COMSENSO - 3rd ANNUAL INSTALMENT AND CLOSURE

MISSIONS | MIP - 20211010

The COMSENSO project has been successfully completed with this third and final annual installment, achieving the following objectives:

1) A cell equipped with the new L-WAAM technology has been developed, integrated, and validated at the facilities of the company BEZZIER. This technology enhances the productivity and quality of parts currently manufactured using the WAAM process. This cell consists of:

• A new high-power laser source,

• A processing head to integrate the beam of this laser with a GMAW arc torch,

• A closed-loop process monitoring and control system based on high-speed infrared imaging,

• An intelligent manufacturing assistance system for the early detection of defects (during the manufacturing process itself).

2) A digital manufacturing solution to structure and leverage the information flow generated in each and every stage of the process.

3) To demonstrate the potential of L-WAAM technology and validate all the aforementioned developments, a multimaterial Steel/Invar mold was manufactured. This mold was selected as a demonstrator in COMSENSO by the leading company INESPASA. FBG sensors were incorporated into critical areas to provide it with multifunctionality, transforming it from a passive mold into an active mold that continuously reports on its structural status. By manufacturing this new mold using the L-WAAM process, a 67% reduction in the amount of raw material and a 34% weight reduction were achieved compared to the mold manufactured by the conventional process, the latter thanks to the design freedom enabled by the L-WAAM process. Finally, it is important to highlight that the L-WAAM process provides greater stability of the melt pool, which in turn translates into higher quality, better part finish, and increased productivity compared to the WAAM process.

The COMSENSO consortium has been formed by the following entities:

INESPASA – A company based in Seville with over 30 years of experience in developing comprehensive solutions for Aerostructure projects: Design and Manufacturing of Tooling, Manufacturing of Machined Elementals, and Assembly of Subassemblies.

SYSPRO – A company based in Nigrán (Pontevedra), specialized in technical engineering services in the fields of automation, integration, industrial software, and machine vision.

BEZZIER – A company based in Gijón, specialized, on one hand, in the development and commercialization of industrial software solutions for manufacturing automation and productivity improvement, and on the other, in the production of metal parts using additive manufacturing with WAAM technology.

MONOCROM – A company based in Barcelona, it is the only one at the national level that develops diode lasers, providing standard and customized solutions for medical-aesthetic, industrial, and defense applications.

NIT – A company based in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), whose main business is manufacturing and marketing high-speed uncooled detectors and sensitive systems in the mid-wave infrared spectral region (MWIR / 1-5 microns). It is the only company in the world capable of manufacturing uncooled, low-cost focal plane arrays (FPA) and imaging systems.

CiTD - A company based in Getafe, a leader in providing comprehensive innovation and product engineering services, established in 2015 as a continuation of the activity that the engineering firm ITD had been carrying out for over a decade in the aerospace and defense sector.

Furthermore, AIMEN and GRADIANT also participated as subcontractors, technological centers located in the province of Pontevedra with recognized prestige in the development of advanced manufacturing processes and solutions in the field of digitalization, respectively.

File: MIP-20211010
Acronym: COMSENSO
Title: ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OF SENSORIZED MULTIMATERIAL COMPONENTS USING LASER-ASSISTED WAAM TECHNOLOGY
Grant Amount (€): €229,569.55
Duration: 2021 - 2023
Description: CDTI Missions Program, 2021 call.
This project is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and "Granted by CDTI".

COMSENSO PROJECT