An all composite tool for the manufacturing of winglet pairs will be designed and manufactured. The tool will be self heated. Separate cavities will be fed by a single injection system, ensuring identical quality and dimensional tolerances for both winglets.

The FLEX proposal answers to the scope of JTI-CS2-2017-CfP07-AIR-01-33 call on the topic “Flexible RTM tool concept for composites with spring back adjustments capabilities”. The high-level challenge FLEX project will be addressing is to develop the next generation RTM tooling that can be easily adjusted to account for part spring back effect. The main aim of the project will be to design an RTM tooling system that will feature decreased lead times and increased productivity. It will feature a novel distortion compensation capability based on actively changing the mould shape. The process is driven by accurate modelling of the spring back effects thanks to simulation of the phenomenon by analytical surrogate models. The mould will feature automation procedures in every production step. Areas of investigation will be the preform/fibre placement, the resin injection process and mould cleaning. It will also feature an advanced monitoring system that will offer unparallel quality assurance. The technologies will be initially demonstrated on a small scale mould that will feature all complexities of a real production piece. The final tool will be built according to the specification of the Topic Manager, verified for compliance and functionality and delivered to its premises. Overall, FLEX will advance its technologies from TRL3 up to TRL5 and potentially reach TRL6. Within the project, the integrated system (tooling and technologies) will be developed and validated in relevant environment, thus TRL5 will be achieved upon its completion. The Call requires, the delivery of the demonstrator at the Topic Manager premises, so that TR6 will be achieved post- project within the Airframe ITD.

CoPropel puts forth a holistic approach towards the realisation of marine propellers made of advanced composite materials. Compared to their traditional counterparts, marine composite propellers offer efficiency gains in propulsion efficiency, noise reduction and weight savings. The CoPropel project will see an interdisciplinary team of experts drawn both from research and industry, from theoretical considerations and numerical modelling to precision manufacturing - assembly and experimental verification testing. The CoPropel action brings together 9 organisations from 5 countries: 4 Research Institutes – TWI, University of Ioannina, Brunel University London and The Bulgarian Ship Hydrodynamics Centre; 4 Industrial partners – Loiretech, MECA, Danaos and Glafcos Marine with one certification body Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore. Together, we will develop and bring to market a marine composite propeller with an embedded structural health monitoring system. The proposed activities will mature our Technology Readiness Level to 5-6 and drastically de-risk the integration of the investigated solutions on future products, effectively resulting in reducing the direct operating costs for the operators while minimising the environmental impact. Existing work by the partners has shown an approximate 12% reduction in energy consumption and subsequent fuel consumption, with the potential savings exceeding 15% at full-scale marine vessel propellers, which will be investigated and confirmed during our real-time sea trials as part of the CoPropel project.

SIMUTOOL will develop a simulation platform for the manufacturing of composites through microwave MW heating. The simulation will include the electromagnetic field coupled with heat transfer mechanisms that take place during the production process. It will also include the process control loop which will enable the optimum design of the manufacturing process One of the major outputs of the simulation platform will be the successful design of a ceramic matrix composite tool with a MW absorbing layer in order to maximise the energy saving potential of the MW heating process. The project addresses the manufacturing issues of MW heating of composites which stem from the lack of understanding of the basic physics of the process (the most important item being how carbon fibers interact with the microwave field). The project will increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the MW heating of composites process to 6-7 -

SEER aims to develop smart self-monitoring composite tools, able to measure process and material parameters and, thus, to provide real-time process control with unprecedented reliability. SEER consortium will achieve this by: 1) developing miniature photonic sensors, 2) embedding those sensors in the tool with through-the-thickness techniques which minimise alteration of the structural integrity of the tool itself and 3) optimising the manufacturing control system through the implementation of a prototype process monitoring, optimisation, and process control unit. SEER will adopt a multi-sensor approach that will comprise a temperature, a refractive index, and a pressure sensor, operating in the near infrared and all integrated on a miniature photonic integrated circuit (PIC). The SEER solution will be compatible with and optimise existing composite manufacturing methods and its reuse for several resin curing cycles will increase efficiency and save resources. The embedded PIC sensors in a reusable tool will cater perfectly to address pre-processing and will use acquired raw data for process optimisation, using theoretical models and machine learning algorithms, establishing for each tool a link between the sensor data, material state models, process parameters, as well as degradation of the tool. This will allow efficient preventive maintenance of the tool with less effort and provide insight on better tool design. Finally, the acquired data from quality testing of cured parts will be used to optimise the process control ensuring further enhance in the quality yield and will provide with a part quality fingerprint.