The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM, President Ryu Seok-hyun), under the Ministry of Science and ICT, has taken steps to establish a foundation for research cooperation with Eastern Europe and to support domestic companies' entry into the European machinery industry market.

On the 20th, the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) signed a five-party cooperation MOU in the precision machinery sector with the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), TGS (TGS Tools-Machines-Technological Services), a Czech power plant parts processing company, the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology Planning and Evaluation (KEIT, President Jeon Yun-jong), and SMEC (CEO Choi Young-seop), a domestic machine tool manufacturer, in Prague, Czech Republic.

Through this agreement, we plan to jointly develop the digital transformation of equipment and processes and AI autonomous manufacturing technology for the manufacture of turbine components for generators and aircraft engines, for which demand has recently increased.

Turbine components such as blades, blisks, and impellers require high-end precision machining equipment and advanced digital machining technology due to the characteristics of difficult-to-machine materials and complex shapes.

The Czech Technical University (CTU) is a leading research group in the fields of digital twins for machinery and intelligent machining processes, possessing world-class technology in simulation-based intelligent machining of turbine components. The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) and the Research Center for Manufacturing Technology (RCMT) of the Czech Technical University have been cooperating in the machine tool sector for over 10 years since 2014. By expanding this cooperation to the industrial sector, they have also been able to drive the entry of TGS, a local Czech machine tool solution company, and SMEC, a leading domestic company in the machine tool sector, into the Eastern European market for equipment used in machining and repairing generator turbine blades.

In addition, on the 20th, the Institute of Machinery and Materials signed a bilateral MOU with the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU) for research cooperation regarding the development of ultrashort laser light sources and semiconductor and secondary battery processes using lasers.

FZU is a specialized physics research institute under the Czech Academy of Sciences established in 1954, consisting of five research divisions. Among them, the High Power Laser Research Center (HiLASE) is particularly at the forefront of research on high-power ultrashort laser light sources, and in 2022, it succeeded in developing the world's first ultrashort laser with a pulse energy of 95 J (the highest output currently in existence). We have continuously conducted Korea-Czech international joint research in the field of ultrashort lasers with the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials.

In addition, KIMM President Ryu Seok-hyun and his research team attended the '2024 Korea-Czech Industry and Energy Tech Forum,' held on the 20th under the auspices of the Korean and Czech Ministries of Industry and the Korea Institute for Industrial Technology Advancement (KIAT), and discussed the details of technology cooperation between the two countries with major Czech universities and research institutions.

Ryu Seok-hyun, President of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM), stated, “The signing of this cooperation agreement with the Czech Republic will go beyond existing precision machinery technology cooperation and lead to the development of high-end equipment and the strengthening of autonomous manufacturing solution capabilities by domestic companies that have grown several stages based on digital twins.” He added, “We will continue to broaden the scope of mutually beneficial cooperation with domestic companies hoping to enter the Eastern European market and expand the global influence of ‘K-Machine,’ led by KIMM.”