Final Report Summary - EMC2-FACTORY (Eco Manufactured transportation means from Clean and Competitive Factory)
Executive Summary:
According to the International Energy Agency, manufacturing is responsible for approximately 37% of global primary energy consumption being the largest energy consumer and CO2 producer. Improvement of energy and resource efficiency is the key to reduce environmental impact and is mentioned as driver to achieve the European 20/20/20 goal. Hence, European manufacturers have to rethink their current ideas about the design and management of the manufacturing systems, to take a significant step towards the new resource/energy efficient, sustainable factories.
The EMC2-Factory project aimed at enabling European manufacturing industries to overachieve Europe 2020 program targets through development of a breakthrough paradigm for cost-effective, highly productive, energy-efficient and sustainable production systems, through:
- Definition of a holistic perspective of the economically and ecologically oriented factory;
- Development and evaluation of new enabling technologies to guarantee resource usage and emission reduction in manufacturing systems;
- Development and extension of new factory design, planning and optimization tools to improve energy/resource efficiency, exploiting building-production equipment interaction;
- Provision of integration reference models and guidelines to support the shift towards new sustainable production;
- Definition of standards for economically and environmentally sound factories.
EMC2-Factory has improved and developed new technologies and processes, combining existing tools and methods in an overall integrated framework, to achieve economic and ecologic factories. It focuses on main energy intensive processes within the most relevant industrial sectors in Europe (automotive, rail and aerospace), developing tangible and industry relevant results to be easily implemented in cross-sectorial manufacturing environments. To assure the impact on European economy, EMC2-Factory partnership includes main industrial players (as well as SMEs) in manufacturing, highly-recognized research centers and universities and one of the main European industrial associations. The project results are therefore leading to a sustainable, as well as economically profitable, green factory framework. The new established paradigm will become a permanent reference point in European Manufacturing.
Project Context and Objectives:
According to the International Energy Agency, manufacturing is responsible for approximately 37% of global primary energy consumption being the largest energy consumer and CO2 producer. Improvement of energy/resource efficiency is the key to reduce environmental impact and is mentioned as driver to achieve European 20/20/20 goal. Hence, European manufacturers have to rethink their current ideas about design and management of manufacturing systems, to take a significant step towards the new resource/energy efficient, sustainable factories.
EMC2-Factory project is aiming at enabling European manufacturing industries to overachieve Europe 2020 program targets through development of a breakthrough paradigm for cost-effective, highly productive, energy-efficient and sustainable production systems, through:
- Definition of a holistic perspective of the economically and ecologically oriented factory;
- Development and evaluation of new enabling technologies to guarantee resource usage and emission reduction in manufacturing systems;
- Development and extension of new factory design, planning and optimization tools to improve energy/resource efficiency, exploiting building-production equipment interaction;
- Provision of integration reference models and guidelines to support the shift towards new sustainable production;
- Definition of standards for economically and environmentally sound factories.
EMC2-Factory is fostering to improve and develop new technologies and processes, combining existing tools and methods in an overall integrated framework, to achieve economic and ecologic factories. It is focusing on main energy intensive processes within the most relevant industrial sectors in Europe (automotive, rail and aerospace), developing tangible and industry relevant results to be easily implemented in cross-sectorial manufacturing environments. To assure the impact on European economy, EMC2-Factory partnership includes main Industrial players (as well as SMEs) in manufacturing, highly-recognized Research Centers and Universities and one of the main European industrial associations. The final project results will therefore lead to a sustainable, as well as economically profitable, green factory framework. The new established paradigm will become a permanent reference point in European Manufacturing.
PROJECT'S VISION: By 2020, European transport sector eco-factories will be able to reduce energy and resource-consumption and emission more than 30% per output unit below 1990 levels.
Starting from the vision, it is clear that research effort is required in order to provide manufacturing companies with advanced tools and sustainable technologies to go towards future eco-factories. Hence, the overall objectives of the EMC2-Factory project are defined as follows.
OVERALL OBJECTIVE: Enable European manufacturing industries to overachieve Europe 2020 program targets through development of advanced sustainable technologies, methods and tools while enabling industrial applicability and commercial exploitation.
From this overall target, an integrated set of objectives are derived, with respect of Businesses (Business Objectives), Science and Technology (Scientific and Technological Objectives), and Consensus building (Consensus Objectives).
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES:
- To increase production systems profitability and allow access to new markets through improvements in energy efficiency emission and cost effectiveness;
- To realize economically and ecologically sound processes which are able to move into new markets and product areas rapidly;
- To realize more knowledge-intensive processes which are based on the wide diffusion and re-use of eco-solutions;
- To realize more robust businesses through eco-solutions which are scalable and recoverable;
- To realize more valuable businesses from a long term and more general perspective.
From the perspective of the overall program, the fulfilment of the scientific and technological objectives and the consensus objective are the means to achieving the business objectives.
TECHNOLOGICAL OBJECTIVES:
- To define an enabling technology reference model that provides resource and emission reduction foundation for specific process innovations;
- To provide integration technology reference model solutions which enable and support the above;
- To provide appropriate factory design tools and methods towards more energy and resource efficiency which enterprises can use to manage organizational roles, skills, competencies, and knowledge assets for its own operation and for collaboration with other enterprises;
- To define economically and ecologically oriented requirements for processes, equipment and management strategies and provide system solutions, using the above technologies, that meet these requirements;
- To provide standards for economically and ecologically sound factory infrastructures.
In order to generate optimal impact, required for the fulfilment of the business objectives, the results of the EMC2-Factory initiative need to reach as many end users, researchers, technology providers and other stakeholders as possible who constitute the broad manufacturing community. The EMC2-Factory initiative's main Consensus objective is to gain the support of a critical mass of the European manufacturing community.
CONSENSUS OBJECTIVE: Establish a permanent World-Class European Hub on Sustainable Manufacturing acting as a reference point in Eco-Factories issues to be recognized by research and industry community.
- Contribute to establish Eco-labelled process standards to support European policy.
PROJECT’S APPROACH:
In order to successfully reach the main objectives of EMC2-Factory, the project defines both a technological and holistic approach.
A first scientific stage of the project is defined to address the requirements analysis and review of enabling technologies, and it represents the foundation of the project. In fact, this activity generates and presents the sound knowledge on top of which advances in research and development are built. Since EMC2-Factory will use the latest technologies in an integrated approach aiming at the future Eco-Factory, a thorough investigation of Best Available Technologies (BAT) is also performed. This stage of the project is performed inside the first technical workpackage (WP2).
Secondarily three parallel streams of research and development are focusing on the main technological drivers affecting eco-performances in a factory: process technology, process control, production management and optimization(WPs 3, 4, 5). In these activities:
- existing process technologies are evaluated and improved in terms of their eco-efficiency performance to address the re-engineering of process technologies;
- controls, sensing and actuating technologies are investigated in order to improve the eco-efficient as well as resource efficient operations through enhanced real-time control of machines, cells, lines;
- and finally the project investigates the management of resources (machines, buildings, people, etc.) in order to improve the eco-impact of factories through appropriate planning and control of activities, given the required production.
The third scientific stage (WP6) investigates the integrated adoption of these technologies in a holistic approach. Hence it investigates at factory level how to use, with an integrated approach, different techniques to go towards the envisioned Eco-Factory, e.g. exploiting availability of information about resources consumption, different eco-efficient process technology solutions, as well as enhanced eco-efficient management of resources.
After the scientific stages, three demonstration WPs (7, 8, 9) address the implementation of the concept developed in the project into three different sectors, Aerospace [Aciturri], Automotive [COMAU], Rail [Siemens].
Finally all the activities that support the exploitation and dissemination of project results to the scientific and industrial society are addressed in the last workpackage (WP10). Among these activities there are: Dissemination, Exploitation, and Innovation Transfer. Using the output of all other activities, this workpackage will publicly present the project results, using the most appropriate approaches (publication, exhibition, etc.). All these activities are necessary in order to support and reinforce the impact of the project results on the society, considering both industry and academy (European Hub on Sustainable Manufacturing).
Project Results:
Many significant results were achieved during the project’s execution. The Project has been dealing with the main technological levels in the manufacturing processes from device level technologies and tools to holistic manufacturing approach. Since this structure was reflected in the organization of the workpackages, the following description follows the organization of the project itself in order to simplify the identification and localization of the developed foreground.
Requirements Analysis and Review of Enabling Technologies (WP2)
The main objective was to define the requirements for a greener and more resource efficient production system taking into account the different industrial environments of the manufacturing partners within the consortium. The analysis of the functional requirements of the technical production environments taken into consideration ensures the definition of main requirements and specifications for the eco-factory. This analysis includes the following tasks:
- analysis of functional requirements for new clean and resource-efficient production;
- analysis of technical production environments;
- review, evaluation (through appropriate Key Performance Indicators), and selection of best existing technologies to fulfill the defined functional requirements and to ensure their applicability;
- holistic vision for the future eco-factory which serves as a reference.
Process Technologies Re-engineering (WP3)
Process technologies for all considered process domains and for all considered sectors have been selected and evaluated. The following topics have been investigated and developed:
- Machining MQL process. Different MQL lubricants have been tested in order to identify the better oil to improve tool wear resistance on materials;
- Machining alternative process cooling systems for tool wear resistance improvement;
- Optimization and increasing machining efficiency (Eco Efficient Machine Center), with development of measures to reduce energy consumption;
- New solutions to improve energy savings in compressed air system;
- Alternative joining technologies based on FSW for rail and optimization of laser for automotive applications;
- Optimized resistance spot welding gun with compact solution for automotive application;
- Remote laser welding process optimization with process line impact evaluation for extension to Body side application on production line environment.
Significant results:
- Evaluation of applicable joining technologies alternative to those currently used by industrial partners;
- Definition of design of experiments aimed at preliminarily assessing the suitability of alternative technologies;
- Protocols for the calculation of energy consumption of joining processes;
- Implementation of a strategies for the definition of a methodology suitable to compare energy consumption between investigated processes;
- Remote laser welding process optimisation - process parameters have been identified for the most relevant joint configurations, both in 2 and 3 layer configurations.
Production Control Systems Re-engineering (WP4)
Identification and re-engineering of the production control systems needed to manage the eco-efficient technologies investigated and developed previously. The resulting systems are intended to be used to control the technologies that are installed in the project’s demonstrators. Two main steps have been performed:
- an evaluation of the technologies available on the market, with the aim to identify inefficiency and possible areas of improvement and development;
- deep analysis to perform a step forward in order to re-engineer the present control architectures, to make it strongly oriented to the efficient control of energy and wastes as well as the performances of the production plant.
Significant results:
1) Assessment Tool for Actuation Technology in Efficient actuation systems:
- Algorithm for approximation of energy consumption (as total costs) of hydraulic, electric and pneumatic components, units and/or systems
- Comparison and break-even point calculation for different system configurations
2) Energy-efficient operation strategies for drive systems:
- Pneumatics: Novel valve cluster supporting flexibility for application-specific actuation concept, e.g. reduced pressure at end position, or load-adaptive fill-up of cylinder
- Electrics: Improved hardware as well as energy-optimized motion profiles
3) Energy-exact machine modelling for improved technology assessment:
- A software tool (demonstrator) that can evaluate the energy consumption of production machines by the use of simulation models
4) Performance-Optimized Machine Control on Machine Level:
- Energy-based control strategy that increases energy efficiency by keeping the machine tool in low energy states when production is not requested.
5) Performance-optimized machine control on plant level:
- Model Predictive Control technique that is able to manage control problems characterized by constraints both on the control actions and on the process variables by optimizing a performance formula.
6) Shopfloor scheduling with focus on resource efficiency:
- Multi criteria schedule generation framework
- Software that automatically generates a set of non-dominated solutions to the scheduling problem
7) Monitoring Concept of Pneumatic Module:
- Applicability case study
- Efficiency procedure costs and reference installation
- Prototype station with laboratory module implementation
- Prototype demonstration of smart energy shut down strategies within laboratory environment
- Setup of a mobile carrier to utilize the smart pneumatic monitor in multiple fields of application
- Development of a user visualisation (HMI) for quick analysis and evaluation of effects on energy efficiency
8) Lean & Green monitoring in production set-ups:
- Simple recommendation for suitable industrial energy sensing technology to acquire KPIs for transformation processes
- Description of technical characteristics to ease up the implementation of sensing technology
- Quick changes in production plan and process parameters can be applied and benchmarked dynamically with lean & green KPIs
- Applicability and interpretation effects on KPIs for process chain as well as single process or component level can be demonstrated
- Hardware prototype with 3 process steps is set up. Software visualization is currently developed
9) Smart Valve Terminal
- Concept for a lab-scale solution using a simple and already existing valve terminal adding a flow sensor and a control strategy on the PLC to become able to monitor leakages
10) Dynamic monitoring of Machine
- Concept for monitoring the dynamic performance of machine and machining operations
- study of appropriate sensors
Planning, Optimization and Life Cycle Evaluation (WP5)
The main aim was to develop or update methods and tools to support planning and evaluation of clean and competitive factory, considering both brownfield and greenfield projects.
Factory planning is understood for the purposes of this document as a design process that takes product and location of the factory as defined inputs and supports the decisions on processes, resources, material flow, layout, building and building services in order to finally come up with a detailed plan for a new or renewed factory. To achieve this, the planners have to follow a logical flow of decisions.
Adding the environmental perspective to factory planning increases complexity, effort for data gathering and analysis as well as lacks of transparency in decision making; all this in context in which planning resources (time, cost, and people) are limited due to market pressure. Therefore, the planner has to focus its activities on the most relevant planning tasks for eco-efficiency, increase transparency about environmental issues in the planning activities and create evaluation bases to achieve clearly set targets.
For this reasons supporting methods and tools were developed following the logical process of the factory planning based on a given product and location. Along with the definition of details of the factory to be planned, the number of alternatives that are considered for the evaluation reduces; hence when at the beginning several alternatives are evaluated at strategic level, towards the end usually one or maximum two alternatives are evaluated at detailed level.
Significant results:
- A method called Green Factory Planning that supports the whole factory planning process and helps the planner to follow all the steps needed to plan factories in which building and processes are considered together, achieving thus the maximum energy and resource efficiency. It includes a prioritization phase in which the most relevant activities required for the resource efficiency, are defined according to the specific factory project addressed.
- A “decision making tool” to support the initial decisions when buying a machine has been developed. This tool helps the user to make a quick estimation of the energy consumptions, related costs and possible savings on machine and line level.
- A framework and tool for lifecycle evaluation (LCE) of machines/factories has been developed. The framework defines the key life cycle phases to be considered for a factory, while the related tool supports the evaluation of the economic, environmental and social impacts of factories and their components along the life cycle phases.
- Guidelines for the definition of factory layout have been developed, as well as a concept to evaluate layout through alternative layers that show production, energy and resource related performance.
- A simulation environment tool for the detailed simulation and analysis of planning alternatives has been developed. The tool combines different approaches in order to support the optimization of energy/resource efficiency combining typical production with building simulation solutions.
In the Eco-Factory Advanced Design and Management by Integration of the advanced Technologies (WP6), the results from the previous activities have been collected and armonized in a consistent framework for the implementation in the following pilot cases.
A preliminary tree diagram guideline format with clear industrial relevance and applicability was prepared.
This activity has developed:
- an assessment strategy for energy and emission sensing in factory environments (brownfield /greenfield);
- monitoring strategy for seamless integration of energy sensors, communication infrastructure and visualization hardware on all levels of a production system;
- generic modules and guidelines for dynamic eco-KPI visualization on factory, process chain and unit process level.
WP6 has also developed a mobile multi sensor system for energy and emission measurement, targeting for example quick energy value stream analysis campaigns in production environments. The standardization activity aimed at providing compliance between the project results and national or international regulations related to environmental issues in manufacturing, in order to support industry with norms. The outcome of the activity is a full identification of relevant existing norms applicable to environmentally friendly manufacturing, and the definition of potential areas for future standards.
Significant results:
- survey of all existing standards and legislation relevant to environmental sustainability in manufacturing processes
- description of formal “Lean & Green” model and its application
- set of 28 guidelines developed during the project, in a standard template with all information needed for effective industrial application, at different factory levels and in different manufacturing environments
- definition and listing of 54 energy related KPIs for assessing the eco-performances of manufacturing systems, with a detailed indication of physical dimension, application level and addressed function
- Experimental setups and simulation tools for energy efficiency monitoring.
Pilot Cases.
The outcomes of the EMC2-Factory projects have been applied in three Pilot Cases developed in the three DEMO workpackages. The Pilots are oriented to the three main industries represented in the project: Aeronautics, Automotive and Railways.
- Aeronautics industry pilot (WP7)
The Aeronautics industry pilot demonstrates how the project provides valid solutions widely applicable at industrial level to design, build, and operate manufacturing plants, meeting the strictest requirements in terms of energy consumption, monitoring and control, energy recovery, and advanced systems optimization.
The pilot activities are divided in two iterative steps: laboratory and industrial environment conditions. In the first step, the new technological solutions was tested and evaluated through prototyping in a lab setup. The final validation has been subsequently carried over a real pilot related shop floor.
The Aerospace pilot aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed eco-process technologies by executing demonstration activities in process related aspects such as reduction of energy consumption, Minimum Quantity Lubricant or no-coolant machining, vibration analysis, external field assistance to reduce the energy needed for the process.
The pilot takes into consideration aircraft components; specifically the belly fairing of A380, a primary structural element supporting the exterior and aerodynamic panels and requiring a very strict tolerance. This component consists of different T-shape profiles with curvature, made of titanium or aluminum alloy depending on the exposure to corrosion. The machining of this highly precise and value-added part is very exigent and shall be improved mainly regarding its eco-efficiency aspects. This aerospace pilot plant is integrating the technological developments carried out at different production level: process, control and plant planning.
The concept of EMC2-Factory at process level is demonstrated by the effectiveness in aspects such as fluid or coolant reduction, increase of cutting tool life and energy consumption reduction. A factory design approach, integrating environmentally friendly process technologies with novel control systems through multi-objective simulation and optimization, to maximise production systems efficiency reducing resources consumption, is used in the pilot demonstration activities. For that, the aerospace pilot plant is integrating advanced energy measuring and monitoring sensors, as well as intelligent process strategies for resource and energy reduction.
Significant results
The following list includes the Identification of the result, a brief definition of the implementation, the achieved result and the TRL (Technology Readiness Levels).
Control strategies (achieved TRL: 6). Description:
1) Auto-switch-off of the machine after the machining program finished; Auto-stand-by mode of the machine after a programed waiting time;
- Almost negligible savings due to Stand-by (2.2%) and Auto-stop (0%) algorithms are reported. This result comes from the extreme high load rate of the machine (0.3% time of non-use per year) that makes that these algorithms would almost never works in this machine;
2) New hydraulic system design and control:
- High savings due to new algorithms for control the hydraulic system are reported: 19% of OMEC;
3) Chip removal system:
- High energy savings are reported due to new chip removal system: 6.1% of OMEC.
Analysis of energy consumption (mean values) - Assessment tool (Achieved TRL: 3-4). Description:
1) A Microsoft-Excel based tool, “Assessment Tool”, was developed for the evaluation of the energy efficiency of the main components of a machine tool and for the calculation of the profitability of changing these components for more efficient ones:
- The tool is useful for the evaluation of the profitability of changing some machine components and, for the comparison of different machines by the acquisition of a new one
New MQL Ti Machining Technology (achieved TRL: 7). Description:
1) Analysis of the MQL performance compared with the traditional coolant for lubrication of Ti machining :
- Less hazard refrigeration and environmentally friendly solution. With a carbon footprint reduction 37% and a 20% reduction of energetic power consumption
Feasibility of FSW as Assembly Technology (achieved TRL: 4). Description:
1) Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a promising alternative, preliminary FSW trials have been launched in order to measure power consumption, processing times and associated wastes and perform a trade-off study of both technologies; riveting and FSW
- More automated and sustainable solutions. With a carbon footprint reduction 51% and a 33% reduction of energetic power consumption
Analysis of energy consumption per part (CAD calculation) (achieved TRL:3). Description:
1) Development of a software based solution which can evaluate the energy consumption / energy efficiency of production machines by the use of a simulation approach:
- With the simulated energy demand, as base line scenario several “virtual” optimizations measures can be adopted (electric energy demand of the machine centre could be “virtually” lowered by 43% compared to the standard process and machine configuration)
Strategy for environmental assessment and optimization of aeronautic manufacturing plants (achieved TRL: 4). Description:
1) Monitor key performance indicators in relation to energy and resource use, at the machining facility
- Serves as a source for obtaining efficiency indicators for the production of the different aluminum pieces
- Automotive industry pilot (WP8)
The development of an Automotive Pilot consisted in four tasks going from preliminary concept of the pilots, to the design and development, the implementation of EMC2F solutions and in conclusion with testing and evaluation of the pilots.
Initially the pilot was identified and the analysis of the solutions developed in the project was performed in terms mainly of two different criteria: feasibility and potential eco-sustainability impacts on the automotive sectors.
Secondarily the activity continued with the conclusion of the concept phase and the identification of the industrial plants of Bielsko Biala, Iveco Turin, Melfi and Pomigliano in which it was planned to develop in details the best solutions for the two automotive sectors where COMAU is supplier: car body and powertrain components manufacturing.
The demonstration activities, both in car body welding and powertrain demos, have shown, through the combination of monitoring, simulation technologies and solution engineering, the correct path to deploy an eco-sustainable management of the factories as iterative process.
Body welding automotive manufacturing demos have been focused on a typical assembly and welding line of car body. Both overall global strategies, and detailed subsystems topics have been deeply analysed from the energy sustainability point of view.
Powertrain automotive manufacturing demos focus on typical machining lines for cylinder heads and cylinder blocks engines. The main results have been obtained in the areas of systems retrofitting (brownfield), and analysis and simulation for new production lines (greenfield).
The activity identified the following list of sub-projects as the most relevant:
Body Welding:
- Joining energy process optimization;
- Welding line lightening;
- Fluidics circuits optimization;
- Integrated drives;
- Dynamic energy simulation of welding lines;
- Life Cycle Evaluation;
- Data collection and monitoring;
Powertrain:
- Machine Structural Lightening;
- Energy Machine Modelling and Control;
- Decision Making Tool;
- Green Retooling;
- Data collection and monitoring.
The main significant results were:
- Definition of the automotive body welding pilot environment
- Definition of the automotive powertrain machining pilot environment
- Pilot specification including technology testing vs. eco-performance assurance
Rail industry pilot (WP9)
For the Rail Industry Pilot, five measures have been identified for the pilot case in the Siemens Train Factory located in Vienna. First analyses, driven by Siemens AG with contribution of all partners involved in the railways demo pilot, brought to the identification of the specific focus of the pilot on a building in which main processes are conducted (machining and welding). This building was chosen because it was representative of common processes for train manufacturing, because of the complexity of the material and production flow and because it had already been improved from energy perspective (building improvements) – hence more than state-of-the-art solutions had to be investigated. TUB IFW together Siemens AG applied the approach developed within WP6, made several energy measurement campaigns to identify hot-spots and driver in the selected case, and carried out an extended energy value stream of the production processes that take place within the selected building. Several measures have been investigated and some of them have then developed and implemented. In particular FESTO and TUB IWF contributed to development and implementation of the smart pneumatic monitoring system and energy management system. The other measures have been mainly driven and implemented by Siemens AG. Siemens (Austria) being the responsible for the selected factory provided all the factory-specific information about processes/building/machines and provided continuous feedbacks about the implementation of the research results.
Significant results
- Development and implementation of Energy Management System in the selected building
- Development and implementation of planning tool that consider also energy to support daily planning decision-making
- Development and test of smart pneumatic monitoring and control at selected workplaces within the pilot building
- Comparison of current welding technology (GMAW) with alternative (FSW and laser technologies) from energetic viewpoint
- Test of additional components and control policies to reduce energy consumption on welding and machining processes
Exploitation, Dissemination, and Innovation Transfer (WP10)
The main objective of this work package is to assure that the outcome of the project will flow into cross-sectorial European industrial companies as well as the academy through appropriate communication, and exploitation activities. The following tasks were defined and executed:
- “Business strategies for exploitation”, which has carried on the planning and coordination of the whole consortium activities for successful delivery of the project solutions to final users and has provided a detailed plan of use of the project exploitable results by each partner (individual exploitation plans) as reported in project Plan of Use and Dissemination of Foreground (PUDF) document.
Furthermore the collective strategy of the project results utilization was provided in the PUDF together with a detailed risk analysis and action prioritization of the key exploitable results.
- “Dissemination”, which provided the definition and control of Strategic Dissemination Plan, including the development of project dissemination KPIs and their continuous monitoring. The task has provided design, development and update of all the project Public Relations materials, such as the project website, project flyers and posters, presentation formats, and, finally, has delivered a 50 pages full color printed and electronic format brochure. The project brochure has been built with the active collaboration of FESTO and participation of all the consortium partners. The project profile and exploitable results in the brochure have been made available on the web on the EFFRA innovation portal (www.effra.eu) as well. The task activities have included a measurable plan of partecipation to high impact events such as international level scientific conferences (APMS2013/14, GCSM 2014, etc.) and industrial workshops for both and LEs and SMEs, such as Lamiera (Italy), Industrial Technologies (Denmark, 2012), Industrial Technologies (Athens 2014). Task 10.2 ha guaranteed a significant exposure to both industrial and academic communities by establishing new links (and strengthening the already existing) with well-recognized international and national associations, such as EFFRA, CIRP, IMS. The task has planned and performed publications and special sessions in high ranked international conferences and journals. In particular a consortium partners task force has organized and contributed with papers to the Special Sessions in conferences IECON 2013 (Austria) and APMS 2014 (France). The academic partners have updated their university courses and, by their “learning factories” laboratories, have provided to managers, academics, students and general public effective hands on experiences of the solutions developed in the project and of their benefits.
- “Community building and innovation transfer”, which has guaranteed the industrial spread of the research developed in the consortium, in close connection with European research associations and Science and Technology Parks, by involving the companies potentially interested in the project in seminars and workshops focused on industrial impact. The actual experiences and success stories of the project have been directly presented to the audience by the industrial partners involved in the pilot applications: the seminars, designed in order to allow effective delivery to both LEs and SMEs, have been completed by strategic Q&A sessions. For instance, in this context, workshops, seminars and strategic and visionary discussions have taken place in Kilometro Rosso S&T Park (Italy), MUSP (Italy) and in important industrial fairs, such as EMO Hannover (Germany) and BIEHM Bilbao (Spain). Furthermore, seminars and publications tailored to non-scientific public and magazines (e.g Sistemi & Impresa magazine in Italy) have been delivered.
Significant results
- The overall work-package strategy and plans have been developed and shared with the consortium partners establishing a common vision.
- A common branding image has been devised, by means of project logo and coordinated graphic design, and enacted accordingly in the project website, presentation, flyer, posters.
- Project exploitation / dissemination on community building activities have been strategically planned, performed and monitored, together with the design and continuous update of dissemination material and website.
- Four scientific publications and eight industrial targeted events (including worldwide- level workshops such as APMS 2012 and Industrial Technologies 2012) have been delivered (data updated 23/4/2013).
- Several wide audience events such as Siemens and POLIMI workshops in Industrial Technologies 2012 (Aarhus) and the upcoming workshop in EMO 2013 (Hannover) are included in project community building/dissemination activities, together with CECIMO communication activities.
Potential Impact:
The following information can be found also under the PUDF document (“Plan for Use and Dissemination of Foreground”) submitted by the consortium. The exploitable results (ERs) achieved by the EMC2-Factory project are reported in the following table (please see attached PDF for the complete info and table). As can be seen, the number is high (34). Nevertheless, following an Exploitation Seminar (ESIC) delivered by the EC services to the consortium, it was decided to concentrate the analysis of potential impact and market share, on a lower number (13) of ERs (see Chapter 4.2 part B2 in this document).
Moreover, chapter 4.2 (“Use and dissemination of foreground”) is reporting the main dissemination activities that were performed, as summarized in 2 separate tables:
- Table 1 (Template A1): List of all scientific (peer reviewed) publications relating to the foreground of the project.
- Table 2 (Template A2): List of all dissemination activities (publications, conferences, workshops, web sites/applications, press releases, flyers, articles published in the popular press, videos, media briefings, presentations, exhibitions, thesis, interviews, films, TV clips, posters).
The EMC²-Factory project is expected to develop a radically new paradigm for cost-effective, highly productive, energy-efficient and sustainable production systems, by using a breakthrough approach in:
- defining economically and ecologically oriented requirements for processes, equipment and management strategies, and provide system solutions to meet these requirements;
- defining enabling technologies to provide resource and emission reduction in manufacturing systems;
- providing integration technology reference models enabling and supporting new sustainable production processes;
- developing new factory design tools aimed at increasing overall energy/resource efficiency;
- providing standards for economically and environmentally sound factory infrastructures.
The project is dedicated to an overall approach. The impact expected from it is linked to partners’ internal strategies for implementing new methods in the coming years, as it is very obvious that regulation on the one hand, economic advantages and also shortage of certain materials on the other, will force industry to go into this direction. The following figure indicates that the development of a holistic description of a green factory goes well beyond single domains of technology. It is based on a company internal strategic planning and shows that there are some important levers that are basically “non-technology” if one is used to refer for instance to reducing CO2 emission to specific filter technologies or special combustion processes.
This way, the main areas are addressed that one has to observe and implement, when the goal is to reach significant improvements for energy efficiency, energy recovery or resource efficiency, as proposed by EU 2020 strategy. The work on these 5 areas is reflected in the project as following:
- Organization: refers to new ways of workflow and of including processes and line simulations at higher level of management decisions.
- Logistics: On the one hand this is linked to “organization”, on the other has to be discussed in terms on energy footprint.
- Control: Control issues start at control implemented in machinery, but also for aligning cells and lines. At the same time control refers to higher level software which links shop floor events and decisions directly to management procedures and planning.
- Shop floor operations: questions concerning energy and resource efficiency as well as energy recovery on “normal” shop floor operations.
- High energy operations: reach a high standard of material substitution or minimizing energy use for certain processes.
The discussion of these levers leads to the estimated impact (change compared to today’s level in %) versus time, the final goal for 2020 being defined by the EU 2020 Strategy.
Impact in more detail – can be seen under four areas of focus:
- Impact 1: Increase in competitiveness and sustainability of manufacturing processes, by advanced design options and guidelines for the manufacturing of new greener products with tailored properties, e.g. using additive manufacturing to decrease waste.
- Impact 2: Strengthening the environmental performance of the eco-factories by reducing resource consumption, energy and waste by at least 20%.
- Impact 3: Improving the development and access to markets of innovative environmental technologies, helping SMEs adapt to emerging market needs and protecting and creating new job opportunities.
- Impact 4: Knowledge of new scientific, technical, economic and social factors to support European policy development and the standardisation and definition of eco-labelled processes and products.
“Secondary impact” can be observed as a consequence of the work of academia and research: the project interlinks important research organizations and universities as well as an important association. All of them will have significant share in multiplying the impact of this project. The goal is the fulfilment of the Europe 2020 strategy of the European Commission, a strategy that is covering a ten year time span. This means that the results of today’s industrial projects from our partners of the research institutions will have reached the implementation stage. Therefore the thinking and work of the EMC2-Factory project will be multiplied, with universities consider that the young researcher now to be working on the project will have several years of working experience in 2020 in companies that have no other choice but to move towards the green factory which also means the results we produce are multiplied in their impact. The academic partners have an impressive list of projects, lectures and publications that are relevant for the Call’s topic and are / will be taught to their students.
List of Websites:
https://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160108051407/http://www.emc2-factory.eu/en/home
In the site the list of all the beneficiaries with the corresponding contact names can be found
According to the International Energy Agency, manufacturing is responsible for approximately 37% of global primary energy consumption being the largest energy consumer and CO2 producer. Improvement of energy and resource efficiency is the key to reduce environmental impact and is mentioned as driver to achieve the European 20/20/20 goal. Hence, European manufacturers have to rethink their current ideas about the design and management of the manufacturing systems, to take a significant step towards the new resource/energy efficient, sustainable factories.
The EMC2-Factory project aimed at enabling European manufacturing industries to overachieve Europe 2020 program targets through development of a breakthrough paradigm for cost-effective, highly productive, energy-efficient and sustainable production systems, through:
- Definition of a holistic perspective of the economically and ecologically oriented factory;
- Development and evaluation of new enabling technologies to guarantee resource usage and emission reduction in manufacturing systems;
- Development and extension of new factory design, planning and optimization tools to improve energy/resource efficiency, exploiting building-production equipment interaction;
- Provision of integration reference models and guidelines to support the shift towards new sustainable production;
- Definition of standards for economically and environmentally sound factories.
EMC2-Factory has improved and developed new technologies and processes, combining existing tools and methods in an overall integrated framework, to achieve economic and ecologic factories. It focuses on main energy intensive processes within the most relevant industrial sectors in Europe (automotive, rail and aerospace), developing tangible and industry relevant results to be easily implemented in cross-sectorial manufacturing environments. To assure the impact on European economy, EMC2-Factory partnership includes main industrial players (as well as SMEs) in manufacturing, highly-recognized research centers and universities and one of the main European industrial associations. The project results are therefore leading to a sustainable, as well as economically profitable, green factory framework. The new established paradigm will become a permanent reference point in European Manufacturing.
Project Context and Objectives:
According to the International Energy Agency, manufacturing is responsible for approximately 37% of global primary energy consumption being the largest energy consumer and CO2 producer. Improvement of energy/resource efficiency is the key to reduce environmental impact and is mentioned as driver to achieve European 20/20/20 goal. Hence, European manufacturers have to rethink their current ideas about design and management of manufacturing systems, to take a significant step towards the new resource/energy efficient, sustainable factories.
EMC2-Factory project is aiming at enabling European manufacturing industries to overachieve Europe 2020 program targets through development of a breakthrough paradigm for cost-effective, highly productive, energy-efficient and sustainable production systems, through:
- Definition of a holistic perspective of the economically and ecologically oriented factory;
- Development and evaluation of new enabling technologies to guarantee resource usage and emission reduction in manufacturing systems;
- Development and extension of new factory design, planning and optimization tools to improve energy/resource efficiency, exploiting building-production equipment interaction;
- Provision of integration reference models and guidelines to support the shift towards new sustainable production;
- Definition of standards for economically and environmentally sound factories.
EMC2-Factory is fostering to improve and develop new technologies and processes, combining existing tools and methods in an overall integrated framework, to achieve economic and ecologic factories. It is focusing on main energy intensive processes within the most relevant industrial sectors in Europe (automotive, rail and aerospace), developing tangible and industry relevant results to be easily implemented in cross-sectorial manufacturing environments. To assure the impact on European economy, EMC2-Factory partnership includes main Industrial players (as well as SMEs) in manufacturing, highly-recognized Research Centers and Universities and one of the main European industrial associations. The final project results will therefore lead to a sustainable, as well as economically profitable, green factory framework. The new established paradigm will become a permanent reference point in European Manufacturing.
PROJECT'S VISION: By 2020, European transport sector eco-factories will be able to reduce energy and resource-consumption and emission more than 30% per output unit below 1990 levels.
Starting from the vision, it is clear that research effort is required in order to provide manufacturing companies with advanced tools and sustainable technologies to go towards future eco-factories. Hence, the overall objectives of the EMC2-Factory project are defined as follows.
OVERALL OBJECTIVE: Enable European manufacturing industries to overachieve Europe 2020 program targets through development of advanced sustainable technologies, methods and tools while enabling industrial applicability and commercial exploitation.
From this overall target, an integrated set of objectives are derived, with respect of Businesses (Business Objectives), Science and Technology (Scientific and Technological Objectives), and Consensus building (Consensus Objectives).
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES:
- To increase production systems profitability and allow access to new markets through improvements in energy efficiency emission and cost effectiveness;
- To realize economically and ecologically sound processes which are able to move into new markets and product areas rapidly;
- To realize more knowledge-intensive processes which are based on the wide diffusion and re-use of eco-solutions;
- To realize more robust businesses through eco-solutions which are scalable and recoverable;
- To realize more valuable businesses from a long term and more general perspective.
From the perspective of the overall program, the fulfilment of the scientific and technological objectives and the consensus objective are the means to achieving the business objectives.
TECHNOLOGICAL OBJECTIVES:
- To define an enabling technology reference model that provides resource and emission reduction foundation for specific process innovations;
- To provide integration technology reference model solutions which enable and support the above;
- To provide appropriate factory design tools and methods towards more energy and resource efficiency which enterprises can use to manage organizational roles, skills, competencies, and knowledge assets for its own operation and for collaboration with other enterprises;
- To define economically and ecologically oriented requirements for processes, equipment and management strategies and provide system solutions, using the above technologies, that meet these requirements;
- To provide standards for economically and ecologically sound factory infrastructures.
In order to generate optimal impact, required for the fulfilment of the business objectives, the results of the EMC2-Factory initiative need to reach as many end users, researchers, technology providers and other stakeholders as possible who constitute the broad manufacturing community. The EMC2-Factory initiative's main Consensus objective is to gain the support of a critical mass of the European manufacturing community.
CONSENSUS OBJECTIVE: Establish a permanent World-Class European Hub on Sustainable Manufacturing acting as a reference point in Eco-Factories issues to be recognized by research and industry community.
- Contribute to establish Eco-labelled process standards to support European policy.
PROJECT’S APPROACH:
In order to successfully reach the main objectives of EMC2-Factory, the project defines both a technological and holistic approach.
A first scientific stage of the project is defined to address the requirements analysis and review of enabling technologies, and it represents the foundation of the project. In fact, this activity generates and presents the sound knowledge on top of which advances in research and development are built. Since EMC2-Factory will use the latest technologies in an integrated approach aiming at the future Eco-Factory, a thorough investigation of Best Available Technologies (BAT) is also performed. This stage of the project is performed inside the first technical workpackage (WP2).
Secondarily three parallel streams of research and development are focusing on the main technological drivers affecting eco-performances in a factory: process technology, process control, production management and optimization(WPs 3, 4, 5). In these activities:
- existing process technologies are evaluated and improved in terms of their eco-efficiency performance to address the re-engineering of process technologies;
- controls, sensing and actuating technologies are investigated in order to improve the eco-efficient as well as resource efficient operations through enhanced real-time control of machines, cells, lines;
- and finally the project investigates the management of resources (machines, buildings, people, etc.) in order to improve the eco-impact of factories through appropriate planning and control of activities, given the required production.
The third scientific stage (WP6) investigates the integrated adoption of these technologies in a holistic approach. Hence it investigates at factory level how to use, with an integrated approach, different techniques to go towards the envisioned Eco-Factory, e.g. exploiting availability of information about resources consumption, different eco-efficient process technology solutions, as well as enhanced eco-efficient management of resources.
After the scientific stages, three demonstration WPs (7, 8, 9) address the implementation of the concept developed in the project into three different sectors, Aerospace [Aciturri], Automotive [COMAU], Rail [Siemens].
Finally all the activities that support the exploitation and dissemination of project results to the scientific and industrial society are addressed in the last workpackage (WP10). Among these activities there are: Dissemination, Exploitation, and Innovation Transfer. Using the output of all other activities, this workpackage will publicly present the project results, using the most appropriate approaches (publication, exhibition, etc.). All these activities are necessary in order to support and reinforce the impact of the project results on the society, considering both industry and academy (European Hub on Sustainable Manufacturing).
Project Results:
Many significant results were achieved during the project’s execution. The Project has been dealing with the main technological levels in the manufacturing processes from device level technologies and tools to holistic manufacturing approach. Since this structure was reflected in the organization of the workpackages, the following description follows the organization of the project itself in order to simplify the identification and localization of the developed foreground.
Requirements Analysis and Review of Enabling Technologies (WP2)
The main objective was to define the requirements for a greener and more resource efficient production system taking into account the different industrial environments of the manufacturing partners within the consortium. The analysis of the functional requirements of the technical production environments taken into consideration ensures the definition of main requirements and specifications for the eco-factory. This analysis includes the following tasks:
- analysis of functional requirements for new clean and resource-efficient production;
- analysis of technical production environments;
- review, evaluation (through appropriate Key Performance Indicators), and selection of best existing technologies to fulfill the defined functional requirements and to ensure their applicability;
- holistic vision for the future eco-factory which serves as a reference.
Process Technologies Re-engineering (WP3)
Process technologies for all considered process domains and for all considered sectors have been selected and evaluated. The following topics have been investigated and developed:
- Machining MQL process. Different MQL lubricants have been tested in order to identify the better oil to improve tool wear resistance on materials;
- Machining alternative process cooling systems for tool wear resistance improvement;
- Optimization and increasing machining efficiency (Eco Efficient Machine Center), with development of measures to reduce energy consumption;
- New solutions to improve energy savings in compressed air system;
- Alternative joining technologies based on FSW for rail and optimization of laser for automotive applications;
- Optimized resistance spot welding gun with compact solution for automotive application;
- Remote laser welding process optimization with process line impact evaluation for extension to Body side application on production line environment.
Significant results:
- Evaluation of applicable joining technologies alternative to those currently used by industrial partners;
- Definition of design of experiments aimed at preliminarily assessing the suitability of alternative technologies;
- Protocols for the calculation of energy consumption of joining processes;
- Implementation of a strategies for the definition of a methodology suitable to compare energy consumption between investigated processes;
- Remote laser welding process optimisation - process parameters have been identified for the most relevant joint configurations, both in 2 and 3 layer configurations.
Production Control Systems Re-engineering (WP4)
Identification and re-engineering of the production control systems needed to manage the eco-efficient technologies investigated and developed previously. The resulting systems are intended to be used to control the technologies that are installed in the project’s demonstrators. Two main steps have been performed:
- an evaluation of the technologies available on the market, with the aim to identify inefficiency and possible areas of improvement and development;
- deep analysis to perform a step forward in order to re-engineer the present control architectures, to make it strongly oriented to the efficient control of energy and wastes as well as the performances of the production plant.
Significant results:
1) Assessment Tool for Actuation Technology in Efficient actuation systems:
- Algorithm for approximation of energy consumption (as total costs) of hydraulic, electric and pneumatic components, units and/or systems
- Comparison and break-even point calculation for different system configurations
2) Energy-efficient operation strategies for drive systems:
- Pneumatics: Novel valve cluster supporting flexibility for application-specific actuation concept, e.g. reduced pressure at end position, or load-adaptive fill-up of cylinder
- Electrics: Improved hardware as well as energy-optimized motion profiles
3) Energy-exact machine modelling for improved technology assessment:
- A software tool (demonstrator) that can evaluate the energy consumption of production machines by the use of simulation models
4) Performance-Optimized Machine Control on Machine Level:
- Energy-based control strategy that increases energy efficiency by keeping the machine tool in low energy states when production is not requested.
5) Performance-optimized machine control on plant level:
- Model Predictive Control technique that is able to manage control problems characterized by constraints both on the control actions and on the process variables by optimizing a performance formula.
6) Shopfloor scheduling with focus on resource efficiency:
- Multi criteria schedule generation framework
- Software that automatically generates a set of non-dominated solutions to the scheduling problem
7) Monitoring Concept of Pneumatic Module:
- Applicability case study
- Efficiency procedure costs and reference installation
- Prototype station with laboratory module implementation
- Prototype demonstration of smart energy shut down strategies within laboratory environment
- Setup of a mobile carrier to utilize the smart pneumatic monitor in multiple fields of application
- Development of a user visualisation (HMI) for quick analysis and evaluation of effects on energy efficiency
8) Lean & Green monitoring in production set-ups:
- Simple recommendation for suitable industrial energy sensing technology to acquire KPIs for transformation processes
- Description of technical characteristics to ease up the implementation of sensing technology
- Quick changes in production plan and process parameters can be applied and benchmarked dynamically with lean & green KPIs
- Applicability and interpretation effects on KPIs for process chain as well as single process or component level can be demonstrated
- Hardware prototype with 3 process steps is set up. Software visualization is currently developed
9) Smart Valve Terminal
- Concept for a lab-scale solution using a simple and already existing valve terminal adding a flow sensor and a control strategy on the PLC to become able to monitor leakages
10) Dynamic monitoring of Machine
- Concept for monitoring the dynamic performance of machine and machining operations
- study of appropriate sensors
Planning, Optimization and Life Cycle Evaluation (WP5)
The main aim was to develop or update methods and tools to support planning and evaluation of clean and competitive factory, considering both brownfield and greenfield projects.
Factory planning is understood for the purposes of this document as a design process that takes product and location of the factory as defined inputs and supports the decisions on processes, resources, material flow, layout, building and building services in order to finally come up with a detailed plan for a new or renewed factory. To achieve this, the planners have to follow a logical flow of decisions.
Adding the environmental perspective to factory planning increases complexity, effort for data gathering and analysis as well as lacks of transparency in decision making; all this in context in which planning resources (time, cost, and people) are limited due to market pressure. Therefore, the planner has to focus its activities on the most relevant planning tasks for eco-efficiency, increase transparency about environmental issues in the planning activities and create evaluation bases to achieve clearly set targets.
For this reasons supporting methods and tools were developed following the logical process of the factory planning based on a given product and location. Along with the definition of details of the factory to be planned, the number of alternatives that are considered for the evaluation reduces; hence when at the beginning several alternatives are evaluated at strategic level, towards the end usually one or maximum two alternatives are evaluated at detailed level.
Significant results:
- A method called Green Factory Planning that supports the whole factory planning process and helps the planner to follow all the steps needed to plan factories in which building and processes are considered together, achieving thus the maximum energy and resource efficiency. It includes a prioritization phase in which the most relevant activities required for the resource efficiency, are defined according to the specific factory project addressed.
- A “decision making tool” to support the initial decisions when buying a machine has been developed. This tool helps the user to make a quick estimation of the energy consumptions, related costs and possible savings on machine and line level.
- A framework and tool for lifecycle evaluation (LCE) of machines/factories has been developed. The framework defines the key life cycle phases to be considered for a factory, while the related tool supports the evaluation of the economic, environmental and social impacts of factories and their components along the life cycle phases.
- Guidelines for the definition of factory layout have been developed, as well as a concept to evaluate layout through alternative layers that show production, energy and resource related performance.
- A simulation environment tool for the detailed simulation and analysis of planning alternatives has been developed. The tool combines different approaches in order to support the optimization of energy/resource efficiency combining typical production with building simulation solutions.
In the Eco-Factory Advanced Design and Management by Integration of the advanced Technologies (WP6), the results from the previous activities have been collected and armonized in a consistent framework for the implementation in the following pilot cases.
A preliminary tree diagram guideline format with clear industrial relevance and applicability was prepared.
This activity has developed:
- an assessment strategy for energy and emission sensing in factory environments (brownfield /greenfield);
- monitoring strategy for seamless integration of energy sensors, communication infrastructure and visualization hardware on all levels of a production system;
- generic modules and guidelines for dynamic eco-KPI visualization on factory, process chain and unit process level.
WP6 has also developed a mobile multi sensor system for energy and emission measurement, targeting for example quick energy value stream analysis campaigns in production environments. The standardization activity aimed at providing compliance between the project results and national or international regulations related to environmental issues in manufacturing, in order to support industry with norms. The outcome of the activity is a full identification of relevant existing norms applicable to environmentally friendly manufacturing, and the definition of potential areas for future standards.
Significant results:
- survey of all existing standards and legislation relevant to environmental sustainability in manufacturing processes
- description of formal “Lean & Green” model and its application
- set of 28 guidelines developed during the project, in a standard template with all information needed for effective industrial application, at different factory levels and in different manufacturing environments
- definition and listing of 54 energy related KPIs for assessing the eco-performances of manufacturing systems, with a detailed indication of physical dimension, application level and addressed function
- Experimental setups and simulation tools for energy efficiency monitoring.
Pilot Cases.
The outcomes of the EMC2-Factory projects have been applied in three Pilot Cases developed in the three DEMO workpackages. The Pilots are oriented to the three main industries represented in the project: Aeronautics, Automotive and Railways.
- Aeronautics industry pilot (WP7)
The Aeronautics industry pilot demonstrates how the project provides valid solutions widely applicable at industrial level to design, build, and operate manufacturing plants, meeting the strictest requirements in terms of energy consumption, monitoring and control, energy recovery, and advanced systems optimization.
The pilot activities are divided in two iterative steps: laboratory and industrial environment conditions. In the first step, the new technological solutions was tested and evaluated through prototyping in a lab setup. The final validation has been subsequently carried over a real pilot related shop floor.
The Aerospace pilot aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed eco-process technologies by executing demonstration activities in process related aspects such as reduction of energy consumption, Minimum Quantity Lubricant or no-coolant machining, vibration analysis, external field assistance to reduce the energy needed for the process.
The pilot takes into consideration aircraft components; specifically the belly fairing of A380, a primary structural element supporting the exterior and aerodynamic panels and requiring a very strict tolerance. This component consists of different T-shape profiles with curvature, made of titanium or aluminum alloy depending on the exposure to corrosion. The machining of this highly precise and value-added part is very exigent and shall be improved mainly regarding its eco-efficiency aspects. This aerospace pilot plant is integrating the technological developments carried out at different production level: process, control and plant planning.
The concept of EMC2-Factory at process level is demonstrated by the effectiveness in aspects such as fluid or coolant reduction, increase of cutting tool life and energy consumption reduction. A factory design approach, integrating environmentally friendly process technologies with novel control systems through multi-objective simulation and optimization, to maximise production systems efficiency reducing resources consumption, is used in the pilot demonstration activities. For that, the aerospace pilot plant is integrating advanced energy measuring and monitoring sensors, as well as intelligent process strategies for resource and energy reduction.
Significant results
The following list includes the Identification of the result, a brief definition of the implementation, the achieved result and the TRL (Technology Readiness Levels).
Control strategies (achieved TRL: 6). Description:
1) Auto-switch-off of the machine after the machining program finished; Auto-stand-by mode of the machine after a programed waiting time;
- Almost negligible savings due to Stand-by (2.2%) and Auto-stop (0%) algorithms are reported. This result comes from the extreme high load rate of the machine (0.3% time of non-use per year) that makes that these algorithms would almost never works in this machine;
2) New hydraulic system design and control:
- High savings due to new algorithms for control the hydraulic system are reported: 19% of OMEC;
3) Chip removal system:
- High energy savings are reported due to new chip removal system: 6.1% of OMEC.
Analysis of energy consumption (mean values) - Assessment tool (Achieved TRL: 3-4). Description:
1) A Microsoft-Excel based tool, “Assessment Tool”, was developed for the evaluation of the energy efficiency of the main components of a machine tool and for the calculation of the profitability of changing these components for more efficient ones:
- The tool is useful for the evaluation of the profitability of changing some machine components and, for the comparison of different machines by the acquisition of a new one
New MQL Ti Machining Technology (achieved TRL: 7). Description:
1) Analysis of the MQL performance compared with the traditional coolant for lubrication of Ti machining :
- Less hazard refrigeration and environmentally friendly solution. With a carbon footprint reduction 37% and a 20% reduction of energetic power consumption
Feasibility of FSW as Assembly Technology (achieved TRL: 4). Description:
1) Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a promising alternative, preliminary FSW trials have been launched in order to measure power consumption, processing times and associated wastes and perform a trade-off study of both technologies; riveting and FSW
- More automated and sustainable solutions. With a carbon footprint reduction 51% and a 33% reduction of energetic power consumption
Analysis of energy consumption per part (CAD calculation) (achieved TRL:3). Description:
1) Development of a software based solution which can evaluate the energy consumption / energy efficiency of production machines by the use of a simulation approach:
- With the simulated energy demand, as base line scenario several “virtual” optimizations measures can be adopted (electric energy demand of the machine centre could be “virtually” lowered by 43% compared to the standard process and machine configuration)
Strategy for environmental assessment and optimization of aeronautic manufacturing plants (achieved TRL: 4). Description:
1) Monitor key performance indicators in relation to energy and resource use, at the machining facility
- Serves as a source for obtaining efficiency indicators for the production of the different aluminum pieces
- Automotive industry pilot (WP8)
The development of an Automotive Pilot consisted in four tasks going from preliminary concept of the pilots, to the design and development, the implementation of EMC2F solutions and in conclusion with testing and evaluation of the pilots.
Initially the pilot was identified and the analysis of the solutions developed in the project was performed in terms mainly of two different criteria: feasibility and potential eco-sustainability impacts on the automotive sectors.
Secondarily the activity continued with the conclusion of the concept phase and the identification of the industrial plants of Bielsko Biala, Iveco Turin, Melfi and Pomigliano in which it was planned to develop in details the best solutions for the two automotive sectors where COMAU is supplier: car body and powertrain components manufacturing.
The demonstration activities, both in car body welding and powertrain demos, have shown, through the combination of monitoring, simulation technologies and solution engineering, the correct path to deploy an eco-sustainable management of the factories as iterative process.
Body welding automotive manufacturing demos have been focused on a typical assembly and welding line of car body. Both overall global strategies, and detailed subsystems topics have been deeply analysed from the energy sustainability point of view.
Powertrain automotive manufacturing demos focus on typical machining lines for cylinder heads and cylinder blocks engines. The main results have been obtained in the areas of systems retrofitting (brownfield), and analysis and simulation for new production lines (greenfield).
The activity identified the following list of sub-projects as the most relevant:
Body Welding:
- Joining energy process optimization;
- Welding line lightening;
- Fluidics circuits optimization;
- Integrated drives;
- Dynamic energy simulation of welding lines;
- Life Cycle Evaluation;
- Data collection and monitoring;
Powertrain:
- Machine Structural Lightening;
- Energy Machine Modelling and Control;
- Decision Making Tool;
- Green Retooling;
- Data collection and monitoring.
The main significant results were:
- Definition of the automotive body welding pilot environment
- Definition of the automotive powertrain machining pilot environment
- Pilot specification including technology testing vs. eco-performance assurance
Rail industry pilot (WP9)
For the Rail Industry Pilot, five measures have been identified for the pilot case in the Siemens Train Factory located in Vienna. First analyses, driven by Siemens AG with contribution of all partners involved in the railways demo pilot, brought to the identification of the specific focus of the pilot on a building in which main processes are conducted (machining and welding). This building was chosen because it was representative of common processes for train manufacturing, because of the complexity of the material and production flow and because it had already been improved from energy perspective (building improvements) – hence more than state-of-the-art solutions had to be investigated. TUB IFW together Siemens AG applied the approach developed within WP6, made several energy measurement campaigns to identify hot-spots and driver in the selected case, and carried out an extended energy value stream of the production processes that take place within the selected building. Several measures have been investigated and some of them have then developed and implemented. In particular FESTO and TUB IWF contributed to development and implementation of the smart pneumatic monitoring system and energy management system. The other measures have been mainly driven and implemented by Siemens AG. Siemens (Austria) being the responsible for the selected factory provided all the factory-specific information about processes/building/machines and provided continuous feedbacks about the implementation of the research results.
Significant results
- Development and implementation of Energy Management System in the selected building
- Development and implementation of planning tool that consider also energy to support daily planning decision-making
- Development and test of smart pneumatic monitoring and control at selected workplaces within the pilot building
- Comparison of current welding technology (GMAW) with alternative (FSW and laser technologies) from energetic viewpoint
- Test of additional components and control policies to reduce energy consumption on welding and machining processes
Exploitation, Dissemination, and Innovation Transfer (WP10)
The main objective of this work package is to assure that the outcome of the project will flow into cross-sectorial European industrial companies as well as the academy through appropriate communication, and exploitation activities. The following tasks were defined and executed:
- “Business strategies for exploitation”, which has carried on the planning and coordination of the whole consortium activities for successful delivery of the project solutions to final users and has provided a detailed plan of use of the project exploitable results by each partner (individual exploitation plans) as reported in project Plan of Use and Dissemination of Foreground (PUDF) document.
Furthermore the collective strategy of the project results utilization was provided in the PUDF together with a detailed risk analysis and action prioritization of the key exploitable results.
- “Dissemination”, which provided the definition and control of Strategic Dissemination Plan, including the development of project dissemination KPIs and their continuous monitoring. The task has provided design, development and update of all the project Public Relations materials, such as the project website, project flyers and posters, presentation formats, and, finally, has delivered a 50 pages full color printed and electronic format brochure. The project brochure has been built with the active collaboration of FESTO and participation of all the consortium partners. The project profile and exploitable results in the brochure have been made available on the web on the EFFRA innovation portal (www.effra.eu) as well. The task activities have included a measurable plan of partecipation to high impact events such as international level scientific conferences (APMS2013/14, GCSM 2014, etc.) and industrial workshops for both and LEs and SMEs, such as Lamiera (Italy), Industrial Technologies (Denmark, 2012), Industrial Technologies (Athens 2014). Task 10.2 ha guaranteed a significant exposure to both industrial and academic communities by establishing new links (and strengthening the already existing) with well-recognized international and national associations, such as EFFRA, CIRP, IMS. The task has planned and performed publications and special sessions in high ranked international conferences and journals. In particular a consortium partners task force has organized and contributed with papers to the Special Sessions in conferences IECON 2013 (Austria) and APMS 2014 (France). The academic partners have updated their university courses and, by their “learning factories” laboratories, have provided to managers, academics, students and general public effective hands on experiences of the solutions developed in the project and of their benefits.
- “Community building and innovation transfer”, which has guaranteed the industrial spread of the research developed in the consortium, in close connection with European research associations and Science and Technology Parks, by involving the companies potentially interested in the project in seminars and workshops focused on industrial impact. The actual experiences and success stories of the project have been directly presented to the audience by the industrial partners involved in the pilot applications: the seminars, designed in order to allow effective delivery to both LEs and SMEs, have been completed by strategic Q&A sessions. For instance, in this context, workshops, seminars and strategic and visionary discussions have taken place in Kilometro Rosso S&T Park (Italy), MUSP (Italy) and in important industrial fairs, such as EMO Hannover (Germany) and BIEHM Bilbao (Spain). Furthermore, seminars and publications tailored to non-scientific public and magazines (e.g Sistemi & Impresa magazine in Italy) have been delivered.
Significant results
- The overall work-package strategy and plans have been developed and shared with the consortium partners establishing a common vision.
- A common branding image has been devised, by means of project logo and coordinated graphic design, and enacted accordingly in the project website, presentation, flyer, posters.
- Project exploitation / dissemination on community building activities have been strategically planned, performed and monitored, together with the design and continuous update of dissemination material and website.
- Four scientific publications and eight industrial targeted events (including worldwide- level workshops such as APMS 2012 and Industrial Technologies 2012) have been delivered (data updated 23/4/2013).
- Several wide audience events such as Siemens and POLIMI workshops in Industrial Technologies 2012 (Aarhus) and the upcoming workshop in EMO 2013 (Hannover) are included in project community building/dissemination activities, together with CECIMO communication activities.
Potential Impact:
The following information can be found also under the PUDF document (“Plan for Use and Dissemination of Foreground”) submitted by the consortium. The exploitable results (ERs) achieved by the EMC2-Factory project are reported in the following table (please see attached PDF for the complete info and table). As can be seen, the number is high (34). Nevertheless, following an Exploitation Seminar (ESIC) delivered by the EC services to the consortium, it was decided to concentrate the analysis of potential impact and market share, on a lower number (13) of ERs (see Chapter 4.2 part B2 in this document).
Moreover, chapter 4.2 (“Use and dissemination of foreground”) is reporting the main dissemination activities that were performed, as summarized in 2 separate tables:
- Table 1 (Template A1): List of all scientific (peer reviewed) publications relating to the foreground of the project.
- Table 2 (Template A2): List of all dissemination activities (publications, conferences, workshops, web sites/applications, press releases, flyers, articles published in the popular press, videos, media briefings, presentations, exhibitions, thesis, interviews, films, TV clips, posters).
The EMC²-Factory project is expected to develop a radically new paradigm for cost-effective, highly productive, energy-efficient and sustainable production systems, by using a breakthrough approach in:
- defining economically and ecologically oriented requirements for processes, equipment and management strategies, and provide system solutions to meet these requirements;
- defining enabling technologies to provide resource and emission reduction in manufacturing systems;
- providing integration technology reference models enabling and supporting new sustainable production processes;
- developing new factory design tools aimed at increasing overall energy/resource efficiency;
- providing standards for economically and environmentally sound factory infrastructures.
The project is dedicated to an overall approach. The impact expected from it is linked to partners’ internal strategies for implementing new methods in the coming years, as it is very obvious that regulation on the one hand, economic advantages and also shortage of certain materials on the other, will force industry to go into this direction. The following figure indicates that the development of a holistic description of a green factory goes well beyond single domains of technology. It is based on a company internal strategic planning and shows that there are some important levers that are basically “non-technology” if one is used to refer for instance to reducing CO2 emission to specific filter technologies or special combustion processes.
This way, the main areas are addressed that one has to observe and implement, when the goal is to reach significant improvements for energy efficiency, energy recovery or resource efficiency, as proposed by EU 2020 strategy. The work on these 5 areas is reflected in the project as following:
- Organization: refers to new ways of workflow and of including processes and line simulations at higher level of management decisions.
- Logistics: On the one hand this is linked to “organization”, on the other has to be discussed in terms on energy footprint.
- Control: Control issues start at control implemented in machinery, but also for aligning cells and lines. At the same time control refers to higher level software which links shop floor events and decisions directly to management procedures and planning.
- Shop floor operations: questions concerning energy and resource efficiency as well as energy recovery on “normal” shop floor operations.
- High energy operations: reach a high standard of material substitution or minimizing energy use for certain processes.
The discussion of these levers leads to the estimated impact (change compared to today’s level in %) versus time, the final goal for 2020 being defined by the EU 2020 Strategy.
Impact in more detail – can be seen under four areas of focus:
- Impact 1: Increase in competitiveness and sustainability of manufacturing processes, by advanced design options and guidelines for the manufacturing of new greener products with tailored properties, e.g. using additive manufacturing to decrease waste.
- Impact 2: Strengthening the environmental performance of the eco-factories by reducing resource consumption, energy and waste by at least 20%.
- Impact 3: Improving the development and access to markets of innovative environmental technologies, helping SMEs adapt to emerging market needs and protecting and creating new job opportunities.
- Impact 4: Knowledge of new scientific, technical, economic and social factors to support European policy development and the standardisation and definition of eco-labelled processes and products.
“Secondary impact” can be observed as a consequence of the work of academia and research: the project interlinks important research organizations and universities as well as an important association. All of them will have significant share in multiplying the impact of this project. The goal is the fulfilment of the Europe 2020 strategy of the European Commission, a strategy that is covering a ten year time span. This means that the results of today’s industrial projects from our partners of the research institutions will have reached the implementation stage. Therefore the thinking and work of the EMC2-Factory project will be multiplied, with universities consider that the young researcher now to be working on the project will have several years of working experience in 2020 in companies that have no other choice but to move towards the green factory which also means the results we produce are multiplied in their impact. The academic partners have an impressive list of projects, lectures and publications that are relevant for the Call’s topic and are / will be taught to their students.
List of Websites:
https://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160108051407/http://www.emc2-factory.eu/en/home
In the site the list of all the beneficiaries with the corresponding contact names can be found
