the production is now in full swing. The factory houses 65 employees and valve component assembly in a space of totally 2,500 m2.
Marcus Karlsson, workshop manager at Smedjebacken, and Alexander Borg, workshop manager at Uno Lamm HVDC Center showed us around.
2023-05-31 Erich Spicar: The Flood: A Story of the Black Sea and Various Migrations
Erich Spicar, (honorary member in VBIK) is a long-standing researcher in semiconductors and insulating materials at ASEA/ABB and a trained geologist with research in the Siljansringen and author of several books in historical geology.
He told about the event, called the Flood of Sin, which occurred when the glaciers melted after the last Ice Age. It led to migrations, which could be done when the sea level was really low. There are also migration links between Sweden and the fertile areas around the Black Sea.
Presentation (in Swedish)
2023-05-06 Excursion to Nya Lapphyttan, Norberg - Insight into the iron production of the time.
In the 7th century, blasting was the standard method for producing malleable iron. Blast furnaces (12th century onwards) provide cast iron, which needs to be freshened, removal of bound carbon, to become malleable. Much of the development is related to efficiency improvements. Iron ore and rapids were everywhere in Bergslagen, but charcoal was the scarce resource. Different types of forging are presented.
Gert Magnusson, Björn Björck and Eva Hjärthner-Holdar guided us through the discovery of remains after blast furnace operation in the 12th century, restorations and how it was done in the early Middle Ages. During the visit, the blast furnace was operated with rock ore from Dannemora Mine.
2023-04-19 "Products and systems for future dynamic electricity distribution networks"
Lars Hjort, founder of HM Power AB spoke about how electricity distribution networks had developed and how systems for the future dynamic electricity distribution networks will look like.
Today, society is dependent on communication and compute
r systems, which in turn are completely dependent on continuous electricity supply. At the same time, stable, predictable electricity production has largely been replaced with weather-dependent intermittent local electricity production. This demands that the networks become increasingly dynamic. Lars showed how such dynamics come about with the help of suitable products and systems in so-called self-healing networks.
2023-03-20 Annual meeting. "HVDC is transforming the energy transition at a record pace" with Dr.Magnus Callavik, Hitachi Energy
Dr. Magnus Callavik, Global Head of Engineering and Deputy Head of HVDC, Grid Integration, Hitachi Energy, shared the development of the global HVDC market and its opportunities and challenges that follow as the market doubles annually.
2023-02-01 Real-time non-destructive characterization of materials at the world’s most powerful microscopes
Ahmet Bahadir Yildiz, CEO of Scatterin AB, introduced industrial applications of synchrotron X-ray and neutron facilities and presented how Big Science can be efficiently utilized to solve industrial challenges.
2023-01-25 Visit to LogMax in Grangärde.
Log Max designs and manufactures modern and high-tech harvesting units for forestry machines. The company is a world leader in its industry and 70% of production is exported. Lars Hjort and Johan Ericson talked about companies and the products. The visit ended with a tour of the workshop.
A harvesting unit can fell, branch and cut a tree to desired lengths. The unit itself is a tool intended to be hung from a crane, which in turn is mounted on some form of base machine, e.g. a traditional wheeled harvester or a tracked excavator.
