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Design your own shoes
Imagine designing your own shoes while paying mass-produced prices. This is just what the EU-funded DOROTHY project has made possible while strengthening European shoe manufacturers’ capability to face global market challenges. Customers will be able to walk into a DOROTHY shop, have their feet measured and specify their desired fit, function and style. The customised design would then be manufactured in a multi-site factory, designed thanks to DOROTHY tools.
European shoe manufacturers face intense and growing competition from developing countries offering low-cost workforces for labour-intensive, low value added goods. Moreover these countries are rapidly modernising their production methods and enhancing their technological capacities.
DOROTHY has developed tools and methodologies enabling, on one hand, the design of customer-driven, added value shoes and, on the other, the design, configuration and reconfiguration of flexible multi-site digital production facilities to manufacture them. The project also developed the necessary business model to enable the interaction between the tools and reduce the gap between value perception and value proposition for these customised products.
A key result has been the development of a multi-client factory layout planner which provides a natural and intuitive approach to the different phases of configuration and reconfiguration of production plants. This innovation has enabled DOROTHY to move beyond the footwear sector, with validation of its tools in a different manufacturing sector, namely woodworking.
The resulting design tools and innovative business model represent valuable foundations for the future collaborative, open and service-oriented European platform for manufacturing engineering as a whole.
Modular Production System Boosts in-House Assembly
A large and growing proportion of European assembly activities are being outsourced to non-EU countries. The EU-funded IDEAS project has now developed a flexible approach to automated production to make assembly in-house more cost effective, particularly for new products and markets. It introduces an entirely new way of developing production systems based on highly automated modules which can be combined as required with no programming or expert knowledge required.
The evolvable assembly system consists of self-configuring, highly adaptive and process-oriented components which shift the technological focus from complex, flexible, multi-purpose systems to simpler, dedicated machine modules with embedded controllers that are maintained by a highly distributed control system. Communication between the modules establishes what functionality is required each time a module is added, activating the pre-programmed code accordingly. IDEAS has now been applied within a medical testing/production system at FESTO (see figure). If the system requires DNA testing, such a module is added. If any other testing is suddenly demanded, only the needed modules are replaced. The time taken is only a few seconds and anyone is able to do it. Other systems are being built for high-variant products such as automotive Engine Control Units and washing machine components.
The highly flexible and modular IDEAS production system enables small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to invest in automation gradually and without any need for expert knowledge. SMEs can now keep production in-house and eliminate outsourcing. Their product designers will know, from the outset, which design aspects correspond to which production machine component.
This innovative technology will help improve the competitiveness of European SMEs. Companies will not have to train personnel to program and run automation equipment. Moreover, the modules are reusable, so SMEs can lease rather than having to purchase the equipment. The result is a dramatic reduction in costs when automating – allowing for more product variants, shorter time-to-market and the industrialisation of products which cannot be assembled manually.
FIBLYS – a "Swiss-knife" Nano-tool
Seeing is believing – and understanding. When it comes to analysing and controlling matter at nano-scale this however requires highly sophisticated instruments.
The FIBLYS tool offers unique opportunities for analysing and designing new nano-scale materials in a more accurate and efficient way.
Today, industry can rely on a variety of single instruments to analyse materials at micro-and nanoscale. A key problem is that different modes for measurements and manipulation are realised with separate instruments. This causes a number of problems, most importantly contamination during transfer, ease of use, and the difficulty to target the same area with different methods and combine the data.
The research team of the EU project "FIBLYS" succeeded in combining several analytical, manipulation and modification methods into one instrument. All techniques form a modular system so that the interested user can choose a desired combination of them. It is thus flexible to different needs of various R&D fields.
Nano-membranes against global warming (NanoGLOWA)
The ultimate way to capture carbon dioxide from flue gasses is with the use of membranes. Membrane technology is an attractive alternative for molecular separations because of its high energy efficiency, small foot print and reliability - no moving parts.
Membrane systems do not require any chemicals and neither do they need any regeneration steps.
The world most focused and comprehensive efforts in membrane development for CO2 capture from flue gasses have been executed in NanoGLOWA. The FP6 project has reached an important milestone towards industrial breakthrough: at 3 different coal-fired power stations industrial pilots proved that polymer membranes withstand long term flue gas exposure while performing at high selectivity and with good fluxes
Lighter, innovative materials for multipurpose industrial applications (Nanotough)
Lighter and more resistant materials are needed to construct cars and aeroplanes that consume less fuel, have lower operational costs and a lower environmental impact.
The EU funded NANOTOUGH project has created several polymeric materials that could meet these challenges.
NANOTOUGH is optimising and developing new nanocomposite materials that can serve as an alternative to conventional polymer materials that are heavier or much more expensive. Imagine an automotive bumper that only weights half of conventional bumpers but has the same or even better properties. A prototype of such a bumper has been produced with the new materials developed within the NANOTOUGH project. The bumper will be evaluated in a crash test at the end of 2011. A success of NANOTOUGH materials in such a critical application will open the door to many other applications with strong requirements in regard to impact resistance, for example in aeronautics.
Organic Nanomaterials for environmentally friendly devices (ONE-P)
ONE-P has invented a great variety of new materials that can be used in an emerging industrial field of great prospects called “Plastic Electronics”. Europe is still leading the emerging industrial field of plastic electronics which has a current market value of 1 billion euro.
“Plastic Electronics” enables the production of light, thin, flexible and cost effective devices. For a great number of applications, these organic materials can be tailored to reduce energy consumption and establish more environmentally friendly production processes.
These new materials and process technologies are needed for several applications such as low cost solar cells; efficient, lighting devices; printable backplanes for and lighter electronic books. Health applications will include highly sensitive, low cost, portable and reliable sensors which would allow to detect, for example, asthma, glaucoma or toxic gases to meet the increasing needs of affordable health and environmental monitoring sectors. These applications will very probably be on the market in a few years.
Flexible manufacturing for a competitive European industry (XPRESS)
Today's customers demand products that are tailored to their individual needs. Manufacturers need flexible systems to meet variations without slowing down the process or increasing costs.
The EU funded XPRESS project mobilised manufacturing industries and the most relevant skills in Europe to improve the production of electrical components, vehicles and aeroplanes. The XPRESS Manufactron system has been certified for safety and quality and incorporated into the Airbus Super-Jumbo production line at Nordenham. FP6 project XPRESS - Flexible Production experts for reconfigurable assembly technology.
Producing Clean Water from Smoke (CAPWA)
CapWa applies membrane technology to produce clean water from the water vapour present in the air or in the smoke emitted by various industries.
The project aims for a commercially available system in 2 to 3 years time. Recent press releases in English and Chinese sparked considerable interest in CapWa technology, both from the media and from potential end users.
FP7 project CapWa - Capture of evaporated Water with novel membranes
Exploring robotics for the factory of the future (COMET)
Today, EU manufacturing enterprises, in particular SMEs, have to adapt to global competitive pressures by developing the necessary enabling technologies to support EU manufacturing across a broad range of sectors.
COMET perfectly fits this aim. Since the start in September 2010, the consortium already realized 7 robot cells which are or will be equipped with the outcomes of this challenging project.
FP7 project COMET - Plug-and-produce COmponents and METhods for adaptive control of industrial robots enabling cost effective, high precision manufacturing in factories of the future
EU Research Team Develop textiles to kill MRSA Superbug in Hospitals (BioElectricSurface)
Partners of the research project BioElectricSurface, have developed textiles that will kill the MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) superbug. The technology developed could significantly improve cleanliness in hospitals and help to reduce the occurrence of hospital-acquired infections
The team has used nanomaterials that activate agents to kill MRSA on textiles used in hospital drapes*, bed linens and upholstery. Nanomaterials, which are a thousand times smaller than a human hair, are known to possess extra-ordinary physical and chemical properties.
New metallic materials to reduce energy needs (IMPRESS)
Alloys are metallic materials that are at the core of many industrial products. IMPRESS has become the world leading project in intermetallic materials and their applications.
This EU funded project created two novel alloys and demonstrated how these can dramatically improve the performance of gas turbines for aeroplanes and industrial catalysts.
