Transforming Programme WP4 - B – Adaptive, collaborative and competitive production

This transformative project will leverage the plastics molding and processing industry by applying differentiating digital tools and innovative production processes. The case study will be an air vent for a quiet car cabin, designed for electric mobility. An insert, a fibrous material with sound-absorbing properties, will be incorporated into the body of the air vent to replace the thermoplastic material. This material will make it possible to reduce the noise when the air enters the inflation nozzle, noise that comes from the air flowing through the car's sofage system.

An industrial robotics system will also be developed to handle and move this very sensitive material, which must be transported without contact in order to avoid loss of properties. This solution for handling flexible materials, in addition to the automotive industry, can be used in the packaging industry or any other industry where a flexible (where it is not possible to use tweezers which could damage the shape of the component) and permeable (it is not possible to use suction cups) component needs to be moved.

Since acoustic and airflow simulations require significant computing resources, this project plans to use HPC (High Performance Computing), an innovative service in Portugal, especially in the mold industry. This type of service has the potential to impact the national industry, guaranteeing resilience and providing something that was not previously possible."