Due to the climate-damaging effect of greenhouse gases, the reduction of CO2 emissions is an essential and overriding global goal. The mobility sector is one of the main emitters of greenhouse gases. Therefore, providers of mobility services and systems in particular are facing a radical transformation process towards climate neutrality. This is especially the case for the automotive industry due to its large share of the mobility sector. Circular production is an important driver on the road to emission-free production. However, the increasing trend towards highly integrated, functional and multi-material components makes the development towards circularity more difficult. Such components often enable a higher lightweight construction potential (and thus the reduction of CO2 emissions during the use phase) through the implementation of lightweight structures, customer differentiation features, and offer the possibility of optimising component performance and manufacturing processes through the selective use of materials and the targeted combination of materials and semi-finished products (hybrid construction). On the other hand, there are challenges in the recycling of complex material composites, such as low product-specific return quantities and reduced quality properties of recycled materials (e.g. 17 to 96% tensile strength during pyrolysis of glass fibre-reinforced plastic compared to the primary material). Consequently, production processes for hybrid components must be able to react tolerantly or resiliently to variable properties of the recycled materials in the future. Despite their high environmental potential and suitability as key lightweight construction technologies, recycling and design for reusability have not been intensely researched. This is mainly due to the limited availability of recycled high-performance plastics (e.g. polyamide) and the associated batch-dependent fluctuations in quality, the challenges in processing, and the currently higher market prices for recyclates compared to virgin materials.
For a resilient, sustainable and circular implementation of recycled lightweight components, in addition to the implementation of Design for Re-X methods in the design phase, the production parameters must be limited on a model-based basis before the start of production in order to shorten start-up times. Furthermore, real-time capable, high-resolution monitoring of the production and component status of intermediate and end products is required in order to react adaptively to fluctuating material properties and set intermediate product statuses, as well as to ensure high process stability and efficiency through fully digitized process chains. In addition to quality-assured process management, the sustainability effect that can be achieved with the recycled material should not be offset by additional energy costs in production.
As a result, the following target areas were identified:
Target area 1: Implementation of a cloud-based online tool for requirements tracking and optimization of structures
Development of a cloud-based, user-centric tool that serves as an interface between engineers and the design and calculation domains for multidisciplinary optimization. The focus lies on quantifying the carbon footprint while taking other requirements into account. An increased user acceptance is pursued through a user-friendly presentation. The tool allows different concepts or designs to be easily evaluated and compared in terms of their environmental impact.
Target area 2: Development and implementation of a multi-criteria assistant for a circular and sustainable production system
This incorporates the development of a digitalization technology based on a cyber-physical production system with the aim of enabling circular material cycles in automotive production through resilient manufacturing with regard to fluctuating recyclate properties. Furthermore, a wide variety of data from product development (e.g. CAE) and production (e.g. tool sensors, process and machine data) as well as environmental data are integrated.
Target area 3: Production of a demonstrator to validate the developed technologies
Firstly, a production environment for manufacturing of demonstrators is designed and set up. The development of the infrastructure for data acquisition and for the introduction of sensor technology are performed simultaneously. Testing and validation of the developed systems using industry-relevant functional models enable the application and demonstration of the technology transfer potential.