News & Events

2019-09-12 ZAero project successfully reaches end of project

On 12th September, the Zaero consortium as well as project reviewer Miquel Angel / Piera Eroles gathered at FIDAMC’s facilities for the final review meeting. During the meeting, all project results were reported and different demos were carried out. This meeting marked the official end of the project, which has been successful in reaching its ambitious goals.

2019-09-19 ZAero Project at SAMPE Europe

Sebastian Zambal held a talk at the SAMPE 2019 Europe Conference in Nantes, France. The presentation was perceived well by the audience consisting mainly of professionals with composites manufacturing background. The introductory key note talks at the conference revealed that technologies as developed in the ZAero project are very interesting for many companies in the field, including Airbus as the biggest player in Europe.

2019-08-26 ZAero Project at CFM

ZAero Project was present at CFM – Congrès Francis de Mécanique celebrated from 26th – 30th August in Brest, France. Pierre-Yves Mechin, from Dassault, presented the article « Caractérisation de l’incidence des défauts par fabrication robotique sur la résistance des composites Carbone-Epoxy haute performance dans l’aéronautique ». High performance Carbone/Epoxy materials are the materials of choice for the design / manufacture of structures used in conditions of critical mass challenge. They may, however, have the disadvantage that the manufacturing process can introduce defects. Thus, in the context of mass production, the presence of these defects and their impact on the mechanical properties constitutes a challenging problem on their acceptance for use. In this study we characterise the effect of a various range of defects on the loss of mechanical properties. This problem is discussed using various experiments on composites, with calibrated defects in the manufacturing process of an AFP (Automatic Fiber Placement) robot.

2019-05-30 ZAero at the IK4_TEKNIKER Conference

Juanan Arrieta gave a talk at the IK4 TEKNIKER Conference in Eibar. The talk included an overview about trends and projects in the context of zero defect manufacturing. An important part of the talk was dedicated to the ZAero project.

2019-05-16 ZAero at the QCAV’19 Conference

On May 16th Sebastian Zambal (PROFACTOR) gave a talk at the scientific conference Quality Control by Artificial Vision 2019 in Mulhouse (France). Latest results from the ZAero project on defect classification based on machine learning techniques were presented. Positive feedback from the audience confirmed that technologies developed within the ZAero project are at the cutting edge of technology.

2019-03-27 Month 30 Meeting

On 27th-28th March, ZAero project’s M30 meeting was held in Airbus Facilities, Munich (Germany). Apart from checking the current situation of the project, the consortium members were able to organize the last meeting in Fidamc (Spain), that will be used to show the different demos that have been developed within the project. The project will be finishing in September 2019.

2019-03-13 ZAero wins JEC’19 Innovation Award

The ZAero project showed strong presence at the JEC World 2019, the largest trade fair for composites manufacturing. In numbers, the JEC’19 had more than 1300 exhibitors from 123 countries with over 43000 professional visits. In a ceremony organized on the second day of the event, the ZAero project was awarded the JEC World 2019 Innovation Award in the category Aerospace Process. After a motivating special key note talk by Bertrand Piccard, the initiator of the Solar Impulse project, the innovation award was handed over to representatives from the ZAero project by Professor Sung Ha. The ZAero consortium is very happy about the award and feels a strong motivation to continue hard work on the project.

2019-02-13 ZAero project nominated for JEC Innovation Awards

Every year, JEC rewards the best cutting-edge and ingenious projects using composites to their full potential. Winning gives these endeavors a worldwide recognition thanks to a high quality, established brand. This year, ZAero project has been recognised with a nomination for the JEC Innovation Awards, under “Aerospace Process” category. 10 companies out of the 30 nominated will receive an award in differente categories. The selection criteria for the JEC Innovation Awards are technical excellence, exemplarity of the chain of partners, market potential, and originality.

The winners will be announced during the ceremony that will take place on 13th March, during the celebration of JEC World 2019 exhibition from 12-14 March 2019, in Paris Nord Villepinte, France.

Besides, some of ZAero partners will be showing their latest developments, as well as ZAero project related innovations in their own booths. Below the list of partners and their location:

Good luck ZAero!

2018-09-04 Month 24 Meeting

On 4th-5th September ZAero project’s M24 general meeting took place in Mtorres facilities, Pamplona (Spain). During the meeting, partners checked the current state of the project and especially, the status of the three demos of the project. In addition, recent activities and final steps in dissemination and exploitation were discussed. ZAero project is entering its last year as it will end in September 2019.

2018-09-01 Article published in IMHE

An article was published on IMHE – Spanish machine-tool specialized magazine – where Juanan Arrieta (IDEKO) talks about ZDM (Zero Defect Manufacturing) paradigm and 4ZDM Cluster – where ZAero Project belongs to. ZDM is a main objective of the so-called Advanced Manufacturing, especially relevant in those industries such as aeronautical, railway, automotive or wind power. IDEKO leads the 4ZDM cluster that brings together European R&D projects in the ZDM area.

2018-07-04 ZAero at the CNMAT
From 4th to 6th July, I Iberian Meeting on Materials Science (CNMAT 2018) took place in Salamanca. This event has become the main scientific forum on Materials in Spain, especially on carbon fiber composite materials. Álvaro Calero from FIDAMC presented in “Innovation of materials in the industry” symposium a poster entlited ZAero – Zero defect manufacturing of composite parts in the aerospace industry, gathering the latest advances in this project. The aims of this project is the inline control of the defects than may happen along the manufacturing of a stiffened surface panel. The ZAero control system consists of sensors integrated in the lay-up machine and sensors used during the resin infusion and curing processes. These sensors will detect defects out of the acceptance threshold giving a response. This response may be a rework as in the case of defects produced during lamination stage or the variation of curing parameters in the infusion and resin curing stage due to the process monitoring.

2018-06-27 ZAero at the FoF Community Day
The ZAero project joined the Factories of the Future (FoF) community day in Brussels. Interesting new contacts could be made during this networking event. Especially, the exchange with other project in the zero defect manufacturing cluster was very valuable for the ZAero project. Some new ideas, possibilities for future developments and possible cooperation for future projects were discussed.

2018-05-28 ZAero at BIEMH

From 28th of May to 1st of June 2018, the 30th edition of the Spanish Machine Tool Exhibition BIEMH took place in Bilbao. A total of 1,751 exhibiting firms from 21 countries participated in the major industrial event in Spain, and of course, IK4-Ideko was there. During 5 days, IK4-IDEKO participated in this biennial fair with a 140m2 stand where the latest developments in advanced manufacturing technologies were showcased. In this context, ZAero project was introduced to visitors, explaining such developments as the implementation of lay-up monitoring system.

2018-03-14/15 M18 Meeting in Elgoibar

The month 18 general meeting for the ZAero project took place at Danobat in Elgoibar (Spain). The meeting included a live-demonstration of the ZAero workflow for ADMP with integrated quality control sensors. All major steps of the ZAero workflow were demonstrated at their current level of implementation: material lay-up with in-line sensors, part flow simulation, simulation for part verification, and decision support tool. Also, curing sensor hardware was presented at the demonstration. Overall, the demonstration showed a quite mature level of implementation for all major elements of the ZAero project. The consortium is highly motivated to put a strong focus on technological improvements, assessments, and exploitation of the developments in the upcoming second half of the project.

2017-09-13/14 M12 Meeting in Getafe
The ZAero M12 general meeting took place at project partner FIDAMC in Getafe (Spain). During the meeting the current state of the project was presented by project partners in terms of a set of demonstrations. Essentially, a live demonstration of simulation software and videos of running sensors at MTorres and Danobat were shown. The meeting included a guided tour through the production site of Airbus in Illescas. Furthermore, FIDAMC’s shop floor was visited. Upcoming activities in the project will focus on enhancements of present technologies towards demonstrations as planned in month 18.

2017-06-01 First integration activity in Elgoibar

In June 2017 the first integration of Profactor’s sensors for Automated Dry Fiber Placement (ADMP) at Danobat was done. One sensor for measurement of fiber orientations and a second sensor based on laser triangulation were installed at the lay-up machine. First experiments conducted on flat materials looked promising.

2017-03-08/09 M6 Meeting in Steyr
The month 6 meeting was held at Profactor in Steyr (Austria). Key aspects of the investigated zero-defect manufacturing strategies were discussed. The project is now on its way from a concept phase towards an implementation phase. The whole project consortium is looking forward to upcoming activities that are lying ahead.

2016-11-24 FOCUS Demo – Joint Event
End of November 2016 a clustering event will be held in Brussels. The ZAero project will be presented at this event. Representatives from FoF related projects/clusters will discuss impact and outcomes of their projects. Also, the enlargement of the 4ZDM cluster with new projects will be discussed.

2016-10-19/20 Kick-Off Meeting in Brussels
In October 2016 the kick-off meeting of the ZAero project took place in Brussels. Representatives from the complete consortium were present and discussed key aspects and details of activities within the project. Thanks to everybody for the fruitful discussions during the two-day meeting!