The automotive market is driven by many safety performance assessment programs. Less CO2 emissions and reduced production costs are the main priority for OEMs, to comply with regulations and to strengthen their advantage in an extremely competitive market. The cost-effective reduction of a vehicle’s structural components, known as Body-in-White (BIW), has been one of OEMs’ main targets. Such reduction is possible with lighter BIWs, made of Advanced High Strength Steels (>1,500MPa), using a process known as hot stamping. Components produced this way can be 20-30% lighter compared to cold stamping. Hot stamping components account for 11% of the total current value of European vehicles; the state of the art has limitations that prevent extending hot stamping to more vehicle components, e.g. components with complex geometries, very thin or locally tailored components. Our innovation, RUSH AI, is an ultra-fast system for hot stamping of light-weight components, quality-controlled by self-correcting, online AI. It reduces manufacture cycling time by over 70%, thanks to a novel hydraulic press solution and a “sweating die” made by additive manufacturing and inspired by human sweat. Its efficiency results in savings of 70-80% OPEX. We aim to upgrade RUSH AI from TRL6 to TRL9. By project’s end, 2020, the hot stamping TAM will be €11.8bn, 13% of the total BIW market (€91bn). In the first 10 years of commercialization, SAM is estimated to reach €1bn. We expect sales above €148m by 2030 and a market share of 15%. Users will be OEMs and their Tier-1 suppliers. RUSH AI can be implemented in old and new hot stamping lines. A joint venture company is considered by the 3 industrial partners to commercialize the process line, yet each keeps the separate rights of exploitation of individual results. This Consortium consists of 4 partners from 3 EU countries. All members possess the technical and market expertise to commercialize RUSH AI within 36 months.

The DIGITbrain project is deeply rooted in the innovation ecosystem of the I4MS project CloudiFacturing and the industrial platforms FIWARE and IDS, and it will build on these results, by means of extending the CloudiFacturing solution with an augmented digital-twin concept called “Digital Product Brain” (DPB) and a smart business model called “Manufacturing as a Service” (MaaS). By having access to on-demand data, models, algorithms, and resources for industrial products (i.e. mechatronic systems supporting the production of other products), the DBP will enable their customisation and adaptation according to individual conditions. The availability of industrial-product capacity will facilitate the implementation of MaaS, which will allow manufacturing SMEs to access advanced manufacturing facilities within their regions or to distribute their orders across different ones. The DIGITbrain project will address four principles that will foster the uptake of advanced digital and manufacturing technologies. A) Technology: leverage edge-, cloud- and HPC-based modelling, simulation, optimisation, analytics, and machine learning tools and augment the concept of digital twin with a memorizing capacity that records the provenance of the industrial product over its full lifecycle. B) Feasibility: support more than 20 highly innovative cross-border experiments, bringing together technology providers and manufacturing end users, and facilitating cost-effective distributed and localised production, based on on-demand manufacturing machine capacity. C) Sustainability: coach and empower DIHs to implement the smart business model MaaS and contribute to their long-term sustainability, by increasing their portfolio with services tailored to the industrial needs of their regions. D) Network of DIHs: engage DIHs across Europe that implement MaaS, enable manufacturing SMEs to co-create and experiment with digital innovations before investing, and attract national and regional funding.