During the whole project, the following results were achieved:
A fully robotized multi-stage joining cell was placed in a relevant industrial scenario: AUTOTECH facilities. This cell will continue being updated and running trials beyond the project. This cell can operate with components belonging to other industries like aeronautics.
A highly efficient surface consisting in reproducible undercut structures was obtained using a scan speed of 20m/s with a robotized texturing head, allowing perfect structural joints between metals and TPCs (> 10MPa).
A flexible lay-up head capable of working in an out-of-autoclave process with 3 different tapes and/or up to 50 mm width one was built. The head is assisted by high power infrared laser sources (VCSELs) with a flexible configuration supported with an MWIR camera for Tª monitoring & real control with a speed of 10KHz and sensitive in a wide range of temperatures 200 – 2000 ºC.
Dual-Quality Diagnosis System (QDS) with bespoke software: in-line surface inspection based on combined speckle/vision technologies and active thermography for the on-line inspection on tape lay-up defects. With this QDS a self-adjustment of the process parameters can be done.
The mechanical behaviour at macro scale based on simulations at micro scale level was predicted to optimise product design and manufacturing.
Off-line systems (enriched CAD/CAM & DSS) were created and tested. CAD/CAM allows an intelligent management of the manufacturing cell fed by the simulation data and corrected through the SAE powered by a dual stage quality NDT system, while DSS was implemented to support the design based on an intelligent data exchange between steps.
Using TPCs tapes, the assembly/disassembly capability for multi-materials was demonstrated through a simulation software which was integrated with the DSS to incorporate a Circular Economy strategy along with the concepts of reusability and recyclability in a manufacturing line.
The results were reported in almost 100 dissemination/exploitation activities, like conferences, fairs, open access papers, and standardization/clustering/training actions, with a good balance between industry and academy. On the other hand, a continuous updating of results in the main platforms (web, EFFRA, ZENODO, social media) pursued a mainstream reach for the target audiences during the project and beyond. Also, proper exploitation strategies were set to ensure the commercial or industrial results use for the benefit of the project partners, and in a larger extent, for an effective impact in EU.
