COMPASS

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

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 fiber-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 is 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.

Expected outcomes:

• The reforming processes will enable the re-manufacturing of alloy and composite panels, without converting them to raw materials.
• The digital component passport will provide a solution to support the remanufacturing of components. The data provided by the digital passport and the tools built upon them will enable more targeted and flexible disassembly and dismantling processes.
• For carbon fiber (est. 10.000t per year) the recycling rate will increase to about 30% from currently 2% through the direct re-manufacturing of panels in other applications.
• For companies involved in the disassembly and dismantling of aircraft, a new business model will become available based on the re-manufacturing of material. Currently, the business model is focused on sourcing and selling of spare parts, while structural materials are just a cost factor and something to “get rid of”. Recovering parts at component level will increase their value by a factor of 10 and make re-manufacturing economically interesting.
• COMPASS will provide technical means to close the knowledge gap that exists between different actors along the whole value chain, including the component manufacturer, the OEM, the MRO operation company, the dismantling company and the users of the re-manufactured components.

 

Project duration:

01012024- 31.01.2026

Project budget:

5 701 244.13 €

Funding:

HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-04

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101136940

Projektwebseite:

www.compass-horizon.eu