Projects

The battery although is at its central role for green transitioning of the road transport, the current battery supply chain is lacking in traceability and sustainability, resiliency, and circularity aspects. Critical Raw Materials (CRM) are essential ingredients for battery manufacturing. The exploding growth of Electric vehicles driven by the climate neutrality policy objectives will create pressure on CRM supply chain and will increase the EU dependency for CRM on 3rd countries, resulting in decrease of competitiveness of the EU automotive and battery manufacturers. Implementation of the digital battery passport (DBP) concept in the battery value chain might resolve these issues.

SmartEM aims to address the limitations of current engineering models by developing a reference architecture for engineering model spaces. The architecture will enable the reuse, exchange and integration of computational engineering models, reducing the need for costly design corrections and promoting early data and model exchanges. SmartEM will use AI-assisted methods to create surrogate models from heterogeneous data sources and allow their re-combination within a given engineering domain. The project will develop use-case model spaces to manage reusable and transferable engineering models for various domains and provide solutions for IP management to enable model exploitation in an increasingly digital engineering market.

The ALABAMA project is developing adaptive laser techniques for improved additive manufacturing. The goal is to decrease material porosity and adjust microstructures. The innovation includes the development of models for process optimization. Process parameters are optimized using multi-beam control and laser shaping. Advanced monitoring uses multispectral imaging for quality control. Material tests ensure compliance with requirements. The technology is being tested in aerospace, maritime, and automotive industries. These sectors face challenges regarding material quality. The project promises significant productivity increases and cost reductions. It also promotes the autonomy of the European industry.

Remanufacturing boosts circular economies and job creation. RESTORE enhances this with sustainable processes and materials. It merges advanced technologies for better remanufacturing applications. The RESTORE platform will digitize and streamline the remanufacturing process. Fraunhofer SCAI standardizes data for remanufacturing efficiency.

PIONEER aims to develop and implement an interoperable material modeling and manufacturing ecosystem that enables multi-directional data flow along the material value chain by linking product design and distributed modeling data with information from material characterization, manufacturing processes, and product quality criteria. PIONEER combines a design-by-simulation approach with manufacturing and quality data to optimize product development strategies in high-mix/low-volume production systems.

This joint laboratory project between Fraunhofer SCAI, the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, and the Dr. Reinold Hagen Foundation falls precisely at the center of this topic. It aims to create new digital-twin-related insights and turn them into benefits for small and medium-sized companies that experience exceptionally high digitalization pressure. These companies are often regional, e.g., experts in niche manufacturing techniques. It is particularly challenging for such companies to gather sufficient expertise in as many disciplines as required to these ends.

The Fraunhofer project HABICHT aims to develop a highly efficient electric motor for compressors in hydrogen fuel cells. To determine the optimal machine design, we used several multi-physics simulations divided into the mechanical domain, the electromagnetic domain, the rotor's thermal behavior, and the stator's thermal behavior, with common boundary conditions. Surrogate models were built for each domain and were combined to consider their impacts on each other.

The VMAP analytics project is a follow-up of the VMAP project, which is also under the ITEA umbrella. This project is mainly driven by the Swedish partner, SWERIM AB, a metal research institute based in Luleå, Sweden. This project primarily focuses on integrating experimental data within the VMAP Standard and developing the process ontologies to build meaningful connections between the virtual and the simulation domains. The execution of data analytics to provide better correlation techniques is also part of the project scope.

According to laws such as "Gesetz für die Erhaltung, Modernisierung und den Aufbau der Kraft-Wärme-Kopplung (KWKG) "(2002) and "Novelle KWK-Gesetz "(2009) the federal government plans to Increase the proportion of combined heat and power (CHP) plants in total German gross power-generation from currently approximately 15% to 25% in 2020. A significant improvement in efficiency is not possible with metallic materials. In contrast, components made from high-performance ceramics can withstand significantly higher temperatures. Therefore, the goal of the project is to develop a rotor and stator made of monolithic high-performance ceramics and their successful use in micro gas turbines (MGT).

The inhalative route is an important path for nanomaterials and other innovative materials in the nano- and microscale range. The lung is therefore an important target organ for acute toxic effects. At the same time, the barrier function of the lung determines the systemic uptake of the materials and the resulting effects on other organs. The aim of this project is to develop an innovative testing system for airborne nanomaterials based on the partners' existing know-how in the field of in vitro testing procedures. The project is funded within the scope of the topic Nano Safety Research: "NanoCare4.0 - Application-safe Material Innovations".