This saying holds for sure. Although some might say that we are learning all life, it is our youth when we are the most susceptible for new things. In the early youth, most of us had completely different wishes and ideas about what we were going to be when we grow up. We saw ourselves as engineers, chemists, engine drivers…, and we wound up among economists, organisers, lawyers… Whose fault is it?

The answer is evident – our society. It is our society that doesn’t value technical professions enough, more precisely until the economy starts experiencing a chronic lack of human resources. But at that time, it is usually already too late. We have lost a number of generations and if we continue in this way, our development will die off due to the lack of fresh blood and fresh ideas. There will be no innovators.
We must forget the illusion of importing knowledge in this time of free movement of capital and goods. We will not import it because we cannot. Other countries are faced with similar troubles, countries with more developed economies than ours that will always be willing to pay more than we for suitable human resources.

Truth hurts. But it will hurt even more if we don’t act quickly. We must present technics to children as early as possible. Some will learn to love it pretty quickly.

Modern parents don’t do very much for future engineers in the early youth. I can only applaud to those who buy Lego bricks to their youngsters, and I bow to anyone who acquaint their offspring with technically advanced hobbies, such as model building.

The battle is won in the elementary school. Due to a lack of technical subjects and extra-curricular activities, the society loses most potential engineers and technicians already in the elementary school. Experience shows it is too late for conversion later; the boys start to get interested in girls and education becomes a secondary occupation.

Before you wave it off and say nothing can be done in this respect, you have to ask yourself if it is really so. Your voice counts as much as any other voice. The more persons share the same view, the easier it will be to introduce more technical subjects into secondary schools, where they belong. Economy will be grateful, too. Namely, mastering modern technologies is one of the key competitive advantages of advanced companies.

Darko Švetak
IRT3000 Editor-In-Chief

From the content

Interview: Rector of the University of Ljubljana, prof. dr. Andreja Kocijančičn

Automation and informatisation:

More than one million industrial robots are operating in the world, and their number is rapidly increasing. Most of them are located in industrial facilities. European Union projects are based on the development of new and cheaper robots for SMEs. The purpose of the project is to make the robots interesting to a wider circle of users.

Thematic unit:

At the beginning of May, a new modern PVD-coating unit CemeCon CC800/9 sinOx ML was installed at the Jožef Stefan Institute Hard coatings centre. The value of investment (purchasing the device and all corresponding infrastructure) was almost one million Euro. The new device, which enables the applying of latest PVD hard coatings in the form of nanocomposites and nanolayers, will be used for R&D work and to service the industry.

Sonja Sara Lunder, photo Blaž Košak

Gorenje Orodjarna, d.o.o., a company owned 100 % by the affiliated group Gorenje, has been a part of Gorenje from its founding in 1956. 15 years ago, it separated from the parent firm to become its daughter company. This important anniversary was marked by a strategic investment in a new manufacturing facility and infrastructural technological equipment, making it possible to manufacture even more complex tools for demanding customers in automotive industry and household appliances industry. The toolshop develops, manufactures, distributes and maintains sheet metal forming tools, injection moulds, moulds for thermoforming and Styrofoam packaging, as well as measuring systems for control and testing of functional and safety characteristics of various devices.

The modern way of life dictates the need for rapid manufacturing of products, with an emphasis on the repeatability and reduction of machining time. In order to achieve repeatability, it is first necessary to remove the human factor, best with process automation. For reasons of flexibility and adaptation, automation and control is more and more often realised with computer-controlled machines and devices, the advantage being a good and quick adaptability in the process of manufacturing of various products. This triggered an intense development of technologies and computers, the main components of said devices. The building of computer-controlled machines is more and more present and accessible, mainly due to modular design.

GORENJE Orodjarna, d. o. o., Velenje 

Vojko Andrejašič

Dr. Igor Drstvenšek

Rapid Prototyping is a term that has been used for the last 20 years in connection with so-called additive technologies. This time period has been relatively short and the industry’s awareness of their use is still quite poor, but it is becoming evident that additive technologies are introducing a new industrial revolution.

Sonja Sara Lunder, photo: Gregor Eržen

We often hear at various events from the representatives of the government, scientific and R&D institutions or industry about the importance of connecting knowledge and real-life practice in common solving of complex problems that are arising in the economy every day. It seems that all the involved parties want more of such cooperation, but this is apparently not the case. The University invested a lot of effort during the last years to strengthen such cooperation, only to notice quite soon that there is almost no response from the economy and that industry rarely seeks help for solving problems from the University of Ljubljana. Our interviewee, rector of the University of Ljubljana prof. dr. Andreja Kocijančič, stresses that university is successful in solving different problems and that the main strength of university is its ability to look at a problem from different angles.

Dr. Tomaž Perme

Compressed air is an important energy carrier in almost any production hall or workshop, especially when used for pneumatic drives and pneumatic tools as part of automated systems. The efficiency and reliability of modern machines and devices using pneumatic energy for operation depends more and more on the supply and quality of compressed air.


Non-metals: