AeroAfrica – Promoting European-South African Research Cooperation in Aeronautics and Air Transport

The relationship with the EU is one of South Africa's most strategic partnerships in science and technology, marked by long-standing political, economic and development co-operation ties. Collaborative initiatives in the past have brought about not just the enhancement of the international knowledge base, but real improvement in the quality of lives of both Europeans and South Africans.

The EU has recognised the central role of research in achieving its goal of becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. Particularly, they have recognised the importance of the aeronautics sector as a driver of innovation across the industrial base.

South Africa has also recognised the power of aeronautics as a driver of innovation and competitiveness, with government actively supporting the development of a world-class local aeronautics industry. The EU is SA's largest research and development partner in the aeronautics and air transport domains. There are common aims and objectives between the EU and SA, and increasingly, the South African industry is tightly integrated with the European aeronautics community.

This project seeks to promote European-South African Research Cooperation in Aeronautics and Air Transport through the creation of a platform for enhancing aeronautics and air transport research and development cooperation between the European Union (EU) and South Africa (SA), and also exploring the potential for participation of other African countries in such cooperation.

The project is supported by the EU 7th Framework Programme (FP7) funding programme under the Work Program AAT.2008.7.6 - Stimulating research with international cooperation partner countries.

BIOSTRUCT- Development of complex structural and multifunctional parts from enhanced wood-based composites - eWPC

The aim of this EU-funded project is to develop so-called enhanced wood-plastic composites (eWPCs) for use in demanding, high-value technical applications. Coordinated by the Fraunhofer ICT, a consortium of 20 European partners (including 6 large companies and 8 SMEs) will carry out research and development work to improve the mechanical and electrical properties of wood and cellulose reinforced composites. One focus will be on the chemical modification of wood and cellulose fibres and the development of matrices to improve their compatibility and the introduction of functionalities such as electrical conductivity. The second focus point will be placed on the development of advanced processing technology for the new material compounds.

The project aims to create sustainable, high-quality and low-cost materials and processes for application in the automotive, electronics, construction and packaging industries.

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CLIPP - Study of recyclability of printed or laminated plastic packaging films using supercritical CO2 technologies

Objetives

The project’s aim is to promote a system which allows to use postindustrial wastes coming from scraps, and reels refused by manufacturers of plastic film for flexible packaging and injected packages.

Expected resuts

This initiative expects to offer a feasible solution for the management of complex films and injected packages (printed or with embedded labels) wastes generated by companies of flexible packaging and injected packages, of which recycling offers certain problems due to the presence of particles of pigments, adhesives, and other contaminants. To date, plastic materials recycled from this kind of waste was assigned to low‐value applications, such as rubbish bags, pipes, and urban furnishing components. The recycling system proposed in the CLIPP project expects to remove and compatibilize such contaminants in order to obtain a recycled material that keeps the required properties needed to be transformed
again into films or packages for the original application. Thus, this is a closed‐loop management system that would allow the companies which generate these wastes to reuse the recycled composites for the same applications.

In order to develop the recycling technology, the projects considers the use of a series of extruders in tandem with a system of CO2 injection combined with advanced systems of micro‐particles filtering. The previous experience acquired by AIMPLAS in this kind of extrusion technologies has allowed to check out the viscosity reduction generated by the CO2 in the molten polymer, favouring the removal of impurities and low molecular weight composites.

Duration

January 2011 - December 2012

CONTACT: Marie Curie Initial Training Network for the tailored supply-chain development of CNT-filled polymer composites with improved mechanical and electrical properties

CONTACT is a research and training project funded by the EU's "Marie Curie" programme. CONTACT involves ten partner organisations from seven different countries, who will recruit at PhD students and 3 post docs for the four-year project.

The research aim of CONTACT is the tailored industrial supply-chain development of CNT-filled polymer composites with improved mechanical and electrical properties. This will involve the optimisation of CNT synthesis, functionalisation and dispersion in thermoplastics and thermosets, and the processing of CNT compounds, as well as the modelling and characterisation of CNT and CNT composites as well as their precursors. The new technologies will be up-scaled for applications in four industrial case studies: construction, wind blades, electrically conducting parts and electrodes for redox-flow batteries.

The training aim of CONTACT is to prepare the recruited researchers for careers in the field of nanotechnology. This involves multi-disciplinary scientific training, industrial secondments and courses in complementary skills.

The project will run from October 2009 until September 2013.

ENER-PLAST - Reduction of CO₂ emissions and the ecological damage caused by the polymer industry

ENER-PLAST is an EU-funded project which provides the European polymer industry and its supply chain with the necessary know-how, information and tools to reduce CO₂ emissions and ecological damage.

Planned and achieved results include: a European guidebook to energy and environmental legislation for the polymer industry; tools enabling companies to evaluate energy consumption at every stage in the production process; a calculation tool for CO₂ emissions; a guidebook on "Energy efficiency in mould making and the moulding industry"; an interactive guide: "Development of energy-efficient products and sustainable manufacture of plastic components".

EuPlastVoltage: a collaborative project funded by the European Commission under the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.

The objective of the project is to prepare and launch a voluntary long-term agreement on energy efficiency for the European plastics converting industry.

Starting with energy-saving possibilities and best-practice processing methods, and depending on the quantities of plastics to be processed, energy-saving potentials for different models (implementation strategies in industry) will be evaluated for individual European countries and for Europe as a whole.

The Fraunhofer ICT and Fraunhofer ISI are working together as German R&D partners in this project. Another German partner is the plastics packaging association IK.

More details can be found on the project website: www.euplastvoltage.eu

NanoOnSpect: Reliable online characterisation tool for thermoplastic compounds

NanoOnSpect is an SME-targeted collaborative project funded by the European Commission. The project involves 12 partners from 6 European countries, and has a total budget of around 4.7 million €. It will run from 1st April 2011 to 31st March 2015.

The project aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative polymer nanocomposites by creating a comprehensive processing solution to quality problems.

As shown in the diagram below, new compounding technology consisting of a twin screw extruder and a Nexxus dispersion device will be combined with new online characterization techniques using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN).

Material properties, such as thermal conductivity, dialectical constant, dispersion quality, viscosity, temperature and pressure will be controlled during processing. The Artificial Neural Network and an Expert System module will analyse sensor signals, predict the complex quality of the nanocomposite and calculate new input parameters for the compounding line.

The new characterisation device, the onBOX, will have a modular construction. The compounder can therefore define the properties that need to be measured, and the onBOX can be tailor-made for the specific product.

The processing techniques and technologies in NanoOnSpect will be designed to operate under demanding industrial conditions.

PEGASUS - Creation of new supply chain structures in the automobile industry

The EU-funded project PEGASUS aims to create new supply chain structures in the automobile industry. Through the networking of innovative small and medium-sized enterprises to form a virtual Tier-One, development and processing times are shortened, costs reduced and the flexibility of the manufacture of automobile components is increased. By using the latest manufacturing steps and by combining steps while maintaining flexibility of manufacture, the PEGASUS project aims to increase competitiveness of the European automobile supply industry.

PEPTFlow – innovative polymer flow visualisation

In the EU-funded project “Peptflow”, “positron emissions particle tracking (PEPT)” is used to analyse the mixing and flow of polymers under production conditions in co- rotating twin screw extruders. The position of a radioactive tracer can be detected with a special camera system to visualise the rheology.

The results generated will be used to establish knowledge-based machine design criteria and operation guidelines, and to further develop both new and existing commercial simulation and modelling software. The project is anticipated to have a significant impact on the competitiveness of European SMEs throughout the plastic supply chain, realising higher added value and improved products and services.

PLA4FOOD − Active Multilayer Packaging based on Optimized PLA formulations for Minimally Processed Vegetables and Fruits

Fresh Cut Products category refers to fresh vegetables, fruit and market garden products without thermal treatment, prepared, washed and packaged without the incorporation of additives or preservatives and, as an essential requirement, demands the maintenance of the cold chain for its perfect conservation and has a shelf life of approximately 7 days.

PLA4FOOD proposal deals with the development of innovative active and biodegradable packaging for fresh-cut food products based on renewable resources thermoplastic materials (PLA-polylactic acid) functionalised with the synergic addition of additives from natural sources (antioxidants, antibacterial and antifungal) in order to increase the shelf-life of packed products. Different encapsulation routes will be tested to protect active additives from processing conditions and to have controlled migration rates. Additionally, to minimize PLA current limitations in flexibility, water barrier properties and processability different additives will be studied including bio-based lactic-acid plasticizers, inorganic nanofillers and organic nucleants. Co-extrusion techniques (blow-film and cast-sheet and thermoforming) will be developed to obtain multilayer structures from different PLA formulations, in order to achieve the best cost/benefit ratio and optimal performance of the active packaging by controlling the thickness and crystallinity of each layer. As a result of this combination of material advances and processing technology improvements, a high performance active food packaging beyond of current state of-the-art will be obtained. The new active and biodegradable packages from renewable sources will provide minimal processed fresh-cut products adequate protection against environmental agents, will improve product properties (quality, shelf-life, microbiological safety and nutritional values), and moreover, will degrade in composting conditions according to the standard UNE-EN 13432.

The project is supported by the EU 7th Framework Programme (FP7) funding programme, FP7-262557.

RECIPE - Reduced Energy Consumption in Plastics Engineering

In order to retain their market share despite competition from low-wage countries and the increase in energy prices, European plastic processors require effective energy management. The aim of the EU-funded project RECIPE (Reduced Energy Consumption in Plastics Engineering) is to provide the plastic processing industry with the necessary knowledge and tools to reduce their energy consumption.

The concrete aims include: grouping the know-how of every company in the EU, information exchange concerning energy-saving technologies, industry-specific web-based calculation tool.

The project results include: a European guide to energy saving (in 6 languages), software to calculate the product-specific energy consumption, energy consumption study on location-specific energy consumption of the plastics industry in Europe.