1.

1 Concept and objectives

1.1.1

Socio-Economical demands and technical challenges on composite

manufacturing

By reason of their high weight specific

mechanical properties, fibre reinforced
composite materials are increasingly
employed for high performance
structures (cf. Figure 1). Yet, their
exploitation is still limited due to rather
high costs as well as particular design
and
manufacturing
requirements,
which cannot be met today, especially
within automotive, aeronautic, marine
and railway application. In order to
increase exploitation, industry and
SME request for more robust but
flexible
composite
production
processes,
which
enable
to
significantly increase ramp-up times Figure 1: Attractivity and competiveness of
and process reliability as well as to significant materials for industry Error! No se
reduce
material
and
energy encuentra el origen de la referencia..
consumption, rework
and postprocessing. Especially for high product changes and material substitution aspects, a very
strong effort is currently required to find optimum process parameters and thus, often hinders
technological advances in the final product.
Within the following, current socio-economic demands for manufacturing of high
performance composites are emphasized for three main categories of industrial
application: volume parts, complex parts and large parts.
By reason of potential weight savings (up to 20%), e.g. automotive industry is increasingly
asking for solutions of material substitution for volume parts (high throughput). By this
means, resource consumption and CO2/NOx (e.g. fuel burn) can be reduced significantly
during service. Yet, manufacturing processes of high performance composites, such as
carbon fibre reinforces plastics (CFRP), are either too inefficient (high process time,
material and energy consumption) or they are lacking of required robustness. Current
process variations already lead to unacceptable loss of required quality (e.g. structural
performance, surface quality). Moreover, inevitable rework and post-processing tasks also
hinder economical manufacturing of volume parts. Therefore, a new composite
manufacturing concept is required in order to ensure required robustness while significantly
reducing manufacturing costs within automotive industry. Thus, to exploit lighter and high
performance composite volume parts.
So-called complex parts may have complex geometric shapes (e.g. with strong curvatures
or thickness variations) or complex multi-material designs in order to integrate joints for load
introduction purpose or to serve specific (multi-functional) requirements. By reason of their
flexibility, composites can meet these particularities for a wide range of application and thus,
offer exploitation of new product properties (e.g. light-weight composite propeller with
acoustic damping capabilities). But yet, an immense effort and investment has to be spent
on process design (tooling, process temperatures, etc.), hinders first-time-right
manufacturing and prevents from further exploitation. In order to increase sustainable
exploitation of complex parts (e.g. involving potentials of multi-functional capabilities),
especially SMEs are requiring a new composite manufacturing processes technique, which
significantly reduces ramp-up times and production costs. This is necessary to exploit

European leadership (suppliers and end users) for high technology applications, even across
markets (e.g. automotive, aeronautic, marine, railway).
High performance large parts are mostly weight driven. But also geometric tolerances
(e.g. aerodynamic shape of an aeronautic wing cover) are of high importance in order to
achieve current socio-economical requirements. E.g. European commission is demanding
75% CO2 reduction and 90% NOx reduction (cf. Flighpath 2050 Error! No se encuentra
el origen de la referencia.) until 2050, for which reason fuel consumption has to be reduced
significantly by structural weight reduction and increased aerodynamic efficiency. To this,
unnecessary safety margins of composite design (by 10-20%) have to be exploited by
identifying and minimizing manufacturing defects. Currently, extremely low manufacturing
tolerances are applied, leading to very high process costs (time and energy), and yet,
relatively high effort (up to 20%) is spent on non-added value processes like rework and
post-processing. Moreover, rejection rates (up to 10%) are to be prevented in order to
increase process efficiency, thus reducing overall energy and material consumption as well
as CO2 and NOx emissions.
Due to these industrial demands ECOMISE addresses all three product types: volume,
complex and large parts. For this purpose a scientific approach is followed by investigating
the respective particularities of each product type and developing a new and innovative
manufacturing technology, which suits all three product types. As depicted within Figure 2,
this manufacturing technology is validated and demonstrated by three different industrial
use-cases: Car Suspension (volume part), Aeronautic Wing Cover (large part) and Ship
Propeller (complex part).
Volume Part

Car Suspension

Large Part

Aeronautic Wing Cover

Complex Part

Ship Propeller

Figure 2: Three representative industrial sectors for volume, large and complex part
application.

Within this context the project is addressing the following impacts:

- Higher utilization of composites by 15% with improved performance without a cost
increase for new composite applications by significantly improving composite quality
through structural evaluation and selective adjustment of manufacturing tolerances
- Decrease in raw materials and energy consumption up to 45% during
manufacturing by increased process efficiency due to first-time-right process design
(no manufacturing trials), in-situ process control, net-shape fibre placement,
significantly reduced curing times
- Reduction of waste and emissions up to 45% during manufacturing and postprocessing (no rework or shimming during assembly) by robust net-shape
manufacturing based on in-situ evaluation and immediate process adjustment

1.1.2

Concept of the project

In spite of extensive effort within several research projects, the current development process
of composite structures still shows a mostly sequential work flow (cf. on the left of Figure 3)

along Process Design, Production, Quality Assurance and Rework phases. Several
different empirical and numerical methods and tools are applied within these phases in order
to solve particular questions. Accompanying it, a heterogeneous set of systems and tools
with mostly incomplete interfaces hinders a throughout development process with a high
degree of automation. This directly affects process efficiency both short-term ramp-up as well
as long-term robustness. Hence, a high number of iterations is usually needed for an initial
Process Design and frequent Process Adjustments; nonetheless, Part rejection
cannot be avoided.
Facing the high complexity of composite manufacturing processes and the high sensitivity of
the final composite quality with respect to inevitable process tolerances a new holistic,
knowledge-based manufacturing approach is required, which enables high performance
composite application at significant reduction of production time and costs as well as
related material and energy consumption.
An innovative breakthrough technology will therefore be developed within ECOMISE by:
Enabling Next Generation COmposite Manufacturing by
In-Situ Structural Evaluation and Process Adjustment.
For the first time, an in-situ evaluation of the real determining composite properties
will be provided already during manufacturing, directly coupled with an immediate,
individual process adjustment. Thus, initial requirements with very low tolerances/ safety
margins can be ensured for future composite application without costly rework/ repair at a
late production state.
As depicted on the right of Figure 3, this breakthrough will be achieved by the new holistic
ECOMISE Manufacturing System, which is not available yet. This manufacturing system
combines the following four innovative technology modules:
- Probabilistic Process Prediction, taking into account statistical process tolerances,
- On-line Process Monitoring, for capturing comprehensive process data and related
composite properties,
- In-Situ Evaluation of present as-built composite quality affected by detected
process deviations and composite properties
- In-Situ Process Adjustment measures to prevent or compensate deviations.

State-of-the-art
manufacturing process

ECOMISE Manufacturing System

beyond state-of-the-art

- Empirical experience
- Single deterministic
calculations

Robust
process window
Process
Design

Extensive
process redesign
and tooling
modification

Probabilistic Process Prediction

for reliable and robust process
design
Online Process Monitoring
for immediate and reliable
information of complete part

Production

Part
rejection

Quality
Assurance
Rework
& PostProcessing

In-situ
(re-) qualification
measures

In-Situ Process
Adjustment
by fast
optimization

In-Situ
Evaluation
of composite
quality as-built

No rework/ repair
No rejection
Significantly reduced post-processing

Figure 3: Innovations of ECOMISE Manufacturing System with four advanced modules.

Before introducing the innovations of these four required technology modules in greater
detail the following remark shall be highlighted:
The ECOMISE Manufacturing System with its four modules (Probabilistic Process
Prediction, Online Process Monitoring, In-Situ Evaluation and In-Situ Process Adjustment)
must not be mistaken with current process control techniques within composite
manufacturing plants. Current techniques are monitoring dedicated process conditions, such
as global process temperature, pressures, process speed or alike. But no information is
directly captured regarding the real composite properties. For this reason, experiencebased rules (e.g. rough estimation of degree of cure relating on global process temperature)
are currently applied, in order to decide about process modifications without direct assessing
the affected composite quality (e.g. shape, stiffness or strength). Yet, due to the complex
manufacturing of composites, very high process sensitivities have to be accounted for.
Therefore, industrial production has to take the loss of either overestimated process times or
high reject rates and rework effort.

Probabilistic Process Prediction Module

The new module of Probabilistic Process
Prediction will be developed and integrated
within the early process design phase. In
comparison with current state-of-the-art
design methods, which are mainly empirically
based with few simulations of selected
process conditions, the new module will
address the following innovations. More Figure 4: Probabilistic Process Prediction Module
reliable, physically based process simulation methods are developed in order to predict
the continuous manufacturing process from first preforming of fabrics, via subsequent
moulding, resin injection and curing, up to final de-moulding. Beyond, sensitive
manufacturing particularities are considered for more realistic predictions. Exemplarily,
preform tolerances (e.g. fabric shearing, misalignments, ondulations) lead to varying material
properties and thickness distribution and therefore influence the precision of subsequent
infiltration. The resulting fibre volume content variation will determine the subsequent

composite curing and final part distortion. Building on the new continuous simulation chain, a
throughout transfer of the determining distributions of process and material
parameters is enabled instead of isolated applications. Moreover, these simulation methods
are enhanced for robust prediction of process behaviour. To this, the determining
process constraints and inevitable process tolerances (e.g. fabric thickness, gaps,
temperature distribution) are integrated by probabilistic methods and the influence on the
resulting composite properties is evaluated by detailed sensitivity and reliability analyses. It
shall be highlighted, that not only process parameters are considered, but the quality of the
virtually manufactured composite is evaluated in order to assess new processing
strategies.Particular sensitive parameters can be identified and a reliable process window
can be predicted for fast process ramp-up without extensive manufacturing trials and
tooling modification. In order to increase simulation speed more efficient surrogate models
(analytical approximation functions) are derived to predict the resulting composite properties
with respect to inevitable process variations. Based on the required accuracy the most
efficient models are selected and implemented into the process chain for process
optimization taking into account process reliability.

Online Process Monitoring Module

During production phase, an innovative Online
Process Monitoring is developed in order to capture all
prior identified sensitive process and material properties,
which are determining the composite quality and
defects during preforming, infusion and curing
processes. Most important are: spatial fibre orientation,
curvature, thickness, gaps, foreign objects, composite
temperature, heat flow, resin flow front, resin gelation,
glass transition or degree of cure. Although some can
already be captured with current industrial measurement Figure 5: Online Process Monitoring
Module
systems (e.g. temperature, flow front), the measurement
of further determining parameters (e.g. fibre orientation of highly curved parts) has to be
enhanced also for new material systems and tested for robust industrial use. This includes
both, development of respective sensor hardware (e.g. new lightening concept with
reduced reflections during fibre orientation measurement or more robust tooling-integrated
curing sensors for volume production) as well as implementation of more reliable and more
efficient algorithms for real-time analysis and post-processing of required properties
from indirect measurements (e.g. deriving fibre architecture from grey scales or correlation of
degree of cure with electrical resistance). To this, a pre-selection and dedicated training of
the underlying data analysis methods (phenomenological needs and numerical efficiency) is
performed and statistical analysis methods are exploited for increased reliability and
efficiency. By on-line comparison of the measured and the numerically predicted data (from
detailed process design phase), an early assessment of possible deviations can be
accomplished. Imminent violations of process envelopes can be indicated and simulation
models (from probabilistic process prediction) can be updated. Investigations are performed
for a variety of process conditions and test samples related to the final industrial project
use-cases. Hereupon, specifications and guidelines will be derived for the required
monitoring systems. The pilot implementation of monitoring systems will first be tested
within laboratories in order to evaluate reliability of tracking the real process parameters and
resulting component properties. Subsequently, the monitoring systems are tested within
production environment to demonstrate scalability towards industrial needs.

In-Situ Evaluation Module

Due to very high sensitivities of various

FPM- or CAD-Model
Nominal Design CAE-Model
Multiscale Analysis
providing manufactured fibre
process parameters, violations of process
without manufacturing
providing effective material
alignment
aspects
properties
tolerances can hardly be avoided within
industrial settings. Yet, not all violations
are affecting the final product quality by
FI =0.37
FPM Data
Nominal Design
Local Global Manufactured sample
the same critical amount. Exemplarily,
slight deviations of fibre orientation or
1. As-Built CAE-Model
lower fibre volume content might be
including
effective material properties +
fibre orientation
critical within highly loaded complex
areas of the composite part, but
insignificant for low loaded areas of the
Figure 6: In-Situ
FI =0.96
same part. Therefore, an innovative InFeedback CAE model
Evaluation Module
including fibre information
Situ Evaluation of the affected
composite quality (based on previously measured process parameters from Online Process
Monitoring) is performed during production in case of violations. At first, a feedback of the
measured as-built data (from Online Process Monitoring) into the structural model takes
place, e.g. of fibre orientation, thickness or degree of cure. On this, enhanced tools are
developed to automatically analyse the hereby effected structural material properties (e.g.
reduced stiffness from deviating fibre orientation) as well as to map the complex 3D-field
data onto the respective structural simulation models. Subsequently, an automated asbuilt analysis is performed for the real composite properties, and the resulting composite
quality is evaluated (e.g. load bearing capacity) with respect to the occurring manufacturing
deviations. In order to meet the required speed of in-situ analysis and evaluation, a new
approach is followed. Before manufacturing, numerical and semi-analytical sensitivity
analyses are performed in order to derive response functions of the composite properties
with respect to underlying process deviations. Further, these derived response functions are
implemented into a new post-processing routine, which is applied on as-built structural
models. Thus, a breakthrough method and tool is provided for evaluating structural
performance and composite quality instead of running time-consuming analyses of highresolution finite element models. Concluding, the proposed method of In-Situ Evaluation is
based on a new comprehensive approach, which integrates online measured process
deviations and beyond, immediately evaluates the resulting composite quality by new
efficient methods, which are suitable for in-situ application. Within industrial use, this
evaluation will lead to an in-situ decision whether corrective actions are necessary or not. In
the best case, the particular investigated effect may be locally negligible, and the production
can be continued without costly stopping of the process.
max

max

In-Situ Process Adjustment Module

If the required composite quality is not

Layup
Layup
ensured,
automatic
process
deviation adjustment
correction measures are provided
during production by the In-Situ
Process Adjustment module. This will
replace
current
procedures
of
continuing subsequent process steps as
initially
planned
and
eventually T
allocating very high effort for later
Knowledge-based process
paramter optimization
rework/ repair activities such as grinding
exothermic
Temperature
and post-curing of porous areas or if
overshoot
adjustment
the case may be even rejecting the
t
failed product (after completing costly
Figure
7:
In-Situ
Process
Adjustment Module
production). The main challenges of the
new Process Adjustment arise from the
required in-situ decision making capability. Thus, previously developed surrogate
models (from Probabilistic Process Prediction and In-Situ Evaluation modules) are
exploited to described structural response as a function of varying process parameters
much faster than finite-element-based process simulations. Moreover, they can be integrated
into more efficient global optimization procedures. Their robustness and accuracy are
investigated by detailed studies within the required parameter space to ensure reliable
application. Depending on the respective process step, optimization time is expected within
few minutes in order to determine adjusted process parameters. Exemplarily, fibre
orientations of next plies are adjusted in order to balance current deviations and to
compensate defects. Within a further example, temperatures of time-lagging large part
production are controlled within an early process state in order to prevent from later
overshooting with related material degradation. These measures lead to a significant
reduction of waste of material and energy while ensuring the required part quality.
In addition to the above mentioned benefits, the developed ECOMISE Manufacturing System
integrates major quality assurance aspects at the earliest (in-situ) process stage. For
this reason, subsequent non-destructive inspection/testing tasks (NDI/NDT) for quality
assurance, such as time consuming ultrasonic testing, are reduced for certain applications.
Furthermore, rework/repair tasks, such as subsequent trimming of edges, grinding of
porous areas and post-curing can be prevented. Due to the predictive evaluation of final
geometrical shape of the composite and continuous process adjustments, assembly
tolerances are met with much higher precision. Therefore, costly joining and assembly tasks
will be considerably simplified by minimizing non-added value post-processing, such as
manual shimming or grinding.

1.1.3

Scientific & technological objectives

The current state of composite manufacturing is limited to conservative restriction. For

example expensive pre-impregnated fabrics are used to reduce fibre misalignment and to
eliminate problems during injection. The application of cheaper dry fibre materials within
injection processes is commonly associated with a loss of accuracy. Hence, inevitable
process tolerances are occurring during manufacturing and therefore have to be paid
attention to. Within the top part of Table 1 typical process tolerances are listed for the main
process steps of fabric layup, resin injection and curing. Depending on the respective
environment, the degree of automation, specific part geometry and selected process
parameters these tolerances lead to several defects within the composite structures, such as
gaps, overlaps, folds, pores, dry spots, cracks, delamination, residual stresses and
distortions (cf. middle part of Table 1).
The product of ECOMISE is a new Manufacturing System, by which the following cost
savings are assessed for the different production phases by increased robustness (less
waste, rework and rejection) and reduced process time (less energy, higher volume): 5-10%
during fabric layup, 5-15% during infiltration and up to 40% during curing (cf. bottom part of

Comentario [WT1]: Hier

Krzungspotenzial und auf 1.2
verweisen. Jeweils Bezug auf Table
herstellen

Table 1). Within the ECOMISE Manufacturing System four innovative technology modules
are developed and integrated, resulting in the following technological and scientific
objectives:
Resin infiltration

Curing

Manufacturing defects

Process
tolerances

Process steps

Fabric layup

- Fibre orientation
- Waviness, undulation
- Fibre gaps
- Overlapping
- Shearing of fabric
- Foreign objects

- Temperature distribution
- Exothermic reaction
- Degree of cure distribution
- Glass transition
- Chemical shrinkage
- Thermal expansion

fibre volume variation

undulation,
shearing,
kinks

gaps,
overlaps
resin rich or dry areas

foreign objects
Potential
cost
savings

- Pressure
- Resin and tool temperature
- Cavity size and shape
- Permeability
- Resin viscosity
- Air entrapments

variation of
degree of cure

cracks,
delamination

folds

5-10% by increased
process robustness,
5-10% by reduced process
time

pores
10-15% by increased process
robustness
5-10% by reduced process
time

residual stresses distortions

5-20% by increased process
robustness
10-40% by reduced process
time

Table 1: Typical process tolerances and resulting structural defects of composites.

1) Probabilistic Process Prediction Module: New simulation techniques are investigated

and software is developed by research institutes and software provider. It will be provided
for Industry and SME end users in order to predict the process behaviour by advanced
simulation methods, which also make use of reliability analysis to account for statistical
process variations.
- Enhanced investigation of material behaviour and implementation of advanced
material models to capture viscoelastic material behaviour of resin and composite
- Investigation of process boundaries conditions with respect to their effect on the
resulting composite properties
- Derivation of probabilistic process simulation methods/ models to account for
tolerances; derivation of simulation guideline and (pre-normative) data format,
- Implementation of probabilistic analysis framework to account for uncertainties/
parameter variations during process simulation
2) Online Process Monitoring Module: Advanced sensor system hardware and data
acquisition/ analysis software are developed by research institute and sensor system

provider (SME). They will be provided for Industry and SME end users for monitoring
preforming, injection and curing processes.
- Development of new process monitoring strategies as well as required
measurement systems for preforming (containing lightening, camera and
computation hardware devices) and flow front/ curing (electrical resistivity sensor
hardware)
- Development of new analysis methods and software implementation for real-time
evaluation of monitored properties with required resolution and reliability for
preforming (fibre angles, curvatures, thickness, gaps, overlaps as well as foreign
objects) and infiltration/ curing (degree-of-cure, glass transition temperature,
shrinkage or stiffness changes)
3) In-Situ Evaluation Module: Advanced software is developed and implemented by
research institutes and simulation software provider. This software for real-time
evaluation of the composite quality (structural behavior depending on the real as-built
composite properties) makes use of online process measurement data. Advanced asbuilt feedback methods, efficient evaluation strategies and new corresponding
evaluation criteria are developed and implemented for Industry and SME end users.
- Development of advanced as-built feedback method as well as implementation
of missing software and CAD-CAE-CAM interfaces to map measured or simulated
data onto different (3D/2D) structural analysis models
- Development of an in-situ process evaluation method and automated as-built
analysis software to verify the structural properties during manufacturing with
respect to inevitable process tolerances
- Investigation of advanced surrogate models to increase efficiency for in-situ
capability
4) In-Situ Process Adjustment Module: New software is developed and implemented for
in-situ prediction of process adjustment measures. Feedback loop is closed to
manufacturing facility (especially placement machine, heating device)
- Advanced process adjustment/optimization strategy implemented into framework
and tailored for robust industrial use
- Development and verification of surrogate models for efficient in-situ adjustment
capability of subsequently required process parameters to rebuild composite quality
by fast on-time optimization
- Development of automated decision support and process correction measures/
machine control
5) Manufacturing System Integration:
- Enhancement of promising manufacturing methods and guideline definition (dry
fibre placement) to increase flexibility (adaptive preforming speed close to accuracy
limits) to apply new materials like dry fibre and fast curing resin systems
- Detailed definition of the ECOMISE Manufacturing System with respect to different
product types of volume, complex and large parts (guideline, patent) and
integration of the four modules (hardware and software installation)
- Installation and programming of robots for guided online process monitoring and
for automated process adjustment
- Validation of the newly developed methods on coupon and small component level;
industrial testing and demonstration by three use-cases: 1) Car Suspension, 2)
Aeronautic Wing Cover, 3) Ship Propeller (cf. detailed explanation in chapter 1.1.4)

1.1.4

Validation and demonstration of ECOMISE

The ECOMISE Manufacturing System is especially developed for high performance fibre
reinforced composites in order to significantly improve production efficiency and product
performance without cost increase, decrease raw materials and energy consumption as well

as reduce waste and emission. As explained in the previous chapters a holistic approach is
followed by adding four innovative technology modules to current manufacturing plants. In
this way, several composite manufacturing processes can be addressed, whereas the project
focus is laid upon dry preforming with subsequent infiltration and curing processes.
In order to prove validity, to evaluate efficiency and to demonstrate applicability of the new
ECOMISE System three industrial relevant use-cases are chosen, which represent three
different types of application: Use-Case 1: Car Suspension (Volume part), Use-Case 2:
Aeronautic Wing Cover (Large part), Use-Case 3: Ship Propeller (Complex part).
For all three use-cases, the ECOMISE System (including the four technology modules
containing monitoring hardware and analysis/evaluation/optimization software) is integrated
likewise at the respective end-users plant of Hutchinson, Bombardier and Airborne. As can
be seen from Table 2 different combinations of preforming, infiltration and consolidation
processes are applied to assess generality: Manual layup + Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM),
Advanced Fibre Placement (AFP) + Resin Transfer Injection (RTI), Automated Pick&Place +
Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM).
By manufacturing 10 car suspensions, 2 wing covers and 3 ship propellers the overall
requirements are assessed by following measures: Time and cost savings, Material and
energy/ CO2/ NOx savings, Process robustness and reliability, Accuracy and product quality,
Industrial applicability. A more detailed description of the use-cases is given in the
subsequent sections.
Volume part
Use case 1:Car Suspension

Large part
Use case 2: Wing Cover

Complex and thick part

Use case 3:Ship Propeller

4,5m

2,5m

Bombardier (IND)
AFP + RTI process
2 pieces
Co-Bonding

Airborne (SME)
Pick&Place + RTM process
3 pieces
Metal inserts

0,4m
Hutchinson (IND)
Layup + RTM process
10 pieces
Metal inserts, bonding, rubber

Overall requirements for all three use cases

-

High structural quality

High process reliability
Minimum waste (material and energy)

Low geometrical tolerance

High process robustness
Minimum process costs

Table 2: Use case Cases for Validation and Demonstration of ECOMISE.

Use case 3: Ship Propeller (Airborne)

The use case of Airborne is on multi-material composite ship propellers for a navy ship with
2.5m diameter. These blades are a solid laminate, made of glass and carbon fabric
laminates with metal inserts for load introduction. The main design drivers are stiffness of the
blade (any deviation can have an effect on hydro-dynamic performance) and strength at the
root, at the connection to the metal hub. Since the blades are currently made with the RTM
process with manual preforming the following improvements are investigated within this
project.
Towards automation of preforming by pick&place, the ECOMISE system will be used to
measure the distortions (image analysis) and feed that back to the placement software.
Laser measurement will be used to on-line detect the edge of a ply, and in-situ adjust the
control of the robot to place the ply directly next to the previous ply. By transferring measured

fibre orientations and alignments into the structural analysis, a prediction e.g. the final
stiffness is enabled during production (before injection and curing). If the predicted stiffness
is out-of-spec, the dry preform can either be modified before injection, or the preform can be
scrapped before injection and curing instead of afterwards, which saves a lot of material and
energy. Improved injection simulation methods for thick-walled laminates will be developed
that include through-thickness flow prediction, and can differentiate between fabric and UD
based laminates. Flow-front and degree-of-cure sensors will be used to optimise the injection
and curing strategy, and actively monitor and steer the process in production. Simulation
tools will be developed to predict residual stress, especially for the highly-loaded thick-walled
part at the root of the blade. Moreover, faster curing resin systems are investigated to reduce
process time and energy. Since current practice requires individual specific propeller design
for each ship the ECOMISE System is expected to significantly reduce the development
effort and time as well as related energy consumption by ECOMISE. Finally, the improved
engineering process is evaluated.