This project will focus on the development of technologies and methodologies which have the potential to save costs and time across the whole life cycle of the aircraft (design, production, maintenance, overhaul, repair and retrofit), including for certification aspects. Moreover it will also target the integration of additional functions or materials in structural components of the aircraft, the increased use of automation. The first proposed step is the introduction of the γ-TiAl alloy, a well known promising advanced material for aerospace applications and a revolutionary manufacturing technology. Its specific stiffness and strength, as compared to its low weight, potentially leads to large weight savings (50%), and therefore lower mechanical loads on thermomechanical stressed parts, compared to the common Ni based superalloys. The integration of new material and new manufacturing technology will positively impact several aspects of the manufacturing and maintenance chain, starting from the design, the production, the repair). The aim of this project is twofold: - On one side the work will be focused on the development and integration at industrial of a IPR protected gas atomization process for producing TiAl powders, whose properties must be highly stable from batch to batch. Thanks to the stability of the chemical and granulometric properties of the powders, the application of the Rapid Manufacturing technique to the production of TiAl components will be economically affordable. While this technique is by now well-known, its main drawback resides in the scarce quality of the starting powders. - The other main drawback for the wide industrial application of TiAl components is the integrated optimisation of all the machining steps, that means the setting up of machine tool characteristics and parameters, cutting tool geometry, substrate and coating materials, advanced lubrication technologies.

AMATHO (A.dditive MA.nufacturing T.iltrotor HO.using) is aimed to design, assess and manufacture a novel tiltrotor drive system housing exploiting the features of additive manufacturing techniques. Preliminarily, functional, structural and technological peculiarities of rotorcraft main gearbox housings are analysed and relevant requirements are issued. In the meantime, viable AM processes are reviewed, on the basis of specific suitability, technological potential and degree of maturity. In particular, powder feed direct energy deposition techniques (Direct Laser Deposition - DLD) and powder bed fusion techniques (Selective Laser Melting - SLM and Electron Beam Meelting - EBM) are considered. The powder precursors are investigated as well, in terms of chemical nature (magnesium, aluminium, titanium alloy, stainless steel), particles granulometry and morphology. Static, fatigue, fracture mechanics, damage tolerance, corrosion endurance, chemical compatibility, machinability, weldability and heat-treatability testing are worked out and final trade-off process accomplished for choosing optimal materials and processes. Characterisation methodologies and NDI techniques are assessed as well. In addition to test activity on dedicated specimens, smaller, but fully representative, full-scale gearbox housing components (to be considered as proof of concept) are manufactured through the traded-off technologies and tested to check the compliance with general functional aspects of r/c drive system housing. In parallel, design rules and methodologies for detail design, optimisation and structural substantiation of AM components are defined and supporting numerical tools are set-up. Full-scale housing is manufactured and structural and functional tests are performed to support flight clearance on the NextGenCTR Demonstrator and procedures (engineering cost and industrial capability assessment) for the start-up of high-volume production are defined

Borealis project presents an advanced concept of machine for powder deposition additive manufacturing and ablation processes that integrates 5 AM technologies in a unique solution. The machine is characterized by a redundant structures constituted by a large portal and a small PKM enabling the covering of a large range of working cube and a pattern of ejective nozzles and hybrid laser source targeting a deposition rate of 2000cm3/h with 30 sec set-up times. The machine is enriched with a software infrastructure which enable a persistent monitoring and in line adaptation of the process with zero scraps along with number of energy and resource efficiency optimization policies and harvesting systems which make the proposed solution the less environmental invasive in the current market. Borealis idea results from a consortium composed by the excellence of developers of worldwide recognized laser machines and advanced material processing together with the highly precision and flexible mechatronic designers. These two big clusters decided to join their expertise and focus on new manufacturing challenges coming from complex product machining in the field of aerospace, medtech and automotive represented by major partners in the market. Borealis project targets a TRL 6 and will provide as outcome of three years work two complete Borealis machine in two dimensions – a lab scale machine and a full size machine – which are foreseen to be translated into industrial solution by 2019.

The objective of MARKET4.0 is to define, develop and validate an open multi-sided marketplace, based on a trusted P2P data sharing infrastructure for Industry 4.0, that brings together Industrial Product Service Systems (IPSS) providers (supply side) and OEMs as their customers (demand side). It will allow direct interaction among the different sides to improve the sales power of production equipment SMEs. MARKET4.0 will offer advanced web-presence of production equipment SMEs extended by functionalities such as simulations, VR/AR capabilities and a P2P (Industrial Data Space) offering smart user-services and a secure API to try and test the Digital Twin of the production equipment, on top supplier and customer data. This will facilitate direct transactions between market peers (supplier-to-supplier, supplier-to-customer, customer-to-suppliers and more) during the entire B2B lifecycle, i.e. from equipment search to procurement and commissioning. MARKET4.0 will create trust in the business transactions between SME production equipment manufacturers and their customers, as an integral element of the Industrial Data Space (IDS) reference architecture. It includes technological trust (simulation before purchasing), financial trust (Blockchain distributed ledger technology for secure payment), delivery and (anonymized) feedback. In MARKET4.0 the supply side (mainly SMEs) may offer a) production equipment, b) services that extend the capabilities of the production equipment, c) production equipment as a service and d) collaborative engineering services. The marketplace will generate additional value by providing engineering services and acting as a mediator between suppliers and customers.

The European manufacturing industry faces new challenges, which are currently not addressed by today’s products and systems. Most of the products are still in essence ‘simple’ in nature, with no capability for adapting to the consumers’ needs and no integrated methods exist for the holistic acquisition and processing of feedback information emanating from product-services. ICP4Life proposes an integrated, collaborative platform for the design, development and support of product-service systems for SMEs, equipment manufacturers and energy suppliers in order to maximize the impact in the European industry. The proposed platform comprises of three main components. The first component demonstrates a collaborative web-based application for the creation and management of products and services by engineers and designers of multiple disciplines. The second component is a Product-Service configuration tool for customers, enabling the easy and intuitive formation of Products and Services. The same component will be used for managing product related data pertaining to the manufacturer, supplier and the customer. The third component will support the efficient, adaptive and responsive planning and decision making phases, for managing the dynamic operation of the plants and the supply chain. All the components will be compatible with open standards, such as AutomationML, in order to make the most out of and accelerate the adoption by the European industry. The ICP4Life project will address the current needs of today’s manufacturers, providing faster design of modular equipment and components, the seamless collaboration of engineers across a wider network of companies as well as within a single company with disperse engineering offices and production sites and the reuse of knowledge regarding both products and processes for new projects or the configuration of existing lines. The ICP4Life consortium consists of highly skilled organizations to ensure the success of this project.