Cidaut participates in the Dialogue on Technical Capabilities between Ohio (USA) and Spain

On the 17th of November, CDTI (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial) has organized a meeting between relevant stakeholders in the automotive sector from Spain and Ohio in order to find synergies between both regions.

The main objective of the event is to present the technological capabilities of the automotive sector, both from Spain and Ohio, and promote technological cooperation between Spanish and American entities in this technological field. The event has consisted of a first part in which the sector in Spain and the State of Ohio have briefly exposed and, subsequently, the technological capabilities of the Spanish and American entities participating in the event have been briefly presented.

The institutional opening has corresponded to Mr. Jonathan Bridges. Managing Director, Automotive, Steel, & White Goods at JobsOhio and Mr. Javier Ponce, General Manager at CDTI. After the introduction to the event, it has been the turn of the Spanish participants, where Cecilia Median from Sernauto has made a quick and precise overview of the Spanish automotive sector; Javier Romo from Cidaut has presented Integra Consortium, where four research and development centers, Cidaut, CTAG, Itene and i2cat, are collaborating to foster the implementation of safe and resilient automated driving solutions; Rodrigo Castiñeira from Indra Sistemas has explained their vision of mobility in the horizon 2030; José Manuel Mínguez from Ferroglobe Innovation has presented charging infrastructure solutions and new evolutions on lithium ion batteries; José Jesús Molinero, from Begas Motor has presented innovative solutions for sustainable mobility in cities oriented to the development of new power train configurations; Luke Stedke from Drive Ohio has shown success cases in the region of Ohio related to automated, connected, electrified and shared mobility; and Eric Philips from Union County and Marysville has presented the smart mobility corridor developed in the route 33.

The closing remarks were made by Mrs. María J. Fernández. Trade Commissioner. Trade Commission of Spain in Chicago. Embassy of Spain in the USA. Additional actions are planned to enhance collaborations at both side of the Atlantic to foster the integration of innovative mobility solutions.

3D printing revolution in the automotive sector

Cidaut has participated in an event organized by Hewlett Packard and Sernauto with the collaboration of Optimus 3D and Industrias Alegre. The event was hold at Cidaut’s facilities on the 25th of November fulfilling all sanitary measurements derived from COVID-19.

The event started with a warm welcome by Cidaut’s president, Mr. José Oliveri, who highlighted the importance of the Research and Development Centers to introduce innovative solutions in the industry and enhance the knowledge dissemination. María Luisa Soria, Institutional Relationships and Innovation Manager at Sernauto, presented a summary of the automotive sector in Spain, playing special attention to the new challenges and plans related to the Next Generation funds.

On behalf of Cidaut, Javier Romo, presented a methodology to determine the behavior of the components obtained through additive manufacturing processes during their service live. It was highlighted that in all the components manufactured in the industrial sector there is a big influence of the manufacturing process in the final component behavior, and for this reason, it is very important to understand the manufacturing process and its influence on the material properties. Additive manufacturing is not an exception, and depending on the technology, the process’ parameters and the environmental conditions the final properties may change. Thanks to the methodology developed by Cidaut, it is possible to take into consideration all these parameters and to determine through simulation the real properties of the component and thanks to it, to determine its behavior during its service live.

In the final part of the event, Victor Vaccaro from Industrias Alegre and Alberto Ruiz de Olano from Optimus3D shown the industrial point of view showing some success solutions developed in the last years.

Outside the meeting room, all the participants could see and touch several innovative components obtained though additive manufacturing provided by the event organizers.

Cidaut will be present at European Green Deal Projects

Probono Project has been approved for funding by the European Commission in the Frame of Green Deal. Probono brings together 47 partners all around Europe to develop innovative energy efficient buildings in connected suitable green neighbourghoods.

To demonstrate the results achieved through the project two large scale demonstrators, Madrid and Dublin, and four living labs, Brussels, Porto, Aarhus and Prague, have been proposed across Europe. Cidaut will contribute with mobility, connectivity and integration of renewable energies in Dublin and Madrid.

The large scale demonstrators will focus on new buildings, retrofitting and green districts development, energy optimization at district level, integration in the grid and electromobilty. The project will provide support at city level and will interact with citizens looking for solutions to be reproduced in follower cities.

The living labs will focus on smaller scale business driven renovation or construction projects with clear definition of value proposition and also looking for solutions to be integrated in follower cities.

The project will start on Autumn and will last for 60 months.

Cidaut develops a methodology to determine the effect of the welding process in the fatigue life of welded HSS electric vehicles structures

High strength steel tubular frames are a cost effective solution for urban electric vehicles. On one hand the high mechanical characteristics of HSS together with advanced design methodologies makes possible to create an almost non-deformable cabin to guarantee passengers’ and battery’s safety, on the other hand, their predictable behavior and high elongation allow to improve the energy absorption of the collapsible zones.

But one of the challenges of the high strength structures when they are highly demanded is the welding process. In this case the welding process has been optimized to nearly obtain the same mechanical properties of the base material, mainly DP800 and DP1000. But the development has gone one step forward, because Cidaut has developed a methodology to determine the effect of the welding process in the fatigue life of the joints in the vehicle structure.

The methodology is based in the use of finite elements simulations and takes into account not only the longitudinal geometry of the beams, but also the section of the beam and the influence of the welding process. The methodology has been validated through the testing of specimens at laboratory scale, and nowadays is been validated in a full vehicle structure test.

The fatigue loads have been determined thanks to the use of a multiboby analysis, where the everyday manoeuvers have been modelled (curves, braking, small potholes, braking in turn, acceleration,…) and the forces in the four corners of the vehicle have been determined to be used in both the finite element simulation and the validation test.

This development has been made in the frame of the European Project Avangard, a three years European Project that has recently reached his midterm. The research leading to this result has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme under Grant Agreement nº 869986.

CIDAUT joins BEPA, the batteries european partnership association

CIDAUT, has officially joined BEPA, the Batteries European Partnership Association (BEPA), confirming its commitment to improve the competitiveness of the European battery industry

Counting more than 160 members, BEPA is a leading association dedicated to create a competitive, sustainable and circular European industrial battery value chain for stationary applications and e-mobility.

The BEPA members will work together to prepare Europe to manufacture and commercialise by 2030 the next-generation battery technologies that will enable the rollout of the zero-emission mobility and renewable energy storage.

BEPA represents the private side association of the BATT4EU Partnerships the co-programmed partnership on batteries launched by the European Commission under Horizon Europe. The partnership will mobilise more 925 million euros, to boost European research and innovation in the battery sector.

CIDAUT will contribute to BEPA goals, by bringing in its expertise in the research and development of passive safety in the automotive industry and strong simulation capabilities to develop predictable models for crash optimization of batteries for electromobility.

For more information visit BEPA website !