The Airframe ITD aims at re-thinking and developing the technologies as building blocks and the “solution space” on the level of the entire or holistic aircraft: pushing aerodynamics across new frontiers, combining and integrating new materials and structural techniques – and integrating innovative new controls and propulsion architectures with the airframe; and optimizing this against the challenges of weight, cost, life-cycle impact and durability.

The aeronautic industry is constantly striving to reduce the aircraft operating costs, increase their payload and reduce the environmental impact during the whole life of the product. Metallurgy has played a key role in the development of aviation. With the use of light alloys, as aluminium and magnesium, new applications have been found to apply these to fastly improve existing designs. The disadvantage of using these materials is that they are particularly susceptible to corrosion. Environmental degradation is a limiting factor for magnesium–aluminium (Mg–Al) alloys in outdoor applications. An effective way to protect alloys from fast degradation or reduce to the degradation rate is surface treatment. Hexavalent chromium has served as the primary means of corrosion protection in the aircraft industry since 1936 and allowed for the distinctive bare-metal finishes of the World War II era. Hexavalent chromium is a known carcinogen, with the major route of exposure through inhalation of vapours or dust. The chromates are among the current chemicals for which industrial users must find substitutes, or request authorisation from EU regulators to continue their use. In the case of chromium trioxide and the acids, the application deadline is March 2016 and the “sunset” date for the substances is September 2017. Therefore, there is an urgent need facing the aerospace industry to replace the conventional corrosion inhibitor, hexavalent chromium. Regulatory and market drivers are motivating a global effort in the aerospace industry to replace hexavalent chromium-containing materials with hexavalent chromium-free alternatives for various applications. ALMAGIC project is focused on solving the aforementioned problematic by validating the developed innovative alternatives to chromium(VI) coatings for aluminium and magnesium alloys. ALMAGIC will ensure the developed solutions comply with the REACH regulations, while all quality standards are met.

BACKGROUND / NEED: There is a requirement to improve the sustainability of organic coatings by removal of materials hazardous to human health and by optimal use of raw materials and energy in manufacture and utilisation. AIM / OBJECTIVES: SUSTICOAT is a multidisciplinary project advancing understanding of how to improve the sustainability of organic coatings (paints) for corrosion protection to market applications. SUSTICOAT will make the connection between the scientific understanding and the production of real organic coatings, dealing with the complex issues that are involved in translating scientific concepts into new products. The objective of the project is to train 5 PhD students in both the innovation process required to go from scientific concept to commercial product and in a range of specific scientific skills: computational modelling, polymer synthesis, advanced characterisation, material science and chemical process engineering. TRAINING / RESEARCH: The training will be setup so that while each student will focus on a particular application area where they will be trained in the critical scientific skills they need, and with the other students they will have access through collaboration to a far wider range of expertise, such collaboration will be encouraged through the course of the project with specific training and opportunities to interact. SUSTICOAT by concentrating on realisation of scientific knowledge in real applications will give the students a unique set of skills in the translation of knowledge from academic to industrial use, this will be reinforced by appropriate academic and industrial training. IMPACT: SUSTICOAT combines the leading academic centre of corrosion science with the largest European manufacturer of corrosion protection coatings – providing world class science combined with market focus to address challenges with the most societal impact. SUSTICOAT will improve products and provide 5 skilled scientists to a €10b market.

The Airframe ITD aims at re-thinking and developing the technologies as building blocks and the “solution space” on the level of the entire or holistic aircraft: pushing aerodynamics across new frontiers, combining and integrating new materials and structural techniques – and integrating innovative new controls and propulsion architectures with the airframe; and optimizing this against the challenges of weight, cost, life-cycle impact and durability.

VIPCOAT will establish an ontology-based Open Innovation Platform form the development of inhibiting, active protective coatings and corresponding accelerator tests for assessing their in-service durability. The aim is to assist engineers in coating industry in developing coating materials and to advice accelerated test scenarios for their durability based on standardized simulation workflows. While initially, VIPCOAT will target the aeronautic industry, the Open Innovation Platform will develop interoperable Apps, based on standardized ontologies as extensions of the European Materials Modelling Ontology, which will allow for cross industry fertilization. The main target for interoperability and even integration, will be the emerging Open Translation Environments, Materials Modelling Market Place and Business Decision Support Systems currently being developed broadly in H2020-LEIT-NMBP projects. The Quadruple Helix Innovation Model will be used for VIPCOAT project implementation, development and utilization. The open innovations process will be realized by active interrelations between manufacturing industry, universities and research institutions, local government and civil participants. Business decision will be based on multi-criteria optimization approach to ensure more rapid and effective decision-making processes of selecting, designing and manufacturing of coating materials for active corrosion protection. The VIPCOAT platform will open the door for new production concepts with reduced process steps, lower consumption of energy and reduced natural resource utilization (water, raw materials). Moreover, the modelling supported coating design and manufacturing process will promote the development of a green technology for protective coatings, thereby promoting cheap and efficient approaches for corrosion inhibition. The new alternative environment-friendly inhibitors will support health on manufacturing staff by improving the manufacturing working conditions.