Plenary Speakers

Pr Véronique Michaud

Laboratory for Processing of Advanced Composites
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne- Switzerland

Biography:

Pr Véronique Michaud is currently Associate Professor, head of the Laboratory for Processing of Advanced Composites and Associate Dean of Engineering for Education, at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Switzerland. She graduated in 1987 from Ecole des Mines in Paris with an engineering degree, in 1991 from MIT with a PhD in Materials Engineering, and obtained a Research Habilitation from INPG in France in 1994. After a post-doctoral research stay at MIT, she spent 3 years at Ecole Centrale in Paris for teaching and research in the Laboratory for Materials, Structures and Soils Mechanics, before joining EPFL in 1997. Her fields of research address fundamental aspects of composite materials processing, often including economic and environmental aspects to lower the overall product footprint, as well as the development of smart materials and structures including self-healing, shape and vibration control and tailored damping. She is the author of more than 350 publications, out of which about 170 in peer-reviewed journals, and several patents. She is also the co-founder of the start-up CompPair Technologies SA, which was created in 2020.

Title:

Energy efficient thermoset composite manufacturing processes.

Abstract:

When manufacturing fiber reinforced composite materials, either with a thermoset or a thermoplastic resin, external energy is generally required to heat-up the molds and cure or melt the matrix material to produce the final part. We recently explored frontal polymerization as an alternative to oven cure for epoxy-based resins, which has the potential to bring unprecedented reductions in energy demand and process time. Production of epoxy-based fiber reinforced polymer parts with high fiber volume content is however difficult with this process as the heat sink created by the fibers and the mold overcomes the heat output of the chemical reaction, thus preventing front propagation. We thus developed a novel self-catalyzed frontal polymerization manufacturing method using well insulated molds and the integration of thin resin channels in thermal contact with the composite stack to produce high fiber volume fraction polymer composites without the need for a continuous energy input. Frontal polymerization inside the resin channel proceeds faster and preheats the fabric stack, thus catalyzing the process. Parts with up to 60% fiber content were successfully produced. We also explored the use of fillers added within the resin channels to tailor the frontal polymerization process kinetics. The parts have a higher glass transition temperature than those produced in a conventional oven, and comparable mechanical properties while energy consumption is reduced by over 99.5%.

Pr Eric Coatanea

Manufacturing and Systems Engineering Group
Tampere University – Finland

Biography:

Pr Eric Coatanéa received his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Western Brittany, Brest, France in 1990, his MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from INSA Toulouse, France in 1993 and his teaching certificate from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, France in 1994.

He worked for 11 years as a lecturer in manufacturing engineering at the University of Western Brittany, Brest, France, while remaining active in athletics.  He started joint doctoral studies in 2002 and received his joint PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland (now Aalto University) and the University of West Brittany, Brest, France in 2005.

He is a tenured professor of manufacturing engineering and systems engineering at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. He was a Marie Curie fellow from 2005 to 2007. He has held visiting professorships at several universities. He leads the Manufacturing Research Group at Tampere University. His research interests include design and manufacturing activities, engineering design, causal inference, systems thinking and systems engineering. In particular, the research focuses on the early integration of simulation and decision support tools in the early design phases

Title:

Graph-based Modeling for Integrated Design and Manufacturing: What could be the benefits of a graph-based approach for manufacturing?

Abstract:

The process of designing and producing artefacts is characterized by a sharp increase in complexity. Factors contributing to that transformation are the increasing integration of standards and specifications, the ubiquitous presence of cyber and electronics, the massive integration of sensors and the combination of systems in the form of systems of systems. Therefore, humans are overwhelmed by the cognitive load associated with the complexity and the required acceleration of processes and actions. One viable way forward can be the increase of human-machine collaboration. This presentation introduces a graph-based modelling framework supporting this deeper human-machine cooperation. The framework promotes the principles of explicability and parsimony. The talk summarizes the principles behind the framework, presents the domains of applications and exemplifies the practical usage of the framework named DACM (Dimensional Analysis Conceptual Modelling) in manufacturing and design.