ComMUnion enables productive and cost effective manufacturing of 3D metal/ Carbon Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastic (CFRT) multi-material components.ComMUnion will develop a novel solution combining tape placement of CFRTs with controlled laser-assisted heating in a multi-stage robot solution. High-speed laser texturing and cleaning will overcome the limitations of current joining technology to provide greatest performance joints.

ComMUnion will rely on a robot-based approach enabling on-line inspection for layer-to-layer self-adjustment of the process. Moreover, tools for multi-scale modelling, parametric offline programming, quality diagnosis and decision support will be developed under a cognitive approach to ensure interoperability and usability.

ComMUnion will address the following key innovations:

• Texturing and cleaning based on high speed laser scanning for surface condition.
• High-speed spatially resolved control of surface temperature profile.
• Multi-scale metal/CFRP modelling, self-adaptive process control, and quality diagnosis based on multimodal active imaging.

ComMUnion approach will decrease by 30% the consumption of titanium and boron steel, (costly alloys requiring critical materials).

Besides, reinforcement of textured metallic surfaces with CFRT tapes will increase mechanical performance of multi-material components over 30% without cost increase.

Manufacturing of two pilot-cases for automotive and aeronautics will demonstrate the scalability of the joining process.

It will be possible trough a consortium with a strong involvement of industrial partners (73% of which 55% are SMEs).

The outline of the business plan ensures the exploitation of the project results. With a target market of 2.000 companies and a fair estimate of 2% market penetration (5 years after the commercialization start), ComMUnion will result in 40M€/year incomes.