Flexible Laser-based manufacturing through precision photon distributionbroad
FLASH · Horizon Europe grant · 2024-01-01–2026-12-31
EC contribution
Total cost
Beneficiaries
About the data
Source: CORDIS (official EU open data), Horizon Europe. Framework HORIZON · call HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01 · scheme HORIZON-IA · topic HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-02. CORDIS record →
Objective
Thanks to emerging materials and digital technologies, the product design space is larger than ever. Despite this, EU manufacturers are struggling to innovate, with traditional tools presenting a major bottleneck.Existing machining tools were designed for a more stable world, when a single process flow would remain unchanged for years. To increase competitiveness and respond to new opportunities, the manufacturing industry now needs customisable tools, applicable to multiple processes, and rapidly reconfigurable in response to changing needs.FLASH is an industry driven project, led by global manufacturing leader PRIMA and supported by 6 large enterprises, 6 innovative SMEs, 2 Universities, 2 RTOs, and a manufacturing association, EWF, that represents >55k companies globally.FLASH will leverage the benefits of laser-based manufacturing, which is more flexible, more amenable to digital control, and generates less waste than traditional mechanical/chemical/thermal processes. Whilst state of the art laser-based machines are optimised for a single application, FLASH will develop a flexible platform with three built-in laser sources, allowing multi-wavelength emission, over a broad pulse length regime with dynamic beam shaping, in a flexible robotic/CNC cell with three different beam delivery heads.The result will be a futureproof system capable of at least 10 macro and micro production processes over all major material types, designed to enable flexible and customisable manufacturing of rapidly evolving products for a range of industries.The benefits of FLASH will be industrially demonstrated in the automotive (car cross beam), medical (hip implant), e-mobility (electric motor hairpins) and tooling (micro drills, super abrasive grinding wheels) industries, where significant process-time, -cost and -energy savings are expected, alongside unlocking product benefits through design modifications and material substitutions not possible using existing technologies.
Beneficiaries (17)
| Organisation | Country | Role | EC contribution | SME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALTFORM S.R.L. | IT | coordinator | €494,250 | Yes |
| ASOCIACION DE INVESTIGACION METALURGICA DEL NOROESTE | ES | participant | €640,800 | |
| UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PALERMO | IT | participant | €471,094 | |
| CAILABS DFM profile | FR | participant | €429,225 | Yes |
| EUROPEAN FEDERATION FOR WELDING JOINING AND CUTTING | BE | participant | €348,875 | Yes |
| ROBUST AO GMBH | DE | participant | €319,650 | Yes |
| TOFAS TURK OTOMOBIL FABRIKASI ANONIM SIRKETI | TR | participant | €291,300 | |
| 3 DRIVERS - ENGENHARIA, INOVACAO E AMBIENTE SA | PT | participant | €281,683 | |
| DIAMOUTILS SAS | FR | participant | €243,206 | Yes |
| ATOP S.P.A. | IT | participant | €217,500 | |
| KOSMOS TREYS | BG | participant | €197,503 | Yes |
| DEPUY IRELAND UNLIMITED COMPANY | IE | participant | €196,715 | |
| I.M.A. INDUSTRIA MACCHINE AUTOMATICHE SPA | IT | thirdParty | €0 | |
| THE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY CENTRE LIMITED | UK | associatedPartner | — | Yes |
| UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD | UK | associatedPartner | — | |
| ATS APPLIED TECH SYSTEMS LTD | UK | associatedPartner | — | |
| SYNOVA SA | CH | associatedPartner | — | Yes |
Get the DFM funding briefing — free
New EU defence calls, tenders and awards in your inbox.
Defence Finance Monitor is an analytical and informational product. Grant data is official CORDIS; payment and subscription happen on DFM Analysis.