by cidaut | May 17, 2023 | Materials, MOBILITY, SAFETY
CIDAUT, together with the partners of Salient Project, is tackling the new challenges of the forthcoming connected and automated vehicles’ crashworthiness. The new skills of the connected and automated vehicles will allow to significantly reduce the number of accidents and fatalities in our roads, but the zero crashes scenario is still far away. In the meanwhile, the communication among vehicles, V2V technology, will be a useful tool to have some pieces of important information some milliseconds in advance of the crash event.
This information will allow the absorption elements of the vehicle to give an active response to the impact they are about to suffer. But to obtain this active response, a deep research and development work is needed in order to select the right material and the optimum geometry for each of the components that shape the structure of the vehicle.
At the same time, the project aims to find a sustainable solution, and attending to this is looking for recyclable light materials, as composite, aluminum or the combination of both, taking into account the whole life cycle analysis of the components and looking for circular economy compliant solutions. In order to select the most suitable material a detailed characterization campaign of different grades of composite and aluminum is being performed to know their static, dynamic, cyclic, fatigue, thermal and impact properties, which will conduct to obtaining accurate material cards to be implemented in advances software tools that will allow to optimize the geometry of the different components involved in the passive safety behavior of the automated vehicles and also to use the right material in the right position.
The research leading to this results has received funding from Horizon Europe under Grant Agreement nº 101069600
by cidaut | Mar 7, 2023 | Materials
CIDAUT continues to advance in the development of thermoset composite materials with improved recyclability properties that can be used in applications that require high performance materials (construction, aeronautics and automotive) in the framework of the European project r-LightBioCom, which has just been launched.
r-LightBioCom’s main objective is to reduce environmental impact of the new lightweight HPC, not only during their production but also during their operational life and after achieving their final lifetime (inherent recyclability properties), while providing improved mechanical properties, weight reduction and new functionalities.
This project, funded by the European Commission, is part of the Horizon Europe programme, one of the most competitive and prestigious calls for proposals at European level, which exclusively promotes projects with great excellence. It has a budget of 4.2 million euros and is made up of 15 multidisciplinary partners.
The consortium is coordinated by the Textile and Cosmetics Research and Innovation Centre (Aitex) and Cidaut leads and coordinates two important tasks. The first is dedicated to the processing of the new materials developed to obtain composites using novel and environmentally friendly technologies. The second is the analysis of the life cycle of the materials and processes that will allow validation of their environmental viability.
The project has already held its kick-off meeting in Alicante (Spain) on 30th and 31st January.
For CIDAUT it is great news that a new European R&D project has been awarded in one of the most competitive and highest level calls for proposals, Horizon Europe. This consolidates us as an international benchmark in the field of recycling complex plastic materials, such as fibre-reinforced composites, as well as in the development of more sustainable solutions. This is a very important line of work at a time when administrations, companies and society are demanding plastic materials with a lower environmental impact.
by cidaut | Oct 13, 2022 | Materials
Last July 5th, the ESTELLA consortium met in Brussels to kick-off the project. All partners presented their role and they discussed the details of the implementation of the work plan for the following 42 months of research.
The ESTELLA is an ambitious initiative that proposes an innovative solution to improve the recyclability of poorly recyclable materials, specifically thermoset composites. This will involve the design of novel thermosetting biocomposites (epoxy and natural fibres) with inherent recyclability. This will be achieved thanks to the introduction of the Covalent Adaptive Network (CAN) that will allow the resin (reprocessed or repolymerised into new products) and fibres to be recycled. The recyclability of the composites developed will be evaluated by means of current mechanical, chemical and biological processes adapted to these new materials. And they will be validated through the manufacture of prototypes for the construction and leisure/mobility sectors.
The ESTELLA consortium has 13 partners from 9 European countries as well as Slovenia, Poland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Spain, Denmark, Germany and Norway. Soon our project website will be up and running!
by cidaut | Oct 13, 2022 | Materials
The CREATOR consortium, consisting of 17 partners, met in Belgium last September with the Project Officer to analyze the progress of the project. CREATOR focuses on the development and demonstration of processes to remove hazardous bromine-containing flame retardants, which are already banned, from waste streams by means of so-called continuous extraction.
A lot of efforts have been devoted in the CREATOR project to the recycling and reuse of thermoplastic waste. And the review meeting was a good occasion to show the current status of all tasks performed during the project and to present the next steps until the end of the project in May 2022.
In the CREATOR project, much effort has been devoted to the recycling and reuse of these hazardous thermoplastic wastes. And the review meeting was a good occasion to show all the achievements made during the project and to present the next steps until the end of the project in May 2022.
This meeting has also served to present different events that are being prepared in the framework of the project: such as the Boot Camp in Sustainability & Plastic Recycling for students that will be held from 5-7 October in Hamburg (Germany) (more info: https://www.the-klu.org/event-pages/boot-camp-in-sustainability-plastic-recycling/), or the Innovation Forum 4 Plastics that will take place from 13-14 October in Mallorca (Spain) (more info: https://h2020innovationforum.com/).
by cidaut | Oct 13, 2022 | Materials, SAFETY
In the frame of Salient, Horizon Europe Project, Cidaut together with eleven partners will search for an innovative solution of the vehicle structure in the event of a crash. The front end structure of the vehicle will be equipped with intelligent sensors, whose first mission will be to advise the ADAS of the vehicle to avoid the impact, and in case this is not possible, the second mission will be to inform the structure of the vehicle about the kind of impact, the direction and the speed. According to this information, the solution developed in the project will modify the behavior of the component in charge of the energy absorption in order to optimize its behavior.
To achieve this innovative result, the consortium will develop new materials, based on advanced composites, aluminium or hybrid combinations on both. The project covers all the steps from the material characterization to the final validation test, where Cidaut will use its facilities to perform the real crashes that will demonstrate and validate the effectiveness of the solution.
Salient is a 36 months project that started on September 2022. CTAG, as project coordinator, hosted the kick off meeting at the headquarters in O Porriño. The twelve partners were present in the meeting enjoying the opportunity to celebrate face to face meetings, and taking advantage of the occasion to fix the next steps and milestones of the project.
The research leading to these results has received funding from Horizon Europe Programme under grant agreement nº101069600.
