LAST NEWS
Meeting with the Imperial College of London
Tuesday, 13 September, 2016
In the always dynamic environment of London, it was held the meeting between Prof. Jianguo Lin, director of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Imperial College of London and Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante.
Some high tech industrial projects are already running between D4S Motorsport and this important UK institution. Target of the meeting was to explore future possible collaboration in the field of the advanced engineering, with a special attention to application of innovative manufacturing process for the production of a future generation of low-inertia powertrain components.
In the same days the meeting of the international project MMTECH was held at the Imperial College. This project relates with the setting up of a new concept of additive manufacturing process for aerospace components.
Industries, research centres and companies from UK, France, Italy and Spain are involved in this international collaboration.
MMTech will develop technologies and methodologies to process the gamma-Titanium material, which have the potential to save time and cost across the aircraft lifecycle (design, production, maintenance, overhaul, repair and retrofit), including certification aspects. It will target the integration of new and novel materials in aero-engine and aircraft structural components.
New materials for high temperature parts – MMTECH project
Wednesday, 8 June, 2016
An MMTECH dissemination event at the famous race Cesana -Sestriere, in Italy, valid for the European Championship of Hill Climbing
New materials for high temperature parts – MMTECH project
D4S Motorsport is a core member of the Consortium MMTECH, a multinational coalition of enterprises focused on the development and application of a new generation of materials for high temperature applications (turbochargers, aerospace turbines, rockets).
The MMTech project is focusing on the development of technologies and methodologies which have the potential to save cost and time across the whole aircraft lifecycle, including design, production, maintenance, overhaul, repair and retrofit. It will investigate the steps needed to certify the new technologies for use on planes. The scientific target is based on the sustainable introduction of titanium aluminide alloys in the gamma phase, known as gamma titanium aluminides or γ-TiAl.
This is a promising material for aerospace (but also high-end automotive) applications because is performs well at the high temperatures found in engines and is lighter than the nickel alloys which are currently in use. However, it is extremely brittle at low temperatures and so is hard to work with.
There are several bottlenecks to the general introduction of γ-TiAl in aerospace and automotive components. The various alloys are currently expensive and are hard to obtain, so machining large block of material is unattractive. Making parts using near-net techniques such a rapid manufacture (RM) uses less material, but comes with its own problems. Powder properties can vary across suppliers and even between batches, meaning that process parameters need to be set for each new build. Near net parts also need machining, but because γ-TiAl is brittle at low temperatures, it is extremely hard to finish-machine the components without producing cracks. MMTECH will develop methods of creating stable, consistent powder batches and investigate adaptive manufacturing techniques which can automatically vary deposition and machining parameters based on information gained during previous parts of the process chain. It will also look into ways of softening the material during processing using lasers to reduce cracking.
Specific advanced tools will be used for the new approach, based on integration of experimental testing and multi-scale modeling. Multi-scale modelling techniques will be applied to the manufacturing route to predict the inherent material properties of the γ-TiAl parts produced with RM and to optimise the laser-assisted machining process for high performance and high-quality production.
These goals will be achieved by meeting a number of technology challenges:
• The production of powders with stable physical properties
• The reduction of rapid manufacturing costs
• The improvement of machining processes
• The development of multi-scale models of the manufacturing process chain
Official project link:
Picture: one of the D4S Motorsport cars during the event.
This kind of broadcasted events are the best opportunities to tests and promote innovative solutions, at the same time.
Building the basis for future collaborations with the famous City University of Hong Kong In the fascinating environment of the always dynamic Hong Kong was held the first important meeting between the worldwide famous City University of Hong Kong, represented by Prof. Jian Lu, Executive Vice President of Research and Technology, and Dr. Sergio Durante, Executive Vice President of the multinational company D4S Group.
The topic of the meeting was focused on the future collaboration between the two institutions. The fields of interest discussed are mainly related to the application of advanced materials to the future mobility automotive sector, with a particular interest on a novel generation of energy absorbers, ultra high strength nano-structured metals and innovative surface engineering treatment.
The City University of Hong Kong, in the Department of Advanced Structural Materials sport a state of the art equipped laboratory and top level researchers.
The number and the quality of the publications permit the University to be ranked among the best-in-class worldwide.
More in details the Primary mission of the Centre for Advanced Structural Materials of Prof. Jian Lu is to develop a future generation of materials scientists, mechanics of materials researchers and design engineers to bring advance fundamentals and technologies in advanced structural materials.
Innovative solutions are created for different key industrial sectors, such as the biomedical, the automotive, the aerospace, and the sustainable energy.
The Centre’s objectives are to build a common research platform to attracts various members in the field of mechanics of advanced structural and functional material. Technology transfer is created by working with national and international leading companies; training top level multi-disciplinary researchers for the region; developing high value-added products to support economic developments of Hong Kong and the Pearl Delta Region.
The current major research areas are:
• Prestressed engineering materials and devices
• Advanced Bulk Metallic Glasses (BMGs) and Multicomponent Metallic Alloys
• New Advanced Composites
• Radiation Damage in Reactor Materials
• Integration of advanced structural materials in product design
The new materials under development in the Prof. Jian Lu Centre for Advanced Structural Material, show high potential of application in the future electric and hybrid cars, that represent exactly the focus of the current business of D4S Motorsport The two organizations found a lot of complementarity points that will converge in the joint participations to both industrial and government high tech Asian and European projects, where the City University of Hong Kong will bring in the material technologies while D4S Motorsport will develop the manufacturing and extensive automotive testing of parts.
The modern architecture sport by the City University of Hong Kong, which is ranked one of the best universities Worldwide
Picture: Prof. Jian Lu, Executive Vice President of the Research & Technology at the City University of Hong Kong with Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante, Executive Vice President of the D4S Group.
The Hong Kong University.