Weight reduction and cost savings have driven composites research towards a number of recent high profile achievements. The increased use of anisotropic AL/CFRP/Ti stacks in aircraft structures has in turn created enormous challenges for the industry due to the difficulties that arise from drilling these heterogeneous stack materials. The project ECSASDPE focuses on the staff exchange and the development of key enabling techniques and equipment for the orbital drilling process of stacked AL/CFRP/Ti. The objectives of the project are given as follows:
• Establish a long-term research cooperation platform through the ECSASDPE joint programme by exchange of researchers for short periods during the project. As the research work is fully supported by partners’ existing projects and their own resources, in such a case, a long-term research cooperation platform ECSASDPE will be firmly established, and will be in function even after the project period.
• Exchange ideas and technology concepts for further development of novel machining processes and innovative productive equipment for effectively and automatically producing satisfactory holes on AL/CFRP/Ti stacks. All the consortium partners have been actively working on international, national and regional research projects in robotics and automation, composite material machining, surface integrity for many years. The advanced knowledge and expertise will contribute to the development of new technologies on ECSASDPE.
• Strengthen research partnerships through staff exchanges and networking activities between European research organisations and Chinese institutions. Partners can learn from each other the new science and technology developments of orbital drilling technique and equipment technologies and benchmark them against their own developments. Each partner will have at least one publication on average each year. The consortium targets at least 3 patent applications during the project period.
• Take a synergistic approach to the research areas and explore novel methodologies and applications for potential major scientific and technological breakthroughs by optimal combination of the different backgrounds and disciplines from the partners.
The ultimate goal of ECSASDPE is to set up a long-term international and inter-sector collaboration consortium through research and innovation staff exchanges between 8 world-recognised institutions in the cutting-edge research area of high value manufacturing with promising applications in scientific and engineering sectors. The synergistic methodologies achieved by ECSASDPE will serve as the building blocks of the stacked composite material machining mechanism, equipment design, process monitor and control, and machining quality metrology and characterisation and scale up application, and thus enhance the leading position of the consortium for the scientific and technological progresses in high value manufacturing. This project is divided into six inter-related work packages: (1) Setup of knowledge base and road mapping; (2) Fundamentals of drilling process; (3) Key techniques for Equipment development; (4) System integration and performance verification; (5) Dissemination and exploitation, and (6) Project management. The work packages integrate all activities that will lead to the accomplishment of all the project objectives within 66 months.
