Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming TechnologyThe Fraunhofer IWU is a partner in and coordinates a number of EU projects.
EU-Projects
BIOntier – BreakIng frontiers in sustainable and circular bio-composites with high performance for multi-sector applications
BIOntier offers innovative solutions to environmental challenges and establishes a holistic, integrated, and industrial-driven platform for the design, development, and scalable fabrication of the next generation of cost-effective, sustainable, lightweight, recyclable biobased composites with enhanced properties (e.g. thermal, mechanical, chemical), functionalities (e.g. corrosion, chemical and fire resistance, hardness and impact resistance, high temperature resistance, structural health monitoring).
ZEvRA – Zero-emission electric vehicles enabled by harmonised circularitys
ZEvRA's main objective is to improve the circularity of light-duty EVs throughout their entire value chain, from materials supply and manufacturing to end-of-life (EoL) processes, which aligns with the European Union's goal of achieving zero CO2e emissions by 2035, particularly in the EV value chain.
RaRe2 – Human-centred rapid reconfiguration of production and value chain in fast-changing scenarios
RaRe2 will help make the European manufacturing landscape sustainably robust to unexpected market change, sudden disruption, legal change, or every kind of crisis and changing scenario including climate and weather related. RaRe2 will enable the generation of a green wave that will early detect an upcoming issue, alert the decision maker, quickly propose simulations about potential new destinations (adjacent reasonable sectors and products), new routes (how to produce it, with internal reconfiguration and supply chain involvement), the plan to put the change in place, the expected speed of each connected node of the new route, robustness.
MODUL4R – Industrial manufacturing strategies for distributed control and resilient, rapidly responsive and reconfigurable supply chains
MODUL4R envisions reliable, maintainable, affordable, (re)usable, and changeable SME-friendly autonomous modular factories and supply chains, able to manufacture new product in low-volumes and rapidly respond to unexpected events as well as the overall supply chain. MODUL4R will be demonstrated in specialized mould manufacturing for the automotive sector, CPPS for flexible & modular assembly of PCBs, and tools manufacturing for the aerospace.
H2GLASS – Advancing hydrogen (H2) technologies and smart production systems to decarbonise the glass and aluminium sectors
H2GLASS aims to create the technology stack that glass manufacturers need to (a) realize 100% H2 combustion in their production facilities, (b) ensure the required product quality, and (c) manage this safely. H2GLASS will address the challenges related to NOx emissions and high flame propagation speed, process efficiency, and supply of H2 for on-site demonstrations.
BILASURF – Bio-inspired laser functionalization of complex 3D industrial surfaces
BILASURF aims at developing and integrating a process for high-rate laser functionalization of complex 3D surfaces using tailored designed bio inspired riblets to reduce friction and improve the environmental footprint of industrial parts, assuring a high throughput with the help of inline monitoring capabilities.
RECREATE – Recycling technologies for circular reuse and remanufacturing of fiber-reinforced composite materials
The general objective of the RECREATE project is to develop a set of innovative technologies aimed at exploiting the potential of End-of-
Life (EoL) complex composite waste as feedstock for profitable reuse of parts and materials in the manufacturing industry.
SALIENT – Novel concepts for safer, lighter, circular and smarter vehicle structure design for enhanced crashworthiness and higher compatibility
The long-term aim for SALIENT is to make our roads safer and reduce serious injuries and fatalities. To reach this ambition, SALIENT will present novel structural and vehicle concepts that are safer, lighter, circular, and smarter, which can be adapted to accommodate different crash scenarios.
MARBEL - Manufacturing and assembly of modular and re-usable EV batteries for environmentally-friendly and lightweight mobility
To accelerate the mass-market uptake of electric vehicles, the main aim of MARBEL is to develop, manufacture and validate a competitive lightweight battery with increased energy density and shorter recharging times while attending its cooling needs and other safety-related issues such as crashworthiness. Sustainable dismantling, 2nd life applications and Life Cycle Analysis will also be addressed.
ECOFACT - Eco-innovative energy factory management system based on enhanced LCA and LCCA towards resource-efficient manufacturing
The main objective of ECOFACT is to develop and demonstrate up to TRL 7 an ECO-innovative Energy Factory Management platform based on improved dynamic LCA and LCCA towards holistic manufacturing sustainability. Focus is on the effective combination of ICTs for advanced data collection and processing, which enables a streamlined decision-making process within the production chain, also enhancing interoperability and flexibility to maximize the replication, upscaling and standardization potential within different plant sizes and manufacturing sectors.
LEVEL-UP - Protocols and strategies for extending the useful life of major capital investments and large industrial equipment
Europe is still lacking an efficient systemic multi-level approach that enables a recursive, cost-effective, holistic and integrated application of circular principles to the digital uplifting of factory 4.0 capital investments; addressing issues at product, process, system as well as the entire value-chain levels, integrating best practices from emerging enabling digital technologies and avoid a two speed digital transformation across industries in different sectors. LEVEL-UP will offer a scalable platform covering the overall lifecycle, ranging from the digital twins setup, modernisation actions to diagnose and predict the operation of physical assets, to the refurbishment and remanufacturing activities towards end of life. In-situ repair technologies and the redesign for new upgraded components will be facilitated through virtual simulations for increased performance and lifetime.
ECO DRIVE - Noise and vibration in eco-efficient powertrains
ECO DRIVE will develop new technologies for the testing and simulation of eco-powertrains, addressing the complex challenges related to combustion noise, the irritating sound from electric motors, transmission-induced NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) and driveline torsional vibrations, leading to new designs with improved eco-efficiency and NVH performance. The project offers a multi-disciplinary research-training program to the ESRs, with the ultimate aim being to create a new generation of NVH professionals for the transport sector.
GeoUS - Geothermal Energy in Special Underground Structures
GeoUS will support increased research excellence in geothermal energy at VSB -Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic, through close cooperation with Fraunhofer IWU, Germany and University of Vaasa, Finland. The ultimate goal is the development of multi-disciplinary research and innovation skills in the Czech Republic, focused on the fundamental and practical aspects of developing geothermal as a sustainable energy source. GeoUS will enable VSB-TUO to expand its network with leading research organisations in geothermal energy. It also involves young researchers to support future development of research activities impacting in the Moravia Region in line with the Regional and National Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization (RIS3 Strategy) and ESIF targets.
TRINITY - Digital technologies, advanced robotics and increased cyber-security for agile production in future european manufacturing ecosystems
The main objective of TRINITY is to create a network of multidisciplinary and synergistic local digital innovation hubs (DIHs) composed of research centers, companies, and university groups that cover a wide range of topics that can contribute to agile production: advanced robotics as the driving force and digital tools, data privacy and cyber security technologies to support the introduction of advanced robotic systems in the production processes.
Finished projects
CarE-Service - Circular Economy Business Models for innovative hybrid and electric mobility through advanced reuse and remanufacturing technologies and services
The project will demonstrate new enabling technologies and services to systematically perform innovative reuse and remanufacturing of Electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid cars as key-processes to provide value to customers and, at the same time, to minimise environmental impact.
FLOIM - Flexible Optical Injection Moulding of optoelectronic devices
FLOIM will develop an automated process for optical assembly of optoelectronic devices, based on optical quality injection overmoulding. The technology aims to simplify the assembly routes for heterogeneously integrated optoelectronics, with drastic cost reduction, high productivity and improved device performance.
Sharework - Safe and effective Human-Robot cooperation towards a better competiveness on current automation lack manufacturing processes
The project's main objective is to endow an industrial work environment of the necessary »intelligence« and methods for the effective adoption of Human Robot Collaboration (HRC) with not fences.
FormPlanet - Sheet metal forming testing hub
The aim of FormPlanet is to develop and demonstrate an integrated ecosystem offering novel testing methodologies to characterise sheet metal properties, predict part performance and prevent production loses to the sheet forming industries to tackle the upcoming challenges in formability of processing-sensitive materials. New testing methodologies, and FE approaches to predict formability and part performance as well as monitoring and inspecting NDT will be developed and adapted to the sector needs.
FiberEUse - Large-scale demonstration of new circular economy value-chains based on the reuse of end-of-life fiber reinforced composites
The project’s theme entails large-scale demonstration of new circular economy value-chains based on the reuse of end-of-life fiber reinforced composites. The FiberEUse project aims to integrate different innovation actions desgined to enhance composite recycling profitability and reuse in value-added products.
Fit-4-AMandA - Future European Fuel Cell Technology: Fit for Automatic Manufacturing and Assembly
The main target of this project is to industrialize fuel cell stack production to deliver affordable fuel cell systems in larger quantities. The project team will build a unique machine which, for the first time, allows serial production of the center piece of a fuel cell system: the stack.
JOIN’EM: Joining of Copper to Aluminium by Electromagnetic Fields
The JOIN’EM project addresses current shortcomings of more traditional welding technologies when joining dissimilar metal combinations and it aims to create a cost-effective and practical way of joining aluminium and copper.
FaBiMed: Fabrication and Functionalization of BioMedical Microdevices
The aim of FaBiMed was to improve and develop new manufacturing techniques, based on micromoulding, specific for biomedical microdevices.
FOCUS
Creating clusters of Factories of the Future project activities, according to their objectives and addressed themes, is an effective way to enhance the impact of FoF projects.
REEMAIN: Resource and Energy Efficient Manufacturing
REEMAIN combined cutting edge knowledge and experience from production processes, energy simulation software tools, energy and resource planning and renewable energy and storage to develop and demonstrate a methodology and platform likely to boost the efficiency of both energy and material resources.
iMAIN: Novel Decision Support System for Intelligent Maintenance in Forming Presses
iMain project was an FP7 project supported by EU with 3 433 448 Euro funding (ID 314304). The project had a duration of 36 months and has started on 1st of September 2012. For the success of the project 8 partners from 4 European countries worked together.