Bereich: Fertigungstechnologien und Systeme / Fertigungstechnologie

Dr. Ales Hančič is the Managing Director of TECOS Slovenian Tool and Die Development Centre. He has more than 12 years of experience in research, management of R & D projects and the management of the organization. His professional career began as an assistant at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana. In 2005 he joined TECOS, initially as a young researcher, then as Director of Research and Development. In 2013 he was appointed to Managing Director of TECOS, which he still leads today. In recent years he was also complementary employed at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana and as an Associate Lecturer at the College of Polymer Technology in Slovenj Gradec, where he is also in the process for the election of the Assistant Professor.

He is an expert in the field of management of work processes, processing of polymer materials and the development of bio-composite materials. In particular he has in recent years focused on enterprise management, human resources and production processes. He has authored or co-authored more than 70 scientific and expert papers and has so far led over 20 international R & D projects (FP7, H2020, ERA-Net, EUREKA, Interreg, etc.).

Bereich: Fertigungstechnologien und Systeme / Fertigungstechnologie

Dominik Kobold is head of Project department and VET training programme at TECOS. He has more than 10 years of working experiences; more than 6 years in the R&D field and more than 5 years in the field of coordination and preparations of the R&D projects.

His profession expertise is metal casting and forming process, advanced numerical simulations of bulk metal forming and production technologies and systems optimization. He is an expert of international and national R&D funding programmes (FP, H2020, EUREKA, Interreg etc.) and he has competences for business plans, dissemination and market approaches preparation.

He is assistant and lecturer at Polymer Technology College and is author of more than 25 scientific papers. His references are proved through implementation of numerous complex industrial and international R&D projects.

Bereich: Forstwirtschaft, Holz- und Papierindustrie

Vesna Žepič obtained her Bachelor's degree in 2010 from the Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources Managament at Biotechnical Faculty, University in Ljubljana. In 2011 she joined the Development Centre TECOS as a research associate and in 2015 she received her PhD in Bioscience at the Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana.

Her working areas are chemical functionalization of lignocellulosic materials (wood, cellulose nanofibrils and nanowhiskers), study of natural fiber/polymer interface in nanocomposite materials, with a special knowledge on chemistry of lignocellulosic materials, preparation and optimisation of nanocomposite manufacturing processes and characterization techniques for determination of their properties.

She has been working as a member or coordinator on several applied R&D international and national R&D projects and she is the first author of several scientific publications and conference papers.

Bereich: Fertigungstechnologien und Systeme

Andrej Glojek is product manager of plastic and simulations. On TECOS is employed for 20 years. He is responsible for injection molding simulation (Moldflow) for the mechanical and thermal calculations (Abaqus), development of products and molds for plastics. He also carries out educations in the field of plastic materials processing (preparation for injection molding process, machine settings…), mold design and mold manufacturing of injection molding process, material testing and simulation of injection molding.

He participated in several national and international research and development projects in various fields. During the work at Tecos he is additional to plastics processing field worked also on massive forging, development of tools for forging, CNC-programming and tools and simulations for sheet metal forming.

Since 2007 he cooperates with the Faculty of polymer technology in Slovenj Gradec as a Senior Lecturer, from 2011 at the College of industrial engineering in Celje, he is also a lecturer at the Vocational College in Velenje. He is the author of several scientific and professional articles.

Bereich: Fertigungstechnologien und Systeme

Boštjan Šmuc is workshop and testing lab product leader. He has 27 years industry practice. He started as moulds designer and progressed as technologist for plastic moulding process. As a leader of plastic processing department he coordinated work between product development and production process.

Currently, he covers R&D activities in the field of complex technologies such as 2K micro moulding, MIM and LSR technology and performing consultancy service in the fields of moulds, products and injection moulding process technology development and design.

He is well-known lecturer and is sharing his great knowledge of polymer processing technologies to generations of technologists, technicians and developers in enterprises for years.

Bereich: Fertigungstechnologien und Systeme

Luka Botolin is the product leader of department for 3D optical scanning, GD&T measurement and reverses engineering – digiCEN inside the TECOS R&D centre. Altogether has over the 15 years of working experiences.

He has been engaged in the digiCEN since 2003 when TECOS as the firs institution in Slovenia introduced 3D-optical scanner GOM ATOS (currently we operate with third generation of the optical scanning system). He is expert for advanced 3D-modeling and operates with different special software tools for reverse engineering: CopyCAD, TEBIS, Geomagic, GD&T industrial measuring: GOM Inspect and CAD modelling: Simens Nx and Ideas.

Parallel to implementation of R&D industrial projects he occasionally lectures at Polymer Technology College, College of Industrial Engineering and ACADEMIA. Previously he was also involved in conducting numerous international and national R&D projects and was at the beginning of his professional carrier active in the field of bulk metal forging and Al and Mg alloys casting.

Bereich: Mechanik / Numerische Modellierung

Anton Kočar is the development engineer, responsible for injection moulding simulations and structural FEM analyses. He has 1 year of working experiences, new relevant experiences he gaining with solving everyday real industrial problems.

His profession expertise covers the processes of injection moulding and advanced computational numerical simulations of injection moulding in software package Moldflow Insight and structural FEM analyses in software package Abaqus CAE. He significantly contributes to the development of new product and tools, as well as the production optimization. He has also experiences in design of new products. His references and experiences are proved through numerous successfully solved industrial projects.

Bereich: Mehanik / Numerische modellierung

Matej Žnidaršič is a development engineer, responsible for structural FEM analyzes. As a new member of the TECOS team, his experiences are obtained by solving everyday industrial problems.

He has more than 6 years of working experiences as a graduate civil engineer, of which 5 years in the field of road design.

His professional field covers structural FEM analyses in Abaqus CAE software package.

Bereich: Werkstoffe / Polymerwerkstoffe

Samo Gazvoda is the Technical director (CTO) of the TECOS development department since 2005. He is responsible for leading the team, work coordination and acquisition of business management. He cooperates at strategic developing of TECOS and also manages industrial projects.

Professionally, he works especially with product development, 3D scanning and reverse engineering. He has good overview of rapid prototyping and tool making technologies. He has also management skills and experiences with implementation of R&D work within national and international R&D projects.

He is lecturer at Polymer Technology College and is author of more than 10 scientific articles published in different scientific conferences and journals.

Bereich: Systeme und Kybernetik / Kenntnisse über Systeme und Systemleitung

Dragan Kusić is the head of mechatronics department and member of the British Institute of Measurement and Control. He has more than 7 years of working experience in the field of management and implementation of national and international R&D projects. He deals with the development of innovative control and monitoring solutions, which are intended for plastics-processing industry.

He possesses rich practical experience in the field of controlling injection moulding machines, smart tools and industrial manipulators, optimization of injection moulding process, polymer testing (thermoplastics, thermosets, MIM, etc.), non-destructive testing, development of embedded systems, sensors and actuators, as well as the design, installation and management of systems that are intended for automated industrial processes.

He is a lecturer (in the fields of electrical engineering and mechatronics) at the Faculty of Polymer Technologyand is the author of over 40 scientific and professional articles and owner of one patent.

Bereich: Elektronische Bauelemente und Technologien / Optoelektronik

Kurzer Lebenslauf folgt demnächst.

Bereich: Energetik / Erneuerbare Rohstoffe und Technologien

Matej Vurcer is a development engineer at the TECOS CAE and digitalization department. He graduated at University of Maribor Faculty for Mechanical Engineering. He has 7 years working experiences in field of constructing machines and appliances, executing complex projects and welding process control.

He is specialist for product development, modeling and designing, 3D scanning, metrology, geometry measurements (GD&T) and reverse engineering. He also lectures 3D scanning, reversed engineering and geometry measurements.

Bereich: Wirtschaft

Tanja Ferleš at TECOS works as a researcher in economic areas since 2006, the total has over 15 years of experience.

Her main activities are carried out within the framework of the project department and vet training. She is responsible for the reports' preparation; she monitors the commitment and administration of research and development projects. She covers a variety of national and international programs such as ARRS, SPIRIT, MIZS and MGRT and international FP, Horizon 2020, Eureka, OP SI-AT, etc.

She was involved in the implementation of a number of complex projects and has acted as a coordinator of cross-border SI-AT Interreg project Polyregion Pro.Act and Erasmus + ECOSIGN project. She is also the coordinator of the International Conference ICIT and she has organized also various consultations, roundtables and B2B events.

Bereich: Wirtschaftswissenschaft

Natalija Potočnik has worked at the project department for over 12 years. Her work is dedicated to study new project applications, as well as administrative management of the project (financial reporting, administrative support, etc.). She works as a researcher on the field of economics and she covers national and international projects/calls.

She compiles and processes data for management and accounting. Her scope of work includes communication with banks, ministries and other institutions, which are required to report and prepare data.