A data-driven remanufacturing process for sheet metal and thermoplastic composites

ongoing

The COMPASS project is driven by the needs to on the one hand increase the efficiency of recycling and remanufacturing processes (for sheet metal parts) and on the other hand by the need to find a solution for large quantities of thermoplastic fibre-reinforced components at their end of life. In both cases the proposed approach is to take a shortcut by remanufacturing the components at the level of sheet metal and composite panels instead of converting them to secondary raw material. This will be achieved through (thermo-)forming processes that allow the re-shaping of parts and components to give them a second and third life. These remanufacturing processes will be supported by a set of digital tools that build upon a digital component passport. The tools will enable efficient dismantling processes to extract sheets or panels e.g. from an aircraft and will help to collect relevant information about the components during their lifetime. The main use cases are from the aerospace and automotive sector and include key actors along the value chain. By using digital information about defects, re-work or repair done during the lifetime of the components. The quality of the resulting, remanufactured output parts will be optimized. A remanufacturing process planning software will also optimize the match between input components and targeted output parts. The COMPASS project will initiate more than 6M€ of private investments in technology development and implementation of remanufacturing process in the use cases investigated in the project. The overall goal is to enable the remanufacturing of about 30% of sheet metal parts and thermoplastic composite panels.