Development of a reliable quality control system using advanced Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) technologies for the production environment of leak-free fuel tanks from plastics and composites

Project Information

LeakFree

Grant agreement ID: 673155

DOI 10.3030/673155

Closed project

EC signature date 1 May 2015

Start date 1 June 2015

End date 31 March 2017

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost € 1 196 286,75

EU contribution € 837 400,73

Coordinated by

FLOTEKS PLASTIK SANAYI VE TICARET AS
Türkiye

Objective

Nowadays, the usage of Plastic Fuel Tanks (PFTs) has dominated over steel tanks as they offer numerous advantages such as lower weight, higher corrosion resistance, better crash performance and lower total systems costs. Tank manufacturing from plastics and composites in automotive sector is increasingly adapted to mass productions to meet the ever growing demand. The management of quality control (QC) systems for factory environment poses challenges in the absence of relevant experience in the development and use of in-situ non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technologies.
The problem currently faced by the automotive industry is that most techniques that fall within the accepted leak detection sensitivity requirements are based on manual intensive and operator-dependent tasks. Leak detection techniques with higher sensitivity do exist; however they are characterized by high investment and operational costs. Hence, their implementation is not economically feasible as the related costs outweigh their benefits for the automotive QC purposes.
The LeakFree project targets at bringing to the market a low cost leak detection system that is fast, accurate, traceable and automated for mass production environments in the fuel tanks production industry. The system eliminates the disadvantages associated with the manual-intensive and operator-dependent techniques, currently employed by the industry, through the development of an inspection technique based on Acoustic Emission (AE). The LeakFree acoustic technology has already been demonstrated in fuel-tank production environment and the project targets at bringing the system to the market. The activities to be performed span from design and prototyping to validation, demonstration, performance verification and standards certification. Additionally, efforts will be placed at connecting the LeakFree product to the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system of the rotomolding production company.

Fields of science

• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › electronic engineering › control systems
• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › electronic engineering › signal processing
• engineering and technology › mechanical engineering › vehicle engineering › automotive engineering
• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › electronic engineering › sensors
• engineering and technology › environmental engineering › energy and fuels

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.3.4. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport Main Programme
• H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument

Topic(s)

• IT-1-2014 - Small business innovation research for Transport

Call for proposal

H2020-SMEInst-2014-2015

See other projects for this call

Sub call

H2020-SMEINST-2-2014

Funding Scheme

SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

Coordinator

FLOTEKS PLASTIK SANAYI VE TICARET AS

• Net EU contribution: € 837 400,73
• Address: DOSAB FULYA SOKAK 7 ; 16245 Demirtas Bursa ; Türkiye
• SME The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed. Yes:
  Region
  Doğu Marmara › Bursa › Bursa
• Region: Doğu Marmara › Bursa › Bursa
• Activity type: Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
• Total cost: € 1 196 286,75