The overall goal of this project is to obtain the optimum technology for the non-destructive inspection of both present and future generation hybrid aircraft and thick composite structures, containing acoustic damping materials and materials which highly attenuate highly ultrasound, with high speed 100% volume coverage. The advanced prototype system will be validated via deployment to inspect a long barrel demonstrator component panel, which is to be developed in the Clean Sky 2 Programme using hybrid materials technology. The technical approach is to use non-contact laser generated pulsed ultrasound (LUT) with delivery of both the laser ultrasound excitation and detection pulses through flexible optical fibres scanned with a 6 axis lightweight robot arm to provide an area coverage (scan window) substantially exceeding of 1.5m x 1.5m from a single location of the robot base. LUT Signal processing algorithms will be used for (i) the reduction of coherent noise from fibres and (ii) Random signal to noise ratio enhancement using LUT synthetic aperture focusing. The robot arm will move on a rail track that runs the length of one side of the barrel demonstrator panel which will be positioned and fixed within the system cell. The robot arm will raster the laser head system over the part surface, and move in increments along the track to inspect the whole component, at speeds of>8m2 per hour. It is envisioned that the part will be scanned in less than 4 scan windows.

MILADO will provide a robust and universal technology platform for low-cost and large volume fabrication of mid infrared (MIR) lasers enabling novel sensors in medicine and production. Key innovation is the technology upscale of the epitaxy of Quantum-Cascade-Lasers (QCLs) on large area substrates and the development of concepts for direct III-V-epitaxy on silicon. Merging III-V and Si-photonics by integrating QCLs and Si-based MIR photonics using CMOS-based technology well-established but very costly III/V-technology-based manufacturing of QCL light sources for spectroscopic applications will be replaced by a cost-effective and scalable manufacturing technology on CEA’s CMOS Pilot Line bringing MIR technology out of its niche. Another building block of MILADO towards a general platform that can be extended for further integration of sensors and actuators in MEMS technology are MIR-PICs made from Ge/SiGe-structures for the definition of waveguides, combiners and any other passive devices required to handle the optical connection of QCLs. MILADO’s technology will open up new markets by enabling novel sensors for personal medical diagnostics or edge-sensors in chemical production. The versatility of the approach will be demonstrated in use cases covering process control and medical diagnostics reaching from the hospital to the patient covering waste anaesthetic gas detection, histopathology to biomarker monitoring.

By applying a circularity-by-design approach, the AMBIANCE project aims to develop new and advanced bio-based products, characterized by a high or total bio-based material content and taking into account the different alternatives for recirculation such as the different types of reuses, remanufacturing, recycling, biodegradation or energy recovery to enhance sustainable models. Such approach will be coupled to the optimization of the mechanical properties for particular applications, e.g. durability for outdoors urban furniture or sports and leisure products, taking into consideration the whole lifecycle. Special attention will be paid to the optimization of product manufacturing of bio-based materials, which will require tuning of material composition and processes (extrusion, large-scale additive manufacturing, compression moulding) for different bio-based materials. Besides, the use of Digital Twin technologies will enhance the development of materials and products and the remanufacturing of such bio-based goods, and it will optimize manufacturing processes and enhance production quality of such novel applications by leveraging IoT and Artificial Intelligence technologies. AMBIANCE's impact will be two-fold: firstly we will showcase disruptively innovative bio-based products in different sectors and manufacturing processes, while we will demonstrate applicability in daily-life products, starring green urban areas that will lead the transition to sustainability. The setting proposed by AMBIANCE will directly result in the creation of new jobs, based on new technical competences that will require specific training and upskilling, while the technical developments and findings will be used to contributing to the standardization of bio-based products and materials, which will guarantee an effective and wide adoption for making such products the new baseline of our lives.

The “NDTonAIR” consortium involves Universities, Research Organisations and major European companies working on new Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) techniques for aerospace, of which both are key technologies. The goal is to train a new generation of scientists and engineers with a wide background of theoretical and experimental skills, capable of developing their research and entrepreneurial activities both in academy and industry and playing an active role in promoting the importance of quality inspection and structural monitoring in aerospace components. The objective of the training programme is to provide the recruited researchers with an extensive and varied training on: (1) Fundamentals skills for NDT and SHM through participation in short-courses and seminars organized by the Consortium; (2) NDT and SHM Techniques for Aerospace through research training at host institutions and participation in Workshops and Conferences organized by the Consortium and major international research associations; (3) Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship through participation in short-courses and seminars organized by the Consortium. The objective of the research programme is to consolidate and innovate current NDT and SHM techniques for Aircraft inspection by (1) investigating new physical phenomena and sensors; (2) developing analytical and numerical models to correlate the results of inspection with material properties; (3) quantifying NDT techniques through their probability of detecting reference defects; (4) developing procedures for the automatic detection and classification of defects; (5) transferring these results to industry. The members of the Consortium will work together for realizing this training programme and scientific collaboration will be stimulated by secondment of the recruited researchers and it will be aimed at improving the integration and comparison of different NDT techniques.

The continuous growth of laser-based manufacturing processes has allowed the introduction of many new applications in different industries during last years. This advance has brought many advantages in terms of parts complexity, required resources (human and material) or environmental impact. On the other side, parts manufacturing through laser based processes require specific designs/adjustments for each one of the applications (this delays considerably the time-to-market of new products). This means that a more holistic approach will be desirable in the following years in order to meet rapidly-changing market requirements. In addition to this fact, productivity will always be a great concern for European companies. The aspects that restrict process productivity are linked to non-productive intervals, such as scrap generation, defective parts manufacturing or pores/cracks appearance that make parts useless. In this environment, the use of easily controllable manufacturing processes is mandatory in order to increase process productivity and reduce the time-to-market while keeping or increasing final quality of manufactured products. Laser processes have the main advantage of being controllable processes, additionally to being fast and accurate processes, allowing precise actuation over the equipment parameters that directly can be translated in a change of the physical parameters, those that affect to the final quality of manufactured parts. Both laser welding and cladding rely on the same physical process of material melting. Therefore, all of them have common problems. In order to overcome undesirable situations, new strategies need to be developed which will be based on two different main branches, all of them under zero defects manufacturing philosophy: 1) Monitoring, and 2) NDT solutions. The objective of COMBILASER is the combination of these two worlds through a self-learning system.