Welding process planning and parametric pricing software solution for SMEs

Objective

Welding is a major route of fabricating steel and thermoplastic structures and therefore approaches a reasonable portion of industrial and other sectors. When designing a joint, from an engineering point of view, many aspects have to be taken into account such as amount of load, nature of load, sheet thickness, material, welding technology, etc. But on the other hand, as an industrial process, the cost of welding plays a more crucial role in manufacturing decisions. Many different variables affect the total cost, including equipment cost, labour cost, material cost, and energy cost. Despite high level automation and developed information technologies applied in engineering, cost/price calculation of welding projects are still performed manually by welding experts with a basic software support. Companies commonly employ or hire welding engineers exclusively for performing this task. Depending on the volume and complexity of the project, pricing process can last from hours to weeks, costing from few hundreds to tens of thousands Euros. Due to its inflexibility, it is clear that this method will become inappropriate in a short time and a highly computed method will be required in order to catch up with the even shorter product development cycles, the increasing demands and the tough competition. Weld-IT will be a tool that enables welding companies to price, plan and manage welding projects in a fast, cost-effective, flexible and sophisticated way by providing them with hardly accessible expertise regarding welding. Being a knowledge-based, “assistive” tool, it supports welding engineers and technicians in pricing and defining the optimal welding processes for a fabrication by taking into account the most relevant parameters/information: project requirements and specifications, customer preferences, manufacturing capabilities, resource allocation, standards and best practices.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

• natural sciences computer and information sciences software
• social sciences sociology industrial relations automation

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-SME - Specific Programme "Capacities": Research for the benefit of SMEs

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• SME-1 - Research for SMEs

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-SME-2010-1
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

BSG-SME - Research for SMEs

Coordinator

Participants (6)