Kyklos-DIGRO Automotive Pilot – Addressing the critical components of each piece in automotive industry (DIGRO)

Summary

DIAD is proposing as case study in automotive field a windshield cowl cover at present produced by injection moulding and that in KYKLOS 4.0 project will be manufactured by Additive Manufacturing through the pilot AM Stratoconception owned by CIRTES.

The KYKLOS 4.0 components which will adopted are the following: Advanced AM component; Rapid Prototyping Module; PLM; AR-based content editor; AR-based re-configurator tool; LCA Simulation Engine.

DIGRO use case aims to produce the Net Shape Windshield cowl cover using the AM tools developed in KYKLOS 4.0. Due to the large size of the part, the only AM process available inside the KYKLOS consortium is the StratoConception method, that would be validated by the decision toolkit design in KYKLOS. CIRTES, as owner of several machine of Stratoconception, will be the owner of the pilot and will be in charge of the manufacturing.

The adoption of KYKLOS 4.O components into the process chain of this automotive part will allow DIGRO to acquire a high-level expertise in AM technologies, in fact at present the company do not own facilities with this kind of technology. Moreover, the reduction of the number of the production steps with respect to injection moulding (no cost for tooling) will allow DIGRO to propose to its network of customers a wider number of concept designs and prototypes before selecting a final release.

The challenge in KYKLOS 4.0 will be to produce this component in ABS reinforced and by AM techniques. It will be developed a solution that will allow the system to:

Using Advanced Additive Manufacturing Component and more specifically with the material database that it contains: find the best fitting material for the windshield cowl cover.
Reduce the production step and prototype cost with respect to injection moulding.
Integrating advanced CAD design packages available in KYKLOS 4.0 platform.
Use the simulation strategy inside Advanced Additive Manufacturing Component for pre-validation of the AM parameters with the support of KYKLOS 4.0 Decision Making Toolkit of the Rapid prototyping Module.
Print the part using printers from the KYKLOS 4.0 environment after the prototype is ready.
To produce the cover in accordance to stricter environmental principle with the support of KYKLOS 4.0 LCA Simulations Engine.