Advanced Surface Functionalization for Machinery Enhanced Lifetime – Fun4MEL

The surface functionalization might play a huge role in the transformation towards a sustainable industry and is expected to prolong the lifetime of the components by at least 30%, while increasing the wear resistance of thrust surfaces by at least 50%, increasing the surface cavitation resistance up to 70%, hence reducing the premature failure of the machinery by at least 25%. The intended users of the project results are the automotive, energy, and modern manufacturing industries.

The industry is shifting towards a circular manufacturing approach where resource conservation and mitigation of climate change are a must. Modern machinery requires continuous efficiency improvement through mitigating many new challenges, especially in the great shift towards multiple life cycles of the components. This has a great impact on how components should be designed together with the enhancement of their mechanical properties. Particularly surfaces are the main domain of this enhancement. A surface in contact with another surface or fluid will wear at different rates eventually and affect the performance of the system. However, the industry reached the limit of what can be done and implemented in this area, and a closer look at controlled surface functionalization is necessary.

The project’s main aim is the quantification of the introduced technologies in terms of their circularity in comparison to the current manufacturing practice. Different measures will be developed for this purpose, like CO2 emission or refurbishment factor. This project will have at least 3 case studies, cylinder liner, thrust surface, AM parts for heat exchangers changing the surface and its effect on circularity (LCC/LCA).