Minister Halligan Congratulates ENBIO on Contract Worth €650,000

Minister Halligan congratulates ENBIO on Contract Worth € 650,000 from the European Space Agency Company to develop and manufacture advanced surface coatings for telecommunications satellites at its Clonmel Facility

 

ENBIO today (24th April 2017) announced a contract worth €650k from the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop advanced surface coatings for Neosat, Europe’s next generation of telecommunications satellites.

 

ENBIO is working with ESA as part of ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems programme (ARTES). The aim of the Neosat platform is to create the next generation satellite platforms and allow European manufacturers to capture over half the world’s satcom market between now and 2030, potentially worth €25 billion.

 

The announcement was made at the Enterprise Ireland trade visit to the European Space Agency Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk which is currently being led by John Halligan T.D., Minister for Training, Skills & Innovation. Congratulating the company on its recent success Minister Halligan stated “ENBIO is a prime example of how Irish technology companies can be at the forefront of ground breaking technology developments for the most demanding of space systems engineering. It is particularly encouraging to see such high-level space engineering activities taking place in the South East region”.

 

ENBIO has benefitted significantly over the last six years from Irish government investment in the European Space Agency. Through Enterprise Ireland, ENBIO has been supported to compete for opportunities in ESA and is now successfully coating satellite components for many European satellite manufacturers. This has grown the company from six people to its present size of sixteen.

 

The global desire for increased telecommunications creates challenges for the satellite builders to continue to improve the bandwidth of the satellites. This additional demands create more heat that must be properly managed or it limits the satellite capacity. ENBIO’s new thermal coatings provide an opportunity for a leap forward in the performance of the satellite thermal management system, allowing more power to be put through the satellite.

 

The contract builds on the work recently completed for Neosat where ENBIO conducted early stage development on the coating, called SolarWhite. The SolarWhite coating was initially developed in collaboration with Assoc. Professor Dr. Kenneth Stanton of University College Dublin. The coating is now being used on ESA’s most advanced spacecraft, Solar Orbiter, to help protect it as it goes to orbit and study the sun.

 

This next phase of the Neosat ARTES contract is for two years, to enable ENBIO to continue its work in scaling the coating process and qualfiying it for use by European satellite manufacturers. The facility in Clonmel will be a central part of the next contract, allowing ENBIO to deliver the highest quality coatings.

 

During the ESA visit, John O’Donoghue, ENBIO’s CEO, said “We have a wonderful team in ENBIO Clonmel and Dublin that have worked incredibly hard to get us so far in such a short space of time. The support we’ve had from the Department of Jobs Enterprise & Innovation and Enterprise Ireland continues to be invaluable as we push to expand the work being done in Clonmel.”

 

 

“This is an example of how ESA’s ARTES programme helps European and Canadian industry to stay innovative in a very competitive environment. It enables SMEs and large satellite integrators to collaborate so that a technology  matches the specific needs of  telecom satellite applications” said Andreas Mauroschat, Neosat Project Manager at ESA. “Satellite communications account for two thirds of the overall space industry revenue.”

About ENBIO

 

ENBIO is an Irish SME revolutionising how metals are coated. ENBIO has developed and patented a new metal coating technology, called CoBlast, that allows metals to be coated in a single-step with high performance primers and coatings for demanding environments. ENBIO is currently strengthening its suite of strategic technical and development partners aimed at offering its CoBlast technology, equipment, consumables and support through a global network of established world-class companies, embedded across multiple industry sectors. ENBIO also offers unique protection to a suite of terrestrial applications including enhanced corrosion resistance and thermal protection for industrial applications.

 

For further information from ENBIO contact: Kevin O’Flynn, General Manager, tel: +353 1 525 3305, email: kevin.oflynn@enbio.eu

 

 

The European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities. Today it launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space. www.esa.int

 

ESA plays a critical role in developing a strong European Space programme and space industry and has been fundamental to in developing the specialised, highly innovative, industrial capabilities that exist in the Irish space sector. ESA :-

  • Provides a significant capital investment support for in-company & 3rd level RDI in leading edge space technologies for commercial exploitation in the global space and non-space markets for the SME and MNC sector.

  • Supports the Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland strategy of supporting high potential start-ups, company scaling, as well as foreign direct investment.

  • Provides prioritised support for technology innovation and technology transfer that leads to exports, sales and employment generation by Irish industry.

  • A platform to fully exploit the opportunities of the Global space market and maximise the financial return and economic impacts of Ireland’s significant financial contributions to the EU space programme budgets.

 

More details on Enterprise Ireland, managing Ireland’s investment in the European Space Agency

Enterprise Ireland co-ordinates Ireland’s industrial and research participation in the programmes of the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

 

The purpose of Ireland’s membership of ESA is to participate in European space programmes with a focus on facilitating innovative Irish companies to develop leading edge space technologies and to commercially exploit their ESA participation in global space and non-space markets, leading to increased export sales and employment.

 

Enterprise Ireland’s role in relation to ESA is to assist Irish companies to successfully bid for ESA contracts, providing expertise for Irish companies and researchers in developing and executing space strategies, as well as being a point of reference for the international space industry when they want to identify relevant sources of space-related expertise within Ireland.

 

Irish industrial and research participation in ESA covers a range of sectors and technology areas including; software, precision mechanical engineering, telecommunications, electronics, optoelectronics and advanced materials and extending to end user equipment, services and applications.

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