ComMUnion project – European Commission (Horizon 2020)

ComMUnion project – European Commission (Horizon 2020).
GRANT AGREEMENT: 680567

This Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº. 680567

ComMUnion Press Release

The ComMUnion project aims to develop a novel solution for manufacturing productive and cost effective 3D metal/CFRTs multi-material components.

ComMUnion, with application in automotive and aeronautics, will combine tape placement of CFRTs with controlled laser-assisted heating in a multi-stage robot solution.

This solution will decrease by 20% the consumption of titanium and boron steel, (costly alloys requiring critical materials).

The main objective of the ComMUnion project, “Net-shape joining technology to manufacture 3D multi-materials components based on metal alloys and thermoplastic composites”, is to develop a new solution that will enable productive and cost effective manufacturing of 3D metal/ Carbon Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastic (CFRT) multi-material components.

This solution will combine tape placement of CFRTs with controlled laser-assisted heating in a multi-stage robot solution. High-speed laser texturing and cleaning will overcome the limitations of current joining technology to provide greatest performance joints.

To carry out this purpose, ComMUnion will rely on a robot-based approach enabling on-line inspection for layer-to-layer self-adjustment of the process. Moreover, tools for multi-scale modelling, parametric offline programming, quality diagnosis and decision support will be developed under a cognitive approach to ensure interoperability and usability.

In this way, ComMUnion will address the following key innovations: texturing and cleaning based on high speed laser scanning for surface condition; high-speed spatially resolved control of surface temperature profile; multi-scale metal/CFRP modelling, self-adaptive process control, and quality diagnosis based on multimodal active imaging.

Benefits and commercialization

ComMUnion approach will decrease by 20% the consumption of titanium and boron steel, (costly alloys requiring critical materials). Besides, reinforcement of textured metallic surfaces with CFRT tapes will increase mechanical performance of multi-material components over 30% without cost increase.

Manufacturing of two pilot-cases for automotive and aeronautics will demonstrate the scalability of the joining process. It will be possible trough a consortium with a strong involvement of industrial partners (73% of which 55% are SMEs).

The outline of the business plan ensures the exploitation of the project results. With a target market of 2.000 companies and a fair estimate of 2% market penetration (5 years after the commercialization start), ComMUnion will result in 40M€/year incomes.

Contribution of NIT

NIT is responsible of developing a specific high speed IR camera for real time monitoring and controlling a laser assisted heating process used for manufacturing 3D metal / CFRT multimaterial components. NIT will contribute to develop part of the on line quality diagnosis system of ComMUnion demonstrator.

European Project funded by the H2020 Programme

The ComMUnion Project, with a total budget of 5.917.392 € and a duration of 3.5 years (Dec2015-May2019), has been funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme within the topic FoF-12-2015 – Industrial technologies for advanced joining and assembly processes for multi-materials.

ComMUnion is lead by AIMEN and it involves the participation of 14 other partners: Autotech Engineering AIE (Spain), AFPT GMBH (Germany), New Infrared Technologies SL (Spain), TECNATOM SA (Spain), Motofil Robotics SA (Portugal), Philips GmbH (Germany), Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT (Germany), Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT (Germany), LMS – University of Patras (Greece), University of Coimbra (Portugal), Missler Software (France), Aciturri Engineering SL (Spain), SYM VOULOI KAI PROIONTA LOGISMIKOU AE (Greece), LUNOVU GMBH (Germany), ESI GROUP (France).

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