RESTORE addresses one of Europe’s key industrial challenges: how to make manufacturing circular, digital, and low carbon while remaining globally competitive. Remanufacturing extends product life and cuts material and energy use, yet its uptake across European industry is still limited by technical, digital, and regulatory barriers. Processes are often manual and inefficient, the use of recycled feedstock is constrained, and the absence of standardized qualification and traceability systems hinders wider adoption. In this context, RESTORE was conceived to demonstrate that remanufacturing can become a mainstream, data-driven industrial practice aligned with the European Green Deal, Circular Economy Action Plan, and EU Industrial Strategy. The project combines process innovation, digital transformation, and sustainability assessment to enable high-value component repair in sectors such as rail, steel, marine, and automotive manufacturing.
The overall goal of RESTORE is to develop and demonstrate sustainable remanufacturing processes and digital tools that close material loops and increase automation and traceability across the value chain. The project advances hybrid laser + plasma (PTA) cladding and laser DED technologies, integrating recycled consumables and adaptive closed-loop control to achieve high-quality, low-waste repairs. Complementary digital tools—3D scanning, automated CAD reconstruction, melt-pool and thermo-mechanical simulation, and robotic tool-path generation—enable “first-time-right” production. These are linked through a digital ecosystem comprising an ontology, blockchain-based Digital Product Passport (DPP), Circularity Calculator, Life-Cycle Assessment, and a digital marketplace to ensure transparency and collaboration among industrial actors. The pathway to impact follows a technology-to-market trajectory: scientific advances in process efficiency and material reuse underpin environmental gains of up to 50 % reduction in raw-material use and 30–40 % lower energy demand, while supporting qualification and certification frameworks promote regulatory and standardization uptake. Social-science expertise contributes to business-model innovation, skills development, and stakeholder acceptance, ensuring that technological advances align with user needs and policy priorities. By reaching TRL 7–8 by project end, RESTORE is expected to provide a replicable model for digital, circular manufacturing, directly supporting EU objectives for climate neutrality, industrial resilience, and sustainable growth.
