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Advanced design, monitoring, development and validation of novel HIgh PERformance MATerials and components responds to the EU Horizon 2020 call SPIRE-08-2020: Novel high-performance materials and components and is a research and innovation project (grant agreement ID: 958196). HIPERMAT´s main goal is the empowering of future low carbon technologies with high performance materials and components by their enhanced environmental impact reduction in all the value chain.
This project gathers a balanced consortium of 14 partners with complementary skills, coordinated by AZTERLAN Metallurgy Research Centre. The consortium represents all the value chain and associated design and validation services, from the component manufacturing to its final integration in productive equipment and its use. The activities of this project are focused in developing the strategies and tools for an efficient development of new alloys and components in high temperature and corrosion demanding operating conditions in the process industry. HIPERMAT comprises the integration and validation of these materials through advanced manufacturing technologies in high performance final components. Components are going to have a more extended service life that will lead to a higher efficiency in equipment rendering in reduced energy and raw materials consumption in all the value chain.
Main backbone of hot stamping process is the austenitizing furnace. The traditional furnace used in hot stamping is the roller-hearth furnace, typically 40 m long, but there are several different furnace designs and technologies, each with its own strengths and weaknesses in terms of availability, heating efficiency and process quality. The ROLLING BEAM furnace is based on a technology for moving steel blanks through the furnace, by combining horizontal and vertical movements of the furnace beams. The horizontal advancing mechanism is composed of metallic beams supported on rollers with rings (Figure 2) placed along the furnace. The advancing beams move over the rings in a cyclic movement forward and backwards. Several ceramic beams (situated along the furnace between the metallic beams) lift the blanks while the advancing beams roll backwards to their original position and place the blanks further along on advancing beams in their downwards movement. This equipment works under fluctuating high temperature conditions in the entrance of the furnace (from 450 to 750ºC), high loads due to the own weight of beams and the charge, corrosive environments due to the combustion gases, and continuous high temperature inside the furnace, in the range of 930-970ºC. Under those conditions, failure modes are thermal fatigue of beams at the entrance of the furnace, combined corrosion and creep of the inside beams and combined corrosion, creep and wear of rings.
These components represent 12% of the total cost of the furnace and are responsible for the six maintenance stops per year that OEM and furnace users report. On average, for a reference furnace composed of 50 metallic beams and 33 rollers (165 rings), 24 beams and 50 rings are replaced in 1 year. Such high replacement rate impacts furnace perfor-mance, by reducing its availability and energy efficiency and means that ,over the 30-year service life of a furnace, only due to spare parts for beams and rings, 150 t of scrap are generated and near 200 MWh are consumed in casting new steel components. Therefore, developing more durable components to withstand the extreme varying operation conditions in the furnace, by using less resource-consuming manufacturing technologies, offers an opportunity not only to achieve important savings in energy and mineral resources in furnace construction and maintenance, but also improving furnace productivity and efficiency: for furnaces with annual outputs of over 62000 t blank, the 6 maintenance stops entail additional consumption of 0.8 Nm3 of natural gas per tonne of blanks produced, i.e. more than 500 MWh/yr.
HIPERMAT technical approach is going to be focused in the integration of the advanced design tools of materials and components to increase the success rate in material selection and final components durability. New high thermal and corrosion resistance alloys such as refractory stainless steel variants and other alloys to be used for protective layer application will be tested and validated through specific NDT and DT. High performance alloys are going to be used for final component manufacturing through cutting edge technologies such as LMD, Ceramic coatings and hidrosolidification. Once validated through NDT and DT controls, components are going to be integrated in real hot stamping furnaces and their performance is going to be monitored through a developed net of embedded sensors and advance data processing tools.
Fig. 1: Technical approach
The general impacts in relation to the process industry but also linked with its sustainability can be summarized as follows:
The main objective of the HIPERMAT project is the empowering of future low carbon technologies with high performance materials and components by their enhanced environmental impact reduction in all the value chain. More in detail technical objectives are summarized as follows:
A robust base-line for modelling, testing and material selection, that could be easily introduced in final components is going to be determined, thus reducing the iterative loops to achieve their final validation. Based on preliminary theoretical studies a first selection of materials and a design of component like geometries for preliminary validation studies of materials and technologies is going to be issued.
The integration of digital technologies is going to be a key aspect in the project, supporting the leaner performance of the rest of the workpackages. The sequential use of material ,process performance and predictive IA supported modelling tools is going to be performed for material selection, design of process optimal parameters and final process and materials adjustment. This set of tools together with a detailed methodology will speed up the final solution approach.
Materials development requires a detail analysis of their microstructure evolution and its relationship with the macro behavior in terms of different destructive and not destructive tests. These tests are going to be design and performed as being representative of the final working conditions. Materials selected and validated are going to be used to be combined with the manufacturing of component like geometries and proto-type components in following wPs
Different technologies will be tested to improve current performance of components. First currently in use materials are going to be manufactured following the new technologies such as LMD, hidrosolidification and ceramic coatings. Process validation and adjustment is going to take place. A integration of developed sensors and selected materials from previous WPs once the manufacturing technologies have been proven and set up takes place, proceeding to their validation through data follow up and different NDT and DT testing.
Once material and component like geometries have shown advance performance, prototypes components are going to be re-designed and manufactured integrating new materials, manufacturing technologies and sensor. Prototypes will be introduced into real in service furnace and their performance followed up for a final technical, economic and environmental validation.
AZTERLAN is a Technology Centre, with more than 30 years of specialization in metallurgy, being an international reference in casting alloys and technologies. The head quarter is in Durango (Spain) and it has a staff of 68 high qualified professionals. The main mission of the research centre is to improve the competitiveness of the local and European industry by the development of research and innovation activities. AZTERLAN promotes simultaneously basic research, generation of knowledge, applied research and technological transfer. The applied research is performed in close cooperation with the metal-mechanical industry and with the R&D units of companies. RTD activities are focused on solidification in casting processes, development of new alloys with improved performance, development of new casting technologies, sustainability of manufacturing processes and intelligent control of manufacturing processes. AZTERLAN is going to be the coordinator of the project represented by Fernando Santos with wide experience in project coordination in European and national project. AZTERLAN is involved in the development of new refractory alloys, in the application of hidrosolidification (ablation technology) for component manicuring and in using predictive tools for material and advance manufacturing processes setting up.
GHI Hornos Industriales S.L. is a Biscayan family business with 80 years of experience in the design, manufacture and commissioning of facilities for fusion, heat treatment and heating of metals. GHI is a leading company in the national market of industrial furnaces and peripheral equipment, focuses its activity on the design, manufacture and commissioning of facilities for the fusion, heat treatment and heating of metals, as well as for applications of heat to other materials, aimed at a wide variety of industrial sectors: metallurgical, naval, aerospace, automotive, rail, chemical, energy... In addition, it also offers a range of comprehensive and high value-added engineering solutions, ranging from the supply of turnkey plants to technical assistance and digitization services, including the supply of auxiliary equipment to the furnace (preparation plants of scrap, atmospheric generators, loading machines, desiccators, ...). Aligned with this strategy, GHI represented in this project by Ander Galindez will participate in this project providing his expertise and competences with furnaces. For this, it will contribute with:
The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm is the largest and oldest technical university in Sweden. No less than one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education capacity at university level is provided by KTH. Education and research spans from natural sciences to all branches of engineering and includes Architecture, Industrial Management and Urban Planning. There are in total 13,400 first and second level students and almost 1,900 doctoral students. KTH has 4,900 employees. The research work of the Materials Science and Engineering Process Unit at KTH is mostly directed towards fundamental research relevant to metallurgical and materials processes, where the unit is known for their realistic CFD and phenomena models based on mechanism study from both industrial trials and laboratory experiments. While modelling is a very important tool, the unit is also specialised in conducting experimental laboratory and industrial studies at high temperatures. The unit has extensive experience of running joint projects with partners in industry and research institutes. The unit is currently involved in several Research Fund for Coal and Steel, Vinnova, eit Raw Materials, H2020 projects as a partner or as a coordinator. Associated professor Björn Glased (PhD) will coordinate the aim of combining modelling and applied experimental industrial research will ensure the integration of the obtained information by modelling and experimental studies to industrial applications.
QuesTek Europe AB (QT) is a Swedish SME established in 2016 as a corp. joint venture between US-based QuesTek International LLC and Sweden-based Thermo-Calc Software AB. By combining QuesTek’s Materials by DesignTM expertise and technology and Thermo-Calc’s expertise in software and database development, QT can increase insight and understanding for customers at nearly every stage in the lifecycle of a material, from initial R&D to end of useful service life and recycling. QuesTek is a global leader in the field of Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) and has proven that new, ultra high-performance alloys and other materials can be developed much faster and at lower cost than via traditional trial and error methods. With the Materials by Design methodology, QT design and bring to market never-before conceived alloys, coatings and other materials for demanding applications in aerospace, oil & gas, high performance racing, medical and other industries. QT develop and utilize sophisticated physics-based technology that incorporates industry-leading mechanistic models, software and fundamental material parameters. This method enables reliable material design using only limited experimental calibration and validation, resulting in accelerated development cycles and reduced risks during upscaling. QTs experience, expertise and interest span a wide variety of material systems, and using ICME methodologies, QT has developed new high-performance alloys based on a number of different elements including Al, Co, Cu, Fe, Mo, Ni, Nb, Ti, W, high entropy alloys, and more, including design of alloys specifically tailored to rapid solidification processes such as powder bed fusion additive manufacturing. QT works closely with its sister US-based company QuesTek Innovations LLC, and has access to tools and models at both QuesTek US and Thermo-Calc Software.
Within this project QT represented by Dr. Ida Berglund will apply its Materials by Design methodology and CALculation of PHAse Diagrams (CALPHAD)- based integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approach to evaluate baseline materials and identify novel refractory alloys. The goal is to evaluate key process-structure and structure-properties relationships to identify suitable alloy chemistries for high-temperature wear resistance. Based on extensive experience in materials modelling and evaluation, as well as alloy design and development from concept to commercial product, QT will:
ESI Group is a leading innovator in Virtual Prototyping software and services. Specialist in material physics, ESI has developed a unique proficiency in helping industrial manufacturers replace physical prototypes by virtual prototypes, allowing them to virtually manufacture, assemble, test and pre-certify their future products. Coupled with the latest technologies, Virtual Prototyping is now anchored in the wider concept of the Product Performance Lifecycle™, which addresses the operational performance of a product during its entire lifecycle, from launch to disposal. The creation of a Hybrid Twin™, leveraging simulation, physics and data analytics, enables manufacturers to deliver smarter and connected products, to predict product performance and to anticipate maintenance needs. The company employs about 1000 high-level specialists worldwide covering more than 40 countries. ESI Software represented by Dr.Mustafa Megahed will participate in this project providing his expertise and competences with manufacturing data analytics. For this, it will contribute with:
The Research Institute of materials and Technology was founded in 1949, later in 1965 the Institute was renamed on National Research Institute for Materials (SVUM) with registered trademark. In 1994 during privatization process the Institute has been transformed into Joint Stock Company. SVÚM a.s. is a private company possessing the status of the Research Organization conformably to the Frame of association in the field of basic and applied research of metallic materials (ferrous and non-ferrous metals and alloys), plastics and composites. During its long-term activities, SVÚM a.s. has achieved an important renown in the field of research and development and is important cooperator in the solution of applied research projects in the Czech Republic and abroad. SVÚM a.s. is defined by a Research Organization within the Community Framework (2006 / C 323/01) and entered on the list of Research Organizations in Czech Republic - Decision 08/2017 In 2019, SVÚM a.s. staff comprises 56 employees – 7 office workers, 24 research workers, 18 technicians and 7 skilled workmen. The seat of the company is in a new Research and Technological park in Čelákovice near (15 km) Prague.
Within this project SVUM represented by Tomas Vlasak will its expertise in research testing high temperature materials they will develop destructive tests regarding bulk materials (refractory steel samples). It will consist on thermal fatigue, creep, crack propagation rate and combined wear/corrosion test. Also following their experience in research about creep properties of all types of high temperature materials SVUM will test bars manufactured by hidrosolidification and in parallel they will test thermal fatigue, creep and crack growth rate to beam like geometries.
Activities are broken down into two main lines of development: - AMPO Foundry, which is dedicated to the production of stainless steels, nickel-based alloys and low-alloy and carbon steels, to the casting of molded steel parts such as molded and centrifuged steel tube, and, especially, to the manufacture of balls (floating or guided) and valve bodies.
- AMPO Valves, which is dedicated to the manufacture of industrial valves in general for various applications such as petrochemicals, cryogenic valves or used in the manufacture of alumina. Products manufactured by AMPO, both in function and in valves, are characterized by two fundamental factors: - On the one hand, being special products that are made to order, these are expensive products, in which the difference in price between two competitors can become relevant and is one of the most important factors. - On the other hand, and given its special applications, it is essential to achieve a high level of manufacturing quality, quality that starts from the design and development of each product, since sometimes the customer supplies the operating specifications, it is AMPO the responsible for developing it and setting the technical specifications.
The Fraunhofer Center for High Temperature Materials and Design (HTL) in Bayreuth, Germany, is part of the Fraunhofer society, which is the largest organization for application-oriented research in Europe with 26.500 employees in 72 institutes. The Fraunhofer-Center for High Temperature Materials and Design HTL designs energy-efficient heating processes and thus contributes to the sustainable technological progress of society. It develops high-temperature materials, high temperature components and high-temperature measuring methods, thereby optimizing thermal processes. The HTL works with systematic methods on a high scientific-technical level. The primary goal is the implementation of its developments in the industry.
In HIPERMAT HTL develops new CERMET coatings with adapted thermo-physical properties (e.g. CTE) for components under high temperature, load and corrosive attacks. Long lasting experience on coating technology, material design and metal-ceramic-hybrids as well as Integrated Computational Material Engineering are the basis for material development. HTL helps to describe the thermal conditions of the furnace by in-situ characterization of temperature, gas conditions and FE- as well as CFD-tools. Material and process data is acquired using sophisticated sensor technology including in-house developed sensors and sensor concepts. Experience on material protection for harsh conditions as they are present in ceramic processing furnaces, waste incineration facilities or gas turbines will be transferred for protection and installation of wired and printed sensors.
Eurecat is the leading Technology Centre in Catalonia, and the second largest private research organization in Southern Europe. Eurecat manages a turnover of 38M€ and 700 professionals, is involved in more than 160 R&D projects and has a customer portfolio of over 1.000 companies.
Metallics & Ceramics Materials unit is focused on the development of high-performance materials solutions, to obtain lightweight/resistant materials and functional surfaces able to withstand severe mechanical and environmental requirements.
Tribology: The subunit of Tribology conducts applied research in the field of wear, friction and lubrication of surfaces in relative motion. Analysis and characterization of wear mechanisms, contact fatigue and the effect of the machining processes on surface properties, are the main R&D activities of this subunit.
Main roles in the project will be linked with:
Ceit is a private multidisciplinary non-profit RTO closely connected to TECNUN, the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra (Spain). Its missions are to provide industry with services through the development of technical research projects and to promote the dissemination of knowledge through the training of young researchers and PhD students and scientific publications. Regarding our first mission, more than 100 research projects between TRL4 and TRL7 are carried out at Ceit-IK4 per year. Moreover, Ceit has participated in 15 FP6 projects, 32 FP7 projects, 18 RFCS projects, 3 LIFE project and for the moment in 37 H2020 projects, out of which 10 are coordinated. In terms of our second mission, in the last 5 years Ceit has produced more than 30 PhD theses per year, published 100 papers in scientific journals, and participated in 80 international conferences. Since 1996 Ceit-IK4 has created 15 technology-based spin-offs, which currently employ more than 300 people. Four of these have been purchased by companies which are listed on NASDAQ, NYSE, the Madrid Stock Exchange and the Paris Stock Exchange. Ceit has a staff of over 260 employees and 45 PhD students, and an annual budget over 16.5 M€. In February 2016. Main role in the project will be project management: financial and administrative tasks (WP1), manufacturing non-commercial powders (WP4 & WP5), characterization of powders and material samples of LMD (WP4 & WP5) and manufacturing by LMD of material samples and component like geometries (WP4 & WP5).
RINA Consulting - Centro Sviluppo Materiali S.p.A. (CSM S.p.A.) is a fully private innovation center that employs 230 researchers and has extensive experiences for the development and application of innovative processes and materials. Today CSM S.p.A. is part of RINA Group, which is a global provider of classification, certification, testing, inspection and training services to assist clients in a wide range of business sectors as Marine, Energy, Transport & Infrastructures, Business Assurance, Environment and Innovation. CSM S.p.A.is a leading center for applied research founded in 1963 by Italy’s major steel industry. Its research activities are mainly related to the modelling and design of materials and products, optimization and development of processes, development of innovative pilot plants and reduction of environmental impact. With a staff of about 230 researchers, CSM S.p.A.is a private enterprise that ranks amongst Europe’s top Materials Research Centers.
CSM will participate in this project providing his expertise and competences with data analytics and Life Cycle Assessment. For this, it will contribute with:
Advanced Coatings & Construction Solutions scrl (AC&CS) is an industrial research centre, part of the CRM Group. The core business of the research centre is to scale-up technologies and turn innovation into value creation. AC&CS has extensive experience in printed electronics on metal, coatings for smart surfaces and surface functionalization. In particular, several research projects related to printed electronics on metal for different applications (sensors, RFID antennas, OLED lighting, flexible displays…) have been led over the past 10 years in the Advanced and smart surface solutions department that will be involved in the current proposal.
Thanks to an impressive facility centre and several industrial pilot lines, AC&CS is the ideal partner to develop research in printed electronics on a lab scale as well as to take innovations from the laboratory into production, especially in severe environment. AC&CS is supported by a large network with European universities and other research centres.
The tasks of AC&CS-CRM in the proposal are well matched with its expertise since AC&CS will develop the embedded sensors for severe process conditions within an industrial environment.
With presence in more than 20 countries, Gestamp is an international group dedicated to the design, development and manufacture of metal automotive components. The Group specializes in developing innovatively designed products to achieve increasingly safer and lighter vehicles, thereby reducing energy consumption and environmental impact. Throughout its more than 20 years of experience, Gestamp has become a global technology provider characterized by its proximity to customers, ongoing innovation and strong internationalization. Since its creation, Gestamp has moved from being a small local stamping company to a global company operating in the main auto manufacturing hubs. Gestamp develops products with an innovative design to produce lighter and safer vehicles, which offer improved energy consumption and a reduced environmental impact. Their product range starts from crash management systems, upper body, underbody, Class A, Closures, cross bar beams, battery boxes, subframes, hinges, powered systems, door checks, real twist beams, to links, control arms and subframes. Gestamp offers a wide range of technologies addressing the industry requirements to achieve the right balance between safety, performance, weight and cost. Gestamp has more than 100 plants in 22 countries and 13 R&D Centres with more than 40.000 employees. Specifically, Gestamp is the largest global supplier of hot stamping parts. Our press hardening production model cover the entire value chain from the manufacturing of our own dies to production lines. One of the main hot stamping manufacturing plants is in the Czech Republic with up to 600 people working for companies such as JLR, Audi, Daimler or PSA GESTAMP will participate in this project providing his expertise and competences with furnaces used in hot stamping. For this, it will contribute with:
ESI GROUP with it’s Swiss subsidiary Calcom ESI, is a pioneer and world-leading provider in Virtual Prototyping that takes into account the physics of materials. ESI offers a unique know-how in Virtual Product Engineering, based on an integrated suite of coherent, industry-oriented applications. Addressing manufacturing industries, Virtual Product Engineering aims to replace physical prototypes by realistically simulating a product’s behavior during testing, to fine-tune fabrication and assembly processes in accordance with desired product performance, and to evaluate the impact on product use under normal or accidental conditions. Within ESI GROUP Calcom ESI hold the casting activity. In this context Calcom ESI is active in the field of casting simulation with its flagship product ProCAST since more than 30 years and has developed its portfolio of software modules specially in order to reply to the specific demands of the diverse processes of the casting industry including sand casting, investment casting, die casting (gravity, high pressure and low pressure) and continuous casting. The casting simulation software is designed to help engineers to improve their casting process to ensure product quality and reducing cost and time.
The role of Calcom ESI SA in the HiperMAT project will be the modelling of the Hidrosolidification process. Calcom ESI has already the capability to model a wide range of casting processes. This existing framework will be extended to be able also to address Hidrosolidification. Specially the modelling of the higher cooling rates (with respect to similar casting processes) will be addressed and the microstructure and mechanical properties that are linked to this cooling rates.
