EFFIPRO · Energy Efficient Manufacturing Process of Engineering Materials

The aim of the project to develop and implement at pilot plant scale a novel field assisted sintering technology. The secuential application of two different technologies will be used: Electrical Discharge Compaction (EDC) and Electrical Resistance Sintering (ERS). The technology will be studied at fundamental level and a pilot plant scale equipment will be designed and built.Higher performances metallic composites (based on hard metals: WC-Co) and engineering metallic materials will be processed using this technology. The use of this new technology will shorten notably the processing time and will produce materials with enhanced properties (hardness, toughness and lifetime), mainly due to the novel microstructures that will be obtained. In addition, the use of this process will bring significant energy consumption reduction in the sintering process.The substitution of WC-Co for certain applications will also be investigated, reducing the health risks associated to WC-Co and eliminating the use of scarce materials such as W and Co.Tools for machining operations will be produced using this new technology. Two types of parts will be machined: one for aerospace sector (made of Ti based materials or/and Carbon fibre composite) and the other for automotive sector (made of Fe based materials).Last but not least, the implementation cost of this new technology is expected to be in the same range or even at lower level than the current industrial processes.