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PublicationResilience in Aviation( 2022-11-14)Pandemic, sustainability and efficiency targets pose ongoing challenges for the aviation industry: It must continue to develop propulsion concepts and tap into new materials and manufacturing processes. Cross-domain digital twins harbor previously untapped potential for mastering growing requirements with the help of digitization, as a practical example from the production of aerospace components shows in the white paper. The trend topic of sustainability drives innovation and complements productivity, quality and costs as criteria for strategic corporate decisions. Awareness of this must be consolidated among personnel, as well as the ability to manage resilient processes. Such processes ensure the successful handling of disruptions. In this way, a disruption can even turn into an opportunity. In the white paper, the Fraunhofer IPT pools its expert knowledge on how the dimensions of "technology", "digitalization", "sustainability" and "employees" can be combined in the context of aviation in order to seize this opportunity.
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PublicationResilienz in der Luftfahrt( 2022-09-16)Pandemie, Nachhaltigkeits- und Effizienzziele stellt fortlaufende Herausforderungen an die Luftfahrtindustrie: Sie muss Antriebstechnologien weiterentwickeln sowie neue Werkstoffe und Fertigungsverfahren erschließen. Domänenübergreifende digitale Zwillinge bergen bisher ungenutzte Potenziale, um wachsende Anforderungen mithilfe von Digitalisierung zu bewältigen, wie ein praxisnahes Beispiel aus der Fertigung von Luftfahrtkomponenten im Whitepaper aufzeigt. Das Trendthema Nachhaltigkeit treibt Innovationen an und ergänzt Produktivität, Qualität und Kosten als Kriterium für strategische Unternehmensentscheidungen. Das Bewusstsein dafür muss sich beim Personal festigen sowie die Fähigkeit, resiliente Prozesse zu bewältigen. Solche Prozesse stellen den erfolgreichen Umgang mit Störungen sicher. So kann sich eine Störung sogar zu einer Chance wandeln. Das Fraunhofer IPT bündelt im Whitepaper sein Expertenwissen, wie sich die Dimensionen »Technologie«, »Digitalisierung«, »Nachhaltigkeit« und »Personal« im Kontext der Luftfahrt verbinden lassen, um diese Chance zu ergreifen.
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PublicationFlying Fuel Cells and the challenges for bipolar plate forming( 2022-06-14)The influence of increasing resource scarcity and climate change has a significant impact on aviation. Therefore, the European Commission has set ambitious goals with a 75% reduction in CO2 and a 90% reduction in NOx as part of the Flightpath 2050 vision. Achieving these goals requires the use of disruptive technologies in aviation, especially in propulsion. In addition to the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), the direct use of hydrogen is a promising alternative. There is the possibility of the direct use of liquid hydrogen in gas turbines as well as the use of fuel cells. In the last-mentioned application, the fuel cell acts as an energy converter and powers the primary electric drives, so that there is the potential to fly emission-free, especially for short- and medium-range flights. However, successful integration of the fuel cell into the aircraft's powertrain requires a significantly increased gravimetric power density compared to the status quo. Furthermore, the fuel cell and the entire manufacturing process chain must fulfill the very high safety requirements of aviation. Therefore, the bipolar plate and, respectively, its production process are key elements for the flying fuel cell. To fulfill the high safety requirements of aviation during the forming of the bipolar plate, various fields of action exist. Within the scope of the presentation, current possibilities of forming simulation will be shown in order to understand the cause-and-effect relationships and thus significantly improve the forming process and the resulting product quality for an optimal integration into a flying fuel cell. Furthermore, current digitalization approaches in the context of forming bipolar plates for flying fuel cells will be presented in order to manage the complexity from the dimensions of design requirement, manufacturing process chain as well as sustainable production.
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PublicationLife-Cycle-Assessment for Rough Machining of Inconel 718 Comparing Ceramic to Cemented Carbide End Mills( 2022)Nickel-based alloys such as Inconel 718 belong to the group of heat-resistant super alloys. Combined with good mechanical properties over a wide range of temperatures nickel alloys are used extensively in the aero engine sections exposed to elevated temperatures. Besides turbine blades and discs, integrally designed compressor rotors (Blisks) in the high-pressure compressor (HPC) are increasingly made of Ni-alloys. This is the result of an efficiency-driven increase in temperature levels in the rear compressor stages. The machining of these hard-tomachine materials is characterized by low productivity and high tool wear. Compared to the machining with conventional cemented carbide end mills, innovative SiAlON ceramics offer a significant potential to increase the performance of these machining processes while saving cooling-lubricants. Besides an increase in productivity, the evaluation of the overall environmental impact of specific manufacturing processes is gaining importance in the context of more sustainable product life-cycles. This paper focuses on the comparison of different milling strategies in the production of high-pressure compressor rotors made from Inconel 718 in a cradle-to-gate assessment based on DIN EN ISO 14040/44. Thus, the ecological impact of both the state-of-the-art and the novel SiAlON roughing strategy are evaluated considering the consumption of energy, water and compressed air as well as the tool wear. The Life-Cycle-Impact- Analysis (LCIA) will be performed as a midpoint analysis taking multiple indicators into account such as the Global Warming Potential (GWP).
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PublicationLife Cycle Inventories for Engine Blisk LCA( 2022)The aviation industry has been growing continuously over the past decades. To ensure sustainability and competitiveness for the aviation industry sector, a full understanding of the environmental impacts is required, not only during use phase but along the entire life cycle, including “Materials”, “Processes and Resources”, “Manufacturing and Production”, “Lifetime Services” as well as “Reuse, End-of-Life and Recycling”. Core engine components, such as integral rotors (Blisks), are comprised of high value metallic alloys that require complex and resource consuming manufacturing processes. This paper will introduce an approach for Life-Cy-cle-Inventory data acquisition during Blisk manufacturing as basis for a Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) according to ISO 14040. A particular focus will be set on the data quality and confidence level regarding measuring, acquisition, and analysis of in- and output flows within the Blisk manufacturing process chain in scope. This includes the stages of material generation, forming processes, heat treatments, machining, surface treatments and quality assurance. A greater emphasis is drawn to selected variations on mechanical machining processes. On this basis, first results of an LCA for Blisk-manufacturing will be presented.
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PublicationLife-Cycle-Assessment for Rough Machining of Inconel 718 Comparing Ceramic to Cemented Carbide End Mills( 2022)Nickel-based alloys such as Inconel 718 belong to the group of heat-resistant super alloys. Combined with good mechanical properties over a wide range of temperatures nickel alloys are used extensively in the aero engine sections exposed to elevated temperatures. Besides turbine blades and discs, integrally designed compressor rotors (Blisks) in the high-pressure compressor (HPC) are increasingly made of Ni-alloys. This is the result of an efficiency-driven increase in temperature levels in the rear compressor stages. The machining of these hard-to-machine materials is characterized by low productivity and high tool wear. Compared to the machining with conventional cemented carbide end mills, innovative SiAlON ceramics offer a significant potential to increase the performance of these machining processes while saving cooling-lubricants. Besides an increase in productivity, the evaluation of the overall environmental impact of specific manufacturing processes is gaining importance in the context of more sustainable product life-cycles. This paper focuses on the comparison of different milling strategies in the production of high-pressure compressor rotors made from Inconel 718 in a cradle-to-gate assessment based on DIN EN ISO 14040/44. Thus, the ecological impact of both the state-of-the-art and the novel SiAlON roughing strategy are evaluated considering the consumption of energy, water and compressed air as well as the tool wear. The Life-Cycle-Impact-Analysis (LCIA) will be performed as a midpoint analysis taking multiple indicators into account such as the Global Warming Potential (GWP).
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PublicationA Cradle to Gate Approach for Life-Cycle-Assessment of Blisk Manufacturing( 2021)The aviation industry has been growing continuously over the past decades. Despite the current Covid-19 crisis, this trend is likely to resume in the near future. On an international level, initiatives like the Green Recovery Plan promoted by the European Union set the basis towards a more environmentally friendly future approach for the aero-industry. The increasing air traffic and the focus on a more sustainable industry as a whole lead to an extensive need for a more balanced assessment of a products life cycle especially on an ecological level. Blisks (or IBRs) remain a central component of every current and very possible every future aero engine configuration. Their advantages during operation compared to conventional compressor rotors are met with a considerably complex manufacturing and production process. In the high-pressure compressor segment of an engine, the material selection is limited to Titanium alloys such as Ti6Al4V and heat-resistant Nickel-alloys such as Inconel718. The corresponding process chains consist of numerous different process steps starting with the initial raw material extraction and ending with the quality assurance (cradle to gate). Especially the central milling process requires a highly qualified process design to ensure a part of sufficient quality. Life-Cycle-Assessments enable an investigation of a products overall environmental impact and ecological footprint throughout its distinct life-cycle. Formal LCAs are generally divided by international standards into four separate steps of analysis: the goal and scope definition, the acquisition of Life Cycle-Inventory, the Life-Cycle-Impact-Assessment and the interpretation. This content of this paper focuses on a general approach for Life-Cycle-Assessment for Blisk manufacturing. Firstly, the goal and scope is set by presenting three separate process chain scenarios for Blisk manufacturing, which mainly differ in terms of raw material selection and individual process selections for blade manufacturing. Secondly, the LCI data (Life-Cycle Inventory) acquisition is illustrated by defining all significant in- and outputs of each individual process step. Thirdly, the approach of a Life-Cycle-Impact-Assessment is presented by introducing the modelling approach in an LCA-software environment. Fourthly, an outlook and discussion on relevant impact-indicators for a subsequent interpretation of future results are conducted.
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PublicationGeometry model and approach for future blisk LCA( 2021)Air traffic is expected to double over the next 20 years and Flightpath 2050 targets to a 70 % reduction of CO2 and a 90 % reduction of NOx. Optimization of future aircraft engines often is dominantly driven by a focus on the reduction of fuel burn and emissions during operation. To identify additional environmental improvement potential a full Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) shall be aspired also including Materials, Processes and Resources, Manufacture and Production, Lifetime Services as well as Reuse, End-of-Life and Recycling. Core engine components, for example integral rotors, are comprised of Titanium- or Nickel-alloys and require complex manufacturing processes. A geometry design model of a compressor blisk is introduced which is employed as basis for a future LCA approach focusing on materials, processes and resources as well as manufacture and production. The model is a carrier for challenging manufacturing features such as large blade twist, high aspect ratio and small blade gaps. In addition to the geometry model, a first set of multiple technology scenarios and their process chains will be introduced which will serve as base for a future LCA.
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PublicationMit dem Digitalen Zwilling Prozessgrenzen überwinden( 2020)Kaum eine Entwicklung hat die Arbeits- und Produktionswelt in den letzten Jahren so geprägt wie die Digitalisierung. Die konsequente und flächendeckende Konnektivität ist wesentlicher Treiber für den technologischen und gesellschaftlichen Wandel. Der Digitale Zwilling ist dabei das zentrale Vehikel, welches die verfügbaren Daten und Informationen über den Lebenszyklus eines realen Objekts hinweg aggregiert, strukturiert und nutzbar macht. Doch wie muss der Digitale Zwilling in der Produktions- und Fertigungswelt aufgebaut sein? Wie müssen Daten gespeichert und zu Informationen aufbereitet werden und in welcher Weise bestimmt sich der Wert oder Mehrwert der Daten im Digitalen Zwilling in der Gesamtbilanz über die unterschiedlichen Phasen des Produktlebenszyklus? Der vorliegende Beitrag definiert den Digitalen Zwilling für ein produktionstechnisches Umfeld und vertieft das Zusammenwirken von Daten, Digitalem Schatten, Modellen und dem Digitalen Zwilling anhand konkreter fertigungstechnischer Fragestellungen. In diesem Zusammenhang wird auf die Bedeutung von Daten sowie Modellen eingegangen und deren Beitrag im Sinne des Digitalen Schattens und Zwillings kritisch hinterfragt. Der Beitrag schließt mit einer Diskussion über den Wert oder Mehrwert, welcher durch die Nutzung von Daten für Produkt und Produktion entsteht.
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Publication5G Networked Aerospace Production( 2019)
