526 - Automatic Process Optimization in Materials Technology

The main objective of the Action was to develop and to apply numerical optimization methodologies to automatic process design in material technologies, i.e. casting, injection moulding, forging, sheet metal forming, heat treatment, welding, coating and chemical processes. Applied methodologies were based on quantified product quality, related to process targets and constraints and included economic aspects.

In response to the market-driven pressure for reducing time-to-manufacture, numerical analysis has become state-of-the art in material science and processing. There is a whole range of different virtual processing models and software codes for that purpose available on the market. A substantial upgrade of them is to combine virtual models with numerical optimization techniques. The logical connection of them is so-called quality, cost or objective function which allows for automatic quantitative quality assessment of the simulation results. Typically, the quality function relates a set of process parameters to a number of quantitative material laws describing the specific material properties emerging from a specific process step. The Action worked on that development through high-level interdisciplinary cooperation of material scientists, process engineers and computer scientists.

The key outcome of the Action was the formulation of quantitative material qualities based on appropriate material laws for quality function design. The Action dealt with high-dimensional, nonlinear optimization problems and provided accurate and high performance process simulation software. For example, ViewCASTS has demonstrated the feasibility of a web based service for distributed visualising casting simulation superior over existing systems having limitations in terms of accessibility and information handling. The Action developed also An Open Source optimisation toolbox for the investment casting project.