by cidaut | Apr 8, 2016 | Sin categoría
Light electric vehicles are becoming a key actor in the urban sustainable mobility, but nowadays there is not a meeting point to highlight all the research activities related to this kind of vehicles. Attending to this need LEVS, the World Light Electric Vehicle Summit, is born.
The first edition will be held in Barcelona, 20th and 21st September 2016.
The initiative has four main objectives:
- Learn from each other’s experience.
- Present the actual status of work and achievements.
- Find partners to develop synergies and build new projects.
- Join forces to lobby relevant authorities to get support.
LEVS aims at providing a premier and high quality global platform to foster exchange of views between research and development actors, industry, authorities, end-users and Non- Governmental Organizations in the field.
Strategies for light electric vehicles development will also be discussed and defined for further actions. Seeing the huge congestion problems our cities are facing nowadays, it is no doubt that light electric vehicles have a key role to play in the future.
Cidaut is strongly involved in the reduction of the environmental impact due to mobility and it is actively working in the development of electrical solutions for light vehicles. Cidaut has developed his own electric tricycles, a small demonstrator for urban mobility and is involved, nowadays, in the 7th Frame Programme Projects: Free-Moby, Plus-Moby, Evolution, Alive and Urban-EV. Its activities are also oriented to establish crash-test standards and regulations suitable for the particularities of the light vehicles
For this high implication in the Light Electric Vehicle development CIDAUT has been invited to be a member of the LEVS Scientific Reviewing Committee, we expect to meet you there. Find more information at http://www.levs.mobi/ or get in touch with us directly at newsletter@cidaut.es.
by cidaut | Apr 8, 2016 | Sin categoría
The European Commission (EC), The Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and the Brazilian National Council of State Funding Agencies (CONFAP) organized the EU-Brazil Workshop: Coordinated Call on Advanced Biofuels the past 9th of March where we had the opportunity to assist, and promote our project idea for the call H2020-LCE-22-2016.
This Workshop aimed to offer to Brazilian and European researchers an opportunity for networking, discussion and preparing joint activities under the call H2020-LCE-22-2016: International Cooperation with Brazil on advanced lignocellulosic biofuels. CIDAUT, as an expert in energy and biofuels, is interested in one of the three subchallenges within the call related with “gasification of bagasse to syngas and advanced liquid fuel production, including biofuels for aviation”. This item was developed in a previous call (H2020-LCE-08-2016) where CIDAUT submitted the project DELIA as coordinator and responsible of the Fischer-Tropsch unit design, construction and commissioning. Due to the synergies between both calls, it was an excellent opportunity to show the DELIA idea and to establish contact with stakeholders both in European and Brazilian industries and Research Centers.
One of our main objectives in the workshop was to show CIDAUT capabilities in pilot plant designing, construction and commissioning which involve catalytic reactors. Our expertise in pilot units for syngas upgrading and conditioning for biofuels production is remarkable, and includes our knowledge on auxiliary units in order to integrate the whole concept. We had the chance to meet the main European and Brazilian actors interested in the call H2020-LCE-22-2016 and share our capabilities and expertise with them. CIDAUT is open to collaborate with any of the consortiums that were taking shape during the workshop. It was a very interesting and fruitful experience!!
by cidaut | Feb 5, 2016 | Sin categoría
HIPEBA (“High Performance Steel for Safer and more Competitive Safety Barriers”) is a EU-funded project that focuses on the development of safer and more competitive road restraint systems by using high-performance steels. HIPEBA is funded under the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) framework programme. The Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) provides funding for high-quality research projects that support the competitiveness of the European Coal and Steel industries.
Objectives
- Map current and future performance-related requirements for safety barriers.
- Determine how steels with enhanced material characteristics can contribute to improve the performance of safety barriers in all stages of their life cycle.
- Deliver criteria for the technical implementation of high-performance steels into road safety barriers.
- Demonstrate that introducing high-performance steels in safety barriers can make products more competitive and yield economic revenues for EU’s industry and society, compensating the initial purchase cost.
- Develop and test pilot designs that demonstrate the benefits of high-performance steels.
- Ensure that road safety barriers manufactured with high-performance steel meet the required certification and approval processes.
Why?
The European Union, a world leader in the steel industry, is facing increasingly fierce competition from non-EU producers. Advanced research is essential for European industry to remain competitive, as well as a deeper understanding of the paramount importance of high-performance steel within the everyday needs of the road safety sector.
With the purpose of supporting this leadership, HIPEBA is a ground-breaking initiative relevant to the maintenance and new construction of EU road infrastructures, as the latest and safest technology must become available to European road users.
Who?
The HIPEBA consortium has gathered a group of specialist organisations from industry, academia and research securing a successful implementation and deployment of its planned activities.
News & Recent Events
The third HIPEBA consortium meeting takes place in CIDAUT facilities (Spain) on 13 October 2015
All partners of the HIPEBA project gathered in Valladolid (Spain) to review the work done during the last year -mostly under Work Package 1- and to discuss the work plan for the next months. In particular, the consortium agreed on the next steps to successfully complete the tasks under Work Package 2 (“Material Properties and processes analysis“) by the end of the year. In addition, a tele-conference was set up for 28 October in order to schedule the imminent characterization of steels tests. The results of these tests will provide a wide knowledge about the high performance steels which would be used in the barrier systems.
HIPEBA meeting hold 13 October 2015 Cidaut facilities.
The HIPEBA project was invited to the TRA2016 poster session
The European Commission has officially invited HIPEBA (“High Performance Steel for Safer and more Competitive Safety Barriers”) to be present during the 6th Transport Research Arena (TRA2016) poster session. The Smart Transportation Alliance (STA), leader of the project’s communication and dissemination efforts, will be present at the TRA2016, the most important transport research event in Europe, which will take place in Warsaw (Poland), from 18 to 21 April 2016.
by cidaut | Feb 5, 2016 | Sin categoría
CIDAUT together with other vehicle, infrastructure and behavioural experts attended last SafetyCube Meeting on November 10th 2015, gathered in Gothenburg to receive an in-depth training for coding road safety literature. The coding exercise is the basis for an evidence-based, quantified overview of risk factors in road traffic as well as the effectiveness of countermeasures. This will be one of the main building blocks of the Decision Support System, SafetyCube’s main outcome.
The training, supported by extensive written guidelines, focused on the many research designs that are used in road safety studies, their potential biases and, hence, the conclusions that can be drawn or cannot be drawn from a study. Within SafetyCube’s methodology workpackage an interactive excel-based coding template had been developed which ensures a uniform way of coding different studies in different areas of interest. That way it will be possible to perform overall quantitative analyses over studies that are otherwise hardly comparable. First results are planned to become available late autumn 2016.
SafetyCube (Safety CaUsation, Benefits and Efficiency) is a research project funded by the European Commission under the Horizons 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, in the domain of Road Safety. The project started on May 1st, 2015 and will run for a period of three years.
The primary objective of the SafetyCube project is to develop an innovative road safety Decision Support System (DSS) that will enable policy-makers and stakeholders to select and implement the most appropriate strategies, measures and cost-effective approaches to reduce casualties of all road user types and all severities in Europe and worldwide.
by cidaut | Feb 5, 2016 | Materials
The 30 months Metalmorphosis Project is really close to its end. In order to show and demonstrate the results achieved a final seminar is going to be held in the headquarters of the Belgian Welding Institute in Gant on the 24th of February 2016.
The admission to this event is free subjected to registration: http://goo.gl/forms/H0qr2ud0zY
The project has been focused on the development and optimization of hybrid joints between metal and composite hybrid parts in order to obtain enhanced automotive components with integrated functions. The joints are obtained thanks to the application of electromagnetic forces. This technology allows joining composite materials that are not weldable, eliminates the heat affected zone, is a clean process and reduces the cost of the joints. In the first half of the project, important innovations have been introduced in tubular and flat joints working with laboratory specimens, while in the second half, the knowledge generated has been applied to the development of automotive components.
The consortium is formed by nine partners. BWI, Centimfe (leader), Cidaut and Cidaut have focused their effort in the research and development activities. STAM is the responsible of the LCA analysis. Poynting is an SME specialized in the development of electromagnetic joining devices. Regeneracija, Tenneco and Toolpresse are the industrial partners of the project; each of them has developed, with the support of the consortium, a demonstrator to apply the knowledge and demonstrate the advantages of the electromagnetic joining.
Regeneracija has designed a bumper, where the crash box is designed in CFRP, and the cross beam is a sandwich of CFRP and aluminum. All the parts have been assembled attending to the technology developed for flat joints.
Tenneco has improved the design of its shock absorber reducing the number of components and simplifying the assembly process thanks to the integration of functions through electromagnetic tubular joints.
Toolpresse has created a new concept of hybrid pedal brake where both ends are manufactured by plastic injection to fulfill the geometric requirements and the central part is extruded in aluminum obtaining a stiff light component.
by cidaut | Feb 5, 2016 | Sin categoría
The REMAGHIC project continues its journey. On the 1st of February started the sixth month of work. Work packages 1 and 2, are in full swing, with the analysis of the main sources of waste, and at the same time preliminary work with the life-cycle assessment (WP5) has begun. All these tasks have been accompanied by the management and dissemination and communication works (WP6 and Wp7).
On 24th– 25th of February 2016 the general meeting of all the consortium will be held at CIDAUT Foundation facilities, CIDAUT is the project coordinator. The meeting will focus on reviewing the status of the work performed and planning tasks for the next 6 months including an overview of next year.
Complementing all these activities, this meeting will be used to perform two workshops, one about LCCA and other about risk management.
In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to visit the facilities of CIDAUT Foundation.
by cidaut | Feb 5, 2016 | Sin categoría
CIDAUT is a member of VRUITS project consortium which, among other activities, is assessing three different technologies regarding pedestrian and cyclists’ safety.
The main target is further developing and enabling the commercialization of these technological initiatives based on pedestrian and cyclists’ safety, which have been experimentally applied in Valladolid, Alcalá de Henares (both in Spain) and Helmond (the Netherlands). These initiatives are derived from the work performed within VRUITS project (“Improving the Safety and Mobility of Vulnerable Road Users through its Applications”).
In Valladolid (Spain), a smart pedestrian crossing was launched thanks to this project. In this crossing a camera allows counting the number of people waiting to cross in a traffic light and lets them pass if the number of people and the waiting time reaches a certain value. Thanks to this system urban agglomerations can be avoided, as the threshold is set to 17 people, and the mobility and safety are improved for pedestrians.
Another location of VRUITS project is placed in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, Spain). A technological system has been implemented at a urban intersection in which a traffic light detects the pedestrian trajectory and decides whether to extend the green light duration or not. This way, people with special mobility needs can be detected and as their crossing will take longer time, the traffic adapts to their safety. Additionally, a smartphone app has been developed in which the user can ask for a traffic light to turn green, which has been very favourably viewed by users with disabilities who can not access some traffic lights buttons.
The final project location is situated in Helmond (the Netherlands), where VRUITS project has set up the third initiative, which relates to cyclists’ protection. There is an infrastructure element that detects cyclists and send a signal to a vehicle, which processor can communicate if there is a risk of collision both for the driver or the cyclist, and if the crash is imminent, an emergency braking system is activated.
It is important to remark that some of these advanced technologies systems pass almost unnoticed in Spain, but whenever they are showed and explained, the acceptation becomes very good in cities and for those people with special mobility needs. These initiatives can be transferred to any other country, and several industrial partners have been contacted for further research actions. All these measures have been thought with vulnerable road users in mind.
by cidaut | Nov 16, 2015 | Sin categoría
VRUITS (Improving the Safety and Mobility of Vulnerable Road Users through ITS Applications) is a research project co-funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Program. The Project VRUITS investigates how safety, mobility and comfort of vulnerable road uses can be improved with intelligent transport systems. 12 partners from 8 different countries take part in this research project.
On September 23rd, CIDAUT Foundation, as VRUITS project partner, organized a session for dissemination of the results obtained from pedestrian demonstrators developed in Spain within the project. In the session also participated SICE and POLIS, as project partners, and Valladolid City Council, as project Associated Member.
The session intended to be a country-based dissemination event as a way to promote demonstration activities as well as the project as a whole on the local and national level to authorities and ITS industry. The aim was to the establish the session as a disseminator towards other cities in the country and also served as a way to get the necessary local, regional and national stakeholders on board for the implementation of VRUITS concepts. The event counted on the participation of more than 30 attendees belonging to authorities, ITS industry and research-oriented organizations, among them, the Major of Valladolid. Moreover, local and regional media mentioned the session, including press news, radio interviews and a short filmation included in local TV within daily news.
At the start of the session, POLIS presented Key mobility trends in Europe, focussed on cyclist and pedestrians. Afterwards, Valladolid City Council showed actions focussed on mobility in Valladolid within the last years. Then, CIDAUT Foundation presented an overview of VRUITS project to the attendees. Finally, systems oriented to pedestrians located in Valladolid and Alcalá de Henares were explained by CIDAUT Foundation and SICE, and results of the trials as well as conclusions drawn from the statistical analysis of the data collected during pilot tests performed within VRUITS project were shown by CIDAUT Foundation.
Main conclusions reported during the season were:
- Implemented systems allow for collecting accurate data on pedestrian flows and tendencies, thus enabling a better traffic management in the surroundings of the installation.
- It has been demonstrated that pedestrian mobility was improved. In Valladolid test site, waiting time of the pedestrians at the crossing dropped 20% after system implementation and, accordingly, pedestrian congestions were also reduced.
- Most users do not consciously perceive the implementation of the systems, neither the mobility improvement that has been reached due to said implementation. Nevertheless, it has been established that the users unconsciously perceived aforesaid mobility improvement through a comparative analysis of the questionnaires filled prior and after the implementation of the system.
- Once the objectives and benefits of the systems are explained to the users, they value them quite positively, although mistrust has been occasionally detected as some users are afraid of the potential use of the systems as penalising devices.
- Some specific vulnerable user groups value particularly well the systems, as occurred with disable people that gave their opinion about the system implemented in Alcala de Henares.
by cidaut | Nov 16, 2015 | Sin categoría
27/08/2015 by cidaut
On Friday 25th of September the Valladolid Science Museum presented the 10th congress “European Researchers´ Night”. This event is an initiative from European Union organized by Valladolid University under the motto ‘Scientifics for a better future’. This event offered a delightful evening with educational activities for all the attending public, being the main objective to bring closer the researchers and their knowledge to the general public, achieving a general improvement in the research environment. In this congress, universities, research centres and museums of fourteen cities around Spain have taken part.
Within the “European Corner”, researchers of several universities and some companies have shown and explained innovative projects funded by European commission. CIDAUT has exhibited to the assistants the different activities developed in the EVolution project.
EVolution is a research project funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme. The objective of the project is to develop new materials which will significantly reduce the weight of the new generation of hybrid and electrical vehicles.
The EVolution project started in November 2012 and has a duration of 4 years. It is funded by the European Commission under the NMP Programme of the Seventh Framework Programme. The project is organised into ten Work Packages which each play a crucial role in the implementation of the project.
CIDAUT is in charge of one demonstrator, the structural node, the main objective, is to implement an innovative solution for aluminium components, a co-cast joint between different elements produced with different manufacturing processes.
The technology developed by CIDAUT, a green sand mould casting process, provides the media to link different parts when they are placed into a sand mould and then molten aluminium flows around them. After casting operation, a heat treatment process could be applied in order to improve the microstructure obtained during the slow solidification process. This process required the absence of pores inside the component and in order to maintain a good fluidity, thick sections and addition of silicon are necessary.
by cidaut | Nov 16, 2015 | Sin categoría
Last September 10th, the REMAGIHC consortium met in Brussels to kick-off the project. All partners gathered at Covenant Building, headquarters of DG RTD, to present the working plan and the tasks to be carried out during the first year of the project.
REMAGHIC, New Recovery Processes to produce Rare Earth-Magnesium Alloys of High Performance and Low Cost, aims at contributing to Europe’s rare earth recovery and magnesium recycling technologies, improving the efficiencies of these processes and advancing the technology readiness levels for a new generation of industrial processes that will produce new low cost competitive alloys for a wide variety of sectors across Europe’s manufacturing value chain.
All partners introduced their companies to the EC Project Officer, highlighting their respective role in the project: Fraunhofer ICT, Fundación TECNALIA, Catholic University of Leuven, Grupo Antolin, Relight, ITRB, Piaggio Aero, Pininfarina and Meotec are coordinated by Fundación CIDAUT.
During the meeting, all work package leaders presented their work plan for the first year of the project. REMAGHIC will start by defining the best way to recover the rare earth elements from industrial wastes, and the magnesium alloy from the scrap, dross & slug. The specific REE will be then used to alloy with recycled magnesium in order to obtain cheaper alloys to be used by Grupo Antolin in their casting facilities and tested to check they achieve with the end users request.
At the same time, the dissemination activities started by defining the project logo and the contents on the public website. This work package is also responsible for setting the Advisory Board; this is formed by industries interested in REMAGHIC results, and will act as test ground for the application of the developed framework and specific applications.
On the following month REMAGHIC consortium will start updating the public website with news related to REE recovery as well as the partial results achieved by the project. Once the public deliverables are approved by the EC, they will also be uploaded in the website. So do not forget to follow from December 2015 on our website in order to be updated on REMAGHIC!
