Rightweight

Summary

Recently the TPAC acquired a new three year project in which the thermoplastic composite knowledge of aerospace industry is exchanged with the automation knowledge of the automotive sector. The Interreg project, called ‘Rightweight’ will focus on knowledge transfer to companies who want to develop TPC technology in their production organisation.

Typically, automotive is interested in weight reduction and high volume/low cost solutions. TPC materials are potential candidates for automotive, as long as material and processing costs are low. The application of e.g. glass-PP composites could meet this need, where manufacturing knowledge from aerospace (e.g. product consolidation, continuous fibre manipulation and welding) could unlock the potential of TPC applications in automotive.

Vice versa, TPC manufacturing requires repetitive and reproducible processing. The automation knowledge from automotive can be of high value for the aerospace industry technology, which is confronted with increasing production volumes. Potential examples are robot technology, vision and other quality control technologies.

Knowledge is shared by the participants in open workshops. Interested companies can obtain a voucher for research projects with one of the research institutes involved.

Project partners

The project is a collaboration of clusters like TPAC in the European Lightweight Clusters Alliance (ELCA). Participants are: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (IPEK) (D), Flanders Make (B), Plastipolis – pôle de compétitivité Plasturgie & Composites (F), Cluster NanoMikroWerkstoffePhotonik NMWP Management GmbH (D), AutmotiveNL (NL), and distretto sull’Ingegnerio die Materiali polimerici e compositi e STrutture scarl (IMAST) (IT).

Duration

3 years, Start in May 2020

Funding

Interreg Europe

For more information about this project, please click here. Information can also be found on Linkedin or Twitter.

For more information about this project, please click here for a leaflet.