Pilots

Aerospace Pilot – Additive manufacturing technology for aerospace – aircraft part customization systems (KANFIT3D) | Toggle to view

KANFIT3D intends to apply the KYKLOS 4.0 capabilities to address an important part of the AM design and manufacturing process, which is currently not sufficiently handled by available off-the-shelf software: The design of support structures and the selection of processes to remove these structures after printing. Support structures are necessary to enable the additive manufacturing of complex components, but afterwards they need to be removed from the part to form the final component.

Three major issues are associated with support structures:
there is a significant waste in materials to create the structures, which raises manufacturing costs,
support structure removal is tedious and time consuming, which also raises costs, and
a defective removal may affect the part quality.
Support structures need to be considered in several steps of the product’s design, planning of the product’s manufacturing, and the manufacturing steps including post-processing.
The first step in the process is the use of FEA (Finite Element Analysis), i.e. the simulation of a physical phenomenon using a numerical mathematic technique, for thermal simulation of the printing process – part and supports together.
For mechanical removal tools like SAW (ripsaws), machining processes like CNC milling or Electrical discharge machining (EDM) are used.
Since Kanfit3D is mostly contract manufacturing (built-to-print manufacturing where products, equipment, or components are produced following the customer’s exact specifications), Kanfit3D uses different modules for each step in the AM process.
In the expected situation after KYKLOS 4.0 is integrated, the KYKLOS platform will initially function as a decision support system in the task of adapting Additive Manufacturing processes for the production of a part. Therefore, the KYKLOS 4.0 platform will offer functionality to support the main phases from the Additive Manufacturing Workflow and in particular: Optimize (Shape, Size, Topology etc.), Validate Design (FEA, CFD etc), Material Choice (Polymer Metal Composite etc.), Process Choice (FDM, SLA, SLS, SLM, DMLS etc.), Analyse (Printability, Wall Thickness, Mesh, Errors/Healing etc.) Build Prep (Orienting, Nesting, Supports, Hollowing, Lattice etc.), Slicing (Layer Height, Infill, Perimeters etc.), Validate Print Job (Thermal Simulation, Shape Compensation etc.).

Aerospace Pilot – Jet engine manufacturing & maintenance (GRC) | Toggle to view

GE Research (GRC) is General Electric’s corporate research group, based in Israel. It supports the work of GE’s business groups by performing research aligned with GE’s business needs.

Among the research interests of the GE Research team is collaborating with GE’s Aviation business group to innovate in the domain of jet engine maintenance. With more than 33,000 engines in commercial service, GE is a world leader not just in engine manufacturing but in also in jet engine maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO).
Within KYKLOS 4.0, GE Research focus is on overhaul, where a jet engine is sent to an overhaul facility (GE has several such facilities around the world). Broadly speaking, the overhaul process consists of the following steps. First, the engine is disassembled into its component parts. Second, engineers inspect each part and decide whether the part is fully functional, needs some repair, or needs to be scrapped and replaced with a new part of the same type. Following that, parts that need to be repaired are sent for repair in the facility’s part-repair area or to external facilities, and parts that need to be replaced trigger an order for a replacement part. Lastly, the parts are reassembled into an engine, and the engine is tested and sent back to the customer.

This use case involves two intertwined processes: part failure prediction, and part repair scheduling.

  • Part failure prediction: One potential cause for delay in MRO is the lack of replacement parts. Such parts are expensive so storing a high level of stock for each of the thousands of parts is prohibitively expensive, as well as not matching the goal of low-waste circular manufacturing. However, lead times for ordering parts through the supply chain might be longer than the time in which GE committed that the engine overhaul would be completed. Therefore, it would be very valuable if we could predict which parts would be needed by each engine, months before the engine comes into the shop. Such prediction will give the facility enough time to order the necessary parts. While we cannot expect the prediction to be completely accurate, even a reasonably probable prediction could be valuable. To perform the prediction, data is collected from each engine after each flight. Once the overhaul date for the engine is decided, we run the prediction and inform the overhaul facility what parts it may need to order.
  • Part repair scheduling: Another potential cause for delay in MRO is the finite capacity of the part repair resources. These resources include highly experienced engineers, as well as complex and expensive machinery. Scheduling the repair processes is challenging, since tens of engines may be undergoing overhaul, each being disassembled into thousands of parts. Each of those parts has a certain sequence of maintenance operations it needs to undergo.

Automotive Pilot – Addressing the critical components of each piece in automotive industry (DIGRO) | Toggle to view

DIAD is proposing as case study in automotive field a windshield cowl cover at present produced by injection moulding and that in KYKLOS 4.0 project will be manufactured by Additive Manufacturing through the pilot AM Stratoconception owned by CIRTES.
The KYKLOS 4.0 components which will adopted are the following: Advanced AM component; Rapid Prototyping Module; PLM; AR-based content editor; AR-based re-configurator tool; LCA Simulation Engine.
DIGRO use case aims to produce the Net Shape Windshield cowl cover using the AM tools developed in KYKLOS 4.0. Due to the large size of the part, the only AM process available inside the KYKLOS consortium is the StratoConception method, that would be validated by the decision toolkit design in KYKLOS. CIRTES, as owner of several machine of Stratoconception, will be the owner of the pilot and will be in charge of the manufacturing.
The adoption of KYKLOS 4.O components into the process chain of this automotive part will allow DIGRO to acquire a high-level expertise in AM technologies, in fact at present the company do not own facilities with this kind of technology. Moreover, the reduction of the number of the production steps with respect to injection moulding (no cost for tooling) will allow DIGRO to propose to its network of customers a wider number of concept designs and prototypes before selecting a final release.

The challenge in KYKLOS 4.0 will be to produce this component in ABS reinforced and by AM techniques. It will be developed a solution that will allow the system to:

  • Using Advanced Additive Manufacturing Component and more specifically with the material database that it contains: find the best fitting material for the windshield cowl cover.
  • Reduce the production step and prototype cost with respect to injection moulding.
  • Integrating advanced CAD design packages available in KYKLOS 4.0 platform.
  • Use the simulation strategy inside Advanced Additive Manufacturing Component for pre-validation of the AM parameters with the support of KYKLOS 4.0 Decision Making Toolkit of the Rapid prototyping Module.
  • Print the part using printers from the KYKLOS 4.0 environment after the prototype is ready.
  • To produce the cover in accordance to stricter environmental principle with the support of KYKLOS 4.0 LCA Simulations Engine.

Electronic Devices/Equipment Pilot – Electrical Equipment Manufacturers (VESTEL) | Toggle to view

Television is the main final product of Vestel Electronics (VESTEL). In fact, VESTEL is one of the top 3 global TV producers. VESTEL manages four factories for the manufacturing of different parts of the final product, and a factory for the assembly of the final product. One of mentioned factories is a Metal Press factory and the KYKLOS use case pilot will take place in this factory.
The final product in the metal press factory is a metal piece which is contained in the TV. This metal piece is shaped by using molds on the production line. There are four production lines and each of them has six molds shaping a metal sheet to its final form.
Before starting the production, it may be required to change the version of molds according to upcoming order. Different products are obtained by performing small changes on 100-150 moveable and removable parts on the same mold. This operation is called version changing. The version changing operation needs to be fast and correct in order for production to run smoothly. It usually takes lots of time and effort and can be a bottleneck for the production.
This project will simplify, optimize, and speed up the version changing process.
VESTEL aims at simplifying, optimizing and accelerating the version changing process using the KYKLOS 4.0 platform. Within this pilot, when the mold is brought to the moldshop for version changing, the mold technician sees arrows on the parts that needs to be changed on the mold by using an AR based manual on a HoloLens or a tablet. The mold techinician will also be provided with guidance and support through the whole workflow with the instructions of each step. The aim is to establish guidance, support, tracking and control over mold version changing process using advanced technologies such as AR.
In addition to the improvement into the mold version changing process, VESTEL also aims at enhancing the maintenance process of the equipment of the production line. For that purpose, the KYKLOS 4.0 platform will provide a preventive maintenance service based on the equipment and production information coming from VESTEL’s manufacturing system. KYKLOS 4.0 platform will provide the best decision about maintenance in terms of which equipment, time slot, assigned technician and assigned maintenance task, without altering the production line.

Electronic Equipment Industry Pilot (CONTINENTAL) | Toggle to view

Electronic equipment industry pilot use case aims at improving the maintenance process of the equipment in the production line of CONTINENTAL’s factory. It is desired to support maintenance operators in their work, providing them with dashboards, improved manuals, work instructions, technical drawings of the equipment using digitalization and Augmented Reality.
Another objective in this use case is to reduce maintenance cost in terms of head count time used for preventive, corrective and predictive maintenance in the final assembly line.
Also, CONTINENTAL intends to apply the KYKLOS 4.0 capabilities to implement 3D printing technology and CAD data visualization for maintenance interventions in order to reduce reaction time in maintenance.
And finally, CONTINENTAL will use KYKLOS 4.0 capabilities in order to enhance their existing production lines making use of a digital twin representation that will also provide an optimization version of the production lines analysed.

The preventive maintenance process that will be improved using the KYKLOS 4.0 platform will provide the following new functionalities:

  • Automatic triggering of maintenance equipment schedule (for line of production/ assembling and also, for equipment’ components). Triggering of preventive maintenance is based on production planning.
  • Better support and guidance of the maintenance task using Augmented Reality technology. Pictures, workflow instructions, etc. in digital format will be used to create a better assistance to the operator. At this moment, the instructions are technical, but the descriptive visual part is missing.
  • Information related to real time equipment status will be shown; the equipment to be examined together with the problem or the condition will be shown.
  • Repository of issues for each equipment when maintenance is performed.
  • Automatic spare parts identification and delivery based on planning.

The reactive or corrective maintenance process that will be improved using the KYKLOS 4.0 platform will have to meet at least the following requirements:

  • Connection with the equipment sensors to get real time data from the production line equipment.
  • Automatic issue triggering from equipment (such as failure, damage, break down).
  • Automatic dashboards and escalation process in case of a break down.
  • Automatic tracking and monitoring of the corrective maintenance process, based on a ticketing system, which allows to know who is responsible of the task, how much time has been taken to solve it, and specifics of the action done.
  • Better support and guidance of the maintenance task using Augmented Reality technology.

The predictive maintenance process that will be developed using the KYKLOS 4.0 platform will have to meet at least the following requirements:

  • Monitoring of the line and possible defects.
  • Prediction based on historical data which includes information about what component has a high risk of damage (e.g. how many times has been replaced, critical for equipment, etc.).
  • Prediction of what machine, device or component should be preventively repaired or exchanged, before any break down happens.
  • Prediction of the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of a device or component.
  • Notifications and alarms will be raised in case of subcomponents lifetime is coming to end (Cylinders, pins, etc).
  • Overview in terms of cost optimization for spare parts, stock adjustment for spare parts, by finding the right balance for in terms of cost versus number of failures in the Final Assembly Line.

The 3D printing process that is desired to be improved using the KYKLOS 4.0 platform will have to meet the following requirements:

  • Implementation of 3D printing technology and CAD data visualization for Maintenance interventions; if a spare part is needed, it must be automatically checked if it can be produced with the 3D printing technology existing in the company, before being ordered to an external supplier. This will reduce reaction time on maintenance.
  • Development of a knowledge database including type of materials, equipment, and parameters to build 3D printed ESD components for CONTINENTAL’s prototype and components of production equipment.

Regarding the production line optimization:

  • Digital twin technology will be used which monitors production workflows.
  • Modelling of the process, involved systems, sensor/actuation record and involved actors will be performed from all the heterogeneous data collected from the production lines, using semantic approach.
  • Machine Learning algorithms will support the analysis of the equipment in the production lines for the digital twin and the optimization process.
  • Potential optimizations for the process and/or the involved equipment, systems, actors, etc. will be identified and reported.

Food Industry Pilot – Reduction of Energy Consumption and Waste Management (PINDOS) | Toggle to view

PINDOS intends to use the services provided by the KYKLOS 4.0 platform to monitor the resources needed during production process, such as normal water, hot water, steam, or air compressors. ICS equipment such as sensors and PLCs will be installed on the external or replaced of the engines (pumps, flowmeter, energy meter) to monitor their proper operation and to prevent damage and malicious intervention from being detected by human error or external factors. The goal is to control the variables that ensure the quality of the production and therefore the quality of the final product offered to the consumer. By monitoring the production variables, KYKLOS 4.0 platform will support PINDOS optimizing the resources needed through the production process; particularly, the resource optimization will be focused on ensuring the minimum energy consumption while maintaining high quality of the final product. PINDOS use case aims at monitoring, controlling and optimizing the water and energy consumption in the slaughterhouse at different points of usage in the production line.
Additionally, PINDOS intends to improve their circular economy approach of their integrated ecosystem by monitoring the circularity of the waste management on multiple places of the whole process.
Regarding the slaughterhouse, PINDOS aims at optimizing the use of resources during the production line of the slaughterhouse; specifically, the optimization of the water and energy consumption without disturbing the plant process. Any water use optimization will directly reflect into the energy consumption reduction at different locations of the production line: the water borewell, pump stations, and the wastewater treatment plant. The water use reduction will also imply the need of less chemicals for the wastewater processing.

The integration of KYKLOS 4.0 will provide the following features into the use case:

  • ICS and IoT devices deployed into the water supply, slaughterhouse production and waste treatment plant will support the collection of real-time data that allows monitoring and control of water and energy.
  • Calculation of water demand in the slaughterhouse production unit in relation to the daily product output.
  • The operator will have a dashboard with live and historical data from all the stages of the production in the slaughterhouse.
  • Shift and plant manager will analyse the historical data and evaluate them to reduce the waste.

Regarding the whole circular economy strategy deployed in PINDOS, the objective is to monitor and control the indicators related to waste management on multiple places of the whole process in order to learn and improve their circular economy process of their integrated ecosystem.

Medical Pilot – Custom and smart wheelchair systems manufacturing (PROMEDICARE) | Toggle to view

The actual architecture of standard wheelchair is highly modular, in terms of availability of a discrete range of measures, in order to permit all adjustments required to fit customer ergonomic postures. To guarantee the maximum flexibility in settings, the manufacturer has to invest resources in designing modular products and in producing not always necessary features, thus incrementing the cost of the product as well as wheelchair weight. During the on-site test session, immediately before the final product delivery, accessories or special fixtures are usually defined and, afterwards, assembled. Wheelchairs specifically designed for an individual, with his/her specific needs in mind, already exists on the market, but customization is still not a-fully automatized process, requiring hours of technical time and many fitting sessions to get it right.
There is a need for the integration of a multidisciplinary approach into the parametric design module, it will be possible to introduce a direct connection to disability and ergonomic needs, anthropometry and certification requirements, thus letting the design process automatized.
The pilot will address the challenge by incorporating rapid prototyping and simulation engine which will enable the anthropomorphic parametric design of the required parts of the wheelchair (Frame/footrest) as well as incorporating details on the type and amount of the raw material required for each part. At the same time the validated solution incorporates AI techniques that enable the reduction of the 3D printing materials. Regarding the overall management of the process they will validate the KYKLOS 4.0 Recommendation engine that will enable ProMedicare to maximize their knowledge of their processes and customers by automating customer profiling and enable at design time that the system algorithms analyse the data and create user behaviour models based on users data (usage, orders, profiles, etc.) and suggests optimal configurations of a products. At the same time, based on the production assembly details the system will generate the bill of materials of customized product and all the information required for manufacturing, re-using parts and assembly.
ProMedicares.r.l. (PROMEDICARE)designs and manufactures postural systems for users who need customized wheelchairs. PROMEDICARE’s customers are qualified dealers, i.e. Orthopaedic workshops.Pro Medicare producesboth wheelchair parts and postural system parts after receiving specific inputs provided by the dealer and based on end user needs. Often those dealers need time and support by Pro Medicare to define the specifications.

The production of the parts is currently carried out as follows:

  • Manufacturing of wheelchair parts: assembly of components according to the specifications of the technical office within PROMEDICARE.
  • Manufacturing of postural system parts: production and assembly of components according to the specifications of the technical office within PROMEDICARE.

The customization is performed by reshaping the basic design of the wheelchair and the postural system developed by PROMEDICARE, according to the dealer specifications, the reference standard, and the design constraints.
Within the pilot. PROMEDICAREaims at including smart designing and production techniques at the design phase to reduce errors at the final product and give added value in the customization and taking advantage of a new methodology and approach to design and produce the next generation of Customized Wheelchair integrating system with postural device.

KYKLOS 4.0 will support PROMEDICARE providing a system to design and produce customized wheelchair parts prototypes based on the anthropometry, disability, and ergonomic needs of the final user. Specifically, KYKLOS 4.0 solution will allow Pro Medicate to:

  • Simulate footrest design based on anthropometry for the model ZEUS FRAME, which is included in PROMEDICAREproduct catalogue.
  • Simulate the support cushion design.
  • Check and validate the final product through the simulation in a 3D viewer.
  • Assembly the final product using Augmented Reality technology visualization.

PROMEDICARE aims at including smart designing and production techniques at the design phase in order to reduce errors at the final product and give added value in the customization. The benefits provided by KYKLOS 4.0 are:

  • Reducing mistakes during the production phase.
  • More accurate customization of the delivered product to the needs of the wheelchair user.
  • Reduction of lead times.
  • Digitalization of the design process which offers greater resource management, agile management, and capability of tracking.
  • Optimization of resources, which turns into reduction in manufacturing costs.

Shipyard Pilot – Product Service Solutions in Shipyards (ASTANDER)

ASTANDER pilot use case aims at having continuous information about the state of life of the cranes by monitoring them, and in case of evacuations on the ship, the crane operators can help by knowing the status of the crane (Structural analysis, Load cycle, Network analysis). Real time information from sensors will be visualised in AR to support the rest of the situations.

Besides, this pilot will help operators in the handling of the crane by using Augmented Reality (AR) manuals and remote assistance, including repairs, also with AR. The crane operators will know how to act due to the virtual training manuals.

 

Within KYKLOS 4.0 the target is to enable the monitoring of the cranes state and develop a solution that enables the crane operators to have full monitoring control over the cranes status and be capable of reacting to any required intervention.

The proposed solution for this use case will allow:

 

  • Crane monitoring: Smart sensors and software will allow to monitor cranes to know their behaviour and give knowledge of which are the critical points of cranes.
  • Training operators using the Augmented Reality to know how to handle the crane in every situation, even the complicated cases. The AR manual gives them the step-by-step procedure to guide the training operators in the task. In case there is a problem in a crane that needs a rapid solution, and the operator does not know how to solve it, the operator calls the expert with the teleassistance tool. In real time, the expert gives instructions to solve the problem with AR. The AR manual provides the step-by-step procedure to guide the operator in the specific task.
  • Maintenance of cranes using the Augmented reality tools. There is a maintenance task open and the operator needs to know the status of the crane regarding its structural situation, to see its lifecycle and if it needs a repair. The information from sensors visualised in real time gives him the information. Operators of cranes will know in advance due to the virtual manuals how they have to act and in which maintenance will be the cranes to work.
  • Manage the evacuation scenarios: There is an evacuation on the ship and the operator needs to have a complete analysis of the crane and the network to know if the crane is ready to help in the evacuation. The information from sensors, the data from the automation and the network analysis is essential to know if the situation is suitable to perform the evacuation.

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