Funding:
HAZITEK Program. SPRI, Basque Government
Co-financed by the Basque Government and the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund 2014-2020 (FEDER).
Project:
“New manufacturing and automation technologies for a CONtrolled, FLexible, Efficient and Sustainable process applied to the machining of high performance materials used in the manufacture of complex components for the aeronautical sector” and acronym “CONFLES”.
File no: ZE-2023/00005
Project information:
Start and end date:
Start: April 1, 2023
End: December 31, 2025
Overall budget:
€3.405.521,36
Coordinator:
EGILE MECHANICS
Number of participants:
10
Description and objectives:
Engine companies in the aeronautical sector, as well as TIER 2 companies dedicated to the manufacture of complex components, face major challenges in the forming of their parts. The main difficulty is related to the type of materials used, especially in the manufacture of components located in the hot zones of the engine. Ni and titanium-based superalloys, which have good high-temperature properties, are commonly used. However, the complex machinability of these materials, mainly due to their hardness, ultimately affects the productivity and efficiency of the process.
The productivity and efficiency of the manufacturing process of high-performance materials is often conditioned by the tool life, which is considerably reduced compared to the processing of other types of materials. In this respect, diamond dressing and tool change operations represent significant losses. In the standard equipment available, which allows the flexibility of the internal process developed to be maintained, the grinding head has to travel long distances to the diamond dresser. In addition, the tool magazine does not have sufficient capacity to store twin grinding wheels. It is possible to find dual-head equipment that performs both grinding and dressing operations at the same time, but the orientation of the workpiece is unique, which reduces the flexibility of the current process.
For this reason, it is essential to incorporate new manufacturing and automation technologies, which allow the productivity and competitiveness of the process to continue to improve, through the joint participation of different agents in the development of R&D projects, such as the CONFLES project. The final objective of the project is to incorporate new manufacturing and automation technologies that allow for a more controlled, flexible, efficient and sustainable process.
FAGOR AUTOMATION will lead the development of a complete multi-channel model of the grinding wheel lubrication system. This model will incorporate the graphical representations of the robot and the grinding machine. The model must simulate the tracking and/or synchronisation between the process executed by the grinding machine and the robot, so that the nozzle placed on the robot follows the part programme in position and orientation, even in the event of changes in the position of the part on the tooling, changes to which it must adapt.
Participants:
PARTICIPATING COMPANIES:
- EGILE MECHANICS (LIDER)
- IBARMIA
- FAGOR AUTOMATION
- SMARTPM
- SARIKI
RESEARCH CENTERS:
- TECNALIA
- FAGOR AOTEK S. COOP.
- EIS
- UPV/EHU
- VICOMTECH
