Advanced composite manufacturing is becoming crucial in the global sustainable drive for a climate-neutral future as enabler of light-weight structures in, for example, the aerospace and wind energy sector. Their increased relevance has raised the importance of damage tolerance and durability of composite structures, currently dealt with time-consuming and inaccurate techniques. Hence the objective of D-STANDART is to develop fast and efficient methods to model the durability of large-scale composite structures with arbitrary lay-ups under realistic conditions (loads, environment). New test methodologies will be developed using generic specimens to correctly quantify material parameters that determine the durability of composites under cyclical loading. Material characterisation will be used in high-fidelity models to simulate defect growth in various lay-ups and at various scales as a function of cyclical loading and rate. To apply these models in an industrial design environment, D-STANDART will make use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) surrogate models, trained using test data from the project and historical test data to easily adapt to different design parameters and complex lay-ups, thereby accelerating the development, uptake, and commercialisation of advanced components. Two use cases have been selected to validate the modelled durability performance both in the aerospace and renewable energy sectors. Furthermore, circularity and sustainability will be assessed via dedicated life-cycle assessment, life cycle costing and cost-benefit analysis. This 36-month €5.6M valued action involves, 9 partners (3 universities, 2 RTOs, 2 industry, and 2 SMEs) from four countries (United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, and France). The consortium will be supported by an Advisory Board formed of 6 End users embracing the value chain to validate requirements, guide on relevant approach to certification, and finally support results uptake, in tight alignment with EMCC.

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) allows, by enabling use of advanced design, production of high added value components, at levels that cannot be reached with conventional manufacturing technique. Still, the AM-based manufacturing sequence implies large amounts of critical steps – design for AM, AM fabrication, post processing, etc. – compared to conventional production sequences. Presently, the key competencies related to these steps are either not fully implemented at industrial level (process quality monitoring) or dispersed geographically with poor connection between different steps. Relying on two major AM technologies (LPBF: Laser Powder Bed Fusion and EBM Electron Beam Melting), MANUELA aims at deploying an open-access pilot line facility, covering the whole production sequence, to show full potential of metal AM for industrial AM production. At first, careful instrumentation and adaptation of LPBF & EBM machines will allow increased process reliability and speed. Secondly, the pilot line – including the adapted processes – will be deployed. The hardware layer will integrate novel process quality control monitoring and automated post-AM handling and processing. The line will be fed by design/optimization and AM process simulation workshops. Those workshops will collect continuous feedback from the physical parts of the pilot lines, to increase process reliability and robustness. MANUELA relies on a consortium composed of industrial end user’s, suppliers, (material/powder, AM hardware, quality monitoring system, software, automation and post-AM treatment) as well as top research institutes in powder-bed metal-AM, covering full range of AM technology chain for pilot line deployment. The deployed pilot line will be validated for use cases, covering wide span of applications including automotive, aerospace, energy and medical. To insure sustainability of the deployed line and its open access at project end, a dedicated exploitation plan will be established.