A study of the dynamic between ethnic and values diversity and the innovation output of a nation has been published in the online journal Applied Economics Letters. To understand the innovation impact of 63 nations, authors Bala Ramasamy and Matthew CH Yeung collaborated to study information from the 2014 Global Innovation Index, focusing on key factors such as knowledge creation, online creativity and knowledge diffusion as well as data such as GDP, openness, military spending and education levels. With Ramasamy’s and Yeung’s calculations complete, the two were able to conclude that whilst diversity in values is beneficial for innovation output, ethnic diversity has a negative impact. “At the macro level this may imply strains involved in the provision of public goods, while at the individual level it may imply lack of trust between groups,” the study says. “Values diversity contributes positively to innovation output indicating that differences in mindsets, beliefs and attitudes contribute towards better problem solving and creativity. Interaction between the two types of diversity, however, was noted to exist. A higher level of values diversity was found to be a contributor to the increased negative impact on innovation in countries with populations that are more ethnically diverse; conversely, however, the higher values diversity increases the positive effect on innovation in nations with a less ethnically diverse population “Ideally,” the study continues, “a country that is ethnically homogenous but diverse in values is the best combination for innovation. Countries like South Korea and Sweden fall into this category.” Concluding, Ramasamy and Yeung write: “Uniting different groups in ethnically diverse countries such that their value orientations are more similar could have beneficial outcomes. Their paper is available to read here. The post Study: diversity impacts innovation appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.

European Space Agency director general Johann-Dietrich Wörner visited the Airbus Safran Launchers (ASL) facility in Les Mureaux, France, this week. The Ariane 6 rocket is currently under construction at the facility, and is currently on target to make its maiden flight in 2020. The company’s hope is that the rocket will be fully operational and launching several times a year by 2023. Wörner visited the facility this week, and spoke to reporters about the progress of the rocket. The aim of the new rocket is to cut the cost-per-kilo in half compared to its predecessor, the Ariane 5, under increasing pressure from US-based companies which are making prices ever more competitive. Ariane 6 will be built using 3D-printed parts, and creating a new integration hall at the facility to streamline cost. Wörner stressed that, although cost-effectiveness is driving the methods the team are using to build the launcher, it is important not to lose sight of European innovation in the face of international competition. He said: “Ariane is built on solid foundations for Europe; it is the European way. Of course, we can discuss different ways worldwide, but we need always to look for a way that works for Europe. For us, for the foreseeable future, Ariane 6 is the right solution.” The European Commission have expressed concerns about ASL’s desire to purchase a controlling share in Arianespace, the company that will sell the rocket launches, as this could lead to preferential treatment being offered to Airbus’ satellite launches. The commission is due to meet in December to discuss the project further. The post European rocket on target for 2020 launch appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.

Fig. 1 Integrated Design of Material, Manufacturing, Product and Performance – IDeoM2P2 – is expanding the design space enabling reliability and performance with minimum of resources. Manufacturing is often only seen as a step to realising the completion of a product as efficiently as possible. However, many manufacturing processes do not only deteriorate the material properties, but also affect the overall geometry of the component. The latter may even thwart the assembly of subcomponents. The design of the manufacturing process needs to be interactive with the component design – where these issues are considered. Trials are cumbersome and costly and therefore it is often more efficient to use simulations in most cases, this involves using the ‘finite element method’. This facilitates an integrated design of manufacturing and the product as the same numerical tools can be used for both. The simulations can predict the combined effect of manufacturing and usability of a component, and thus its performance and life. However, few realise the possibility that desired properties can be built into a component through manufacturing. It can create wanted material microstructure that has useful properties as well as residual stress states. An example is shown in Fig. 1 – a hot-formed A-pillar of a Volvo XC90. The material is easy to form when in a hot state and the rapid cooling creates a strong martensitic structure due to contact with the tool. The component is further improved by heating a part of the tool leading to a soft zone without the martensitic structure. This gives a controlled buckling behaviour that enhances passenger safety. Simulations have been essential in developing this manufacturing process, as well as evaluating the performance of the component due to an impact. Fig. 2 The integrated design can be taken one step further by modifying the bulk and/or surface chemistry of the material. It is, as an example, possible to evaluate the effect of carburising both with respect to surface hardness as well as stress generation that affects the fatigue life of a component. Integrated Design of Material, Manufacturing Product and Performance (IDeoM2P2) affects the business of material producers for some markets. The material producers will deliver semi-manufactured goods rather than material with finalised properties. This will enable a simpler manufacturing route and also place less demand on dimensional accuracy, for example. There will be an emphasis on offering materials with specific bulk and surface chemistry individualised for specific products. An extreme result of this change is additive manufacturing based on powder bed fusion methods. Then the material producer delivers powders with wanted chemistry as well as size distributions. The company producing the final product creates the material microstructure as well as component geometry in the process. This may also include the effect of mixing various powders as well as performing subsequent processing steps. Fig. 3 Realising the potential in cost and weight savings by extending the classical design space to include manufacturing process, as well as material chemistry, requires the use of computational support. This is common practise in standard product design where the loads giving deformations and stresses are evaluated by numerical methods. The challenge becomes larger when including non-linear models for manufacturing processes. This requires competence, but those who master this step will also strengthen their competiveness. SImulations – a success factor Models utilised in computational tools are essential for IDeoM2P2. Models for predicting component performance during its use are relatively common, but then the effects of the manufacturing process are ignored. However, it is necessary to account for the latter when the component is optimised for weight reduction while maintaining its reliability. This is even more necessary when the manufacturing process is used to create specifically wanted properties for the component. Fig. 4 The realisation of a given component usually included multiple manufacturing steps. A manufacturing chain of an aero-engine part was simulated in the European project Virtual Engineering for Robust Manufacturing with Design Integration (VERDI). A plate was initially formed and thereafter a stub was added by additive manufacturing. The stub was machined and a vane was welded to it. The final step was stress relief by heat treatment. The material is subjected to temperatures up to melting point during additive manufacturing and welding. Some process steps involve large strains. The milling causes extremely high strain rates whereas the heat treatment triggers very low strain rates. The material for the case was Ti-6Al-4V. Thus it also experienced α-β phase changes. Therefore simulating this manufacturing chain poses severe requirements on the description of the material behaviour. The development of wet shavers at Philips CL utilises modelling as the manufacturing route is designed to give the components its final properties (Fig. 2). A project financed by the European Research Fund for Coal and Steel – PressPerfect (www.hitech-projects.com/euprojects/pressperfect) – compared three different manufacturing routes based on stainless steels. The three selected steels, from Sandvik Materials Technology in Sweden, are precision formed in their ductile state before undergoing individual routes for creating a shaver with very high strength whilst retaining excellent corrosion properties. One route is the forming of a martensitic stainless steel in its ferritic state before undergoing a thermal cycle where the material becomes martensitic. The second option is the forming of an austenitic steel that is then nitro-carburised, creating high strength and also improved corrosion resistance. The last option is based on a stainless steel that is precipitation-hardened after forming. Modelling of these processes in order to achieve micrometre precision in the shape requires a coupling of microstructure models with the material behaviour Fig. 5 Repair welding, a subset of additive manufacturing is where a slot is milled to remove an existing crack and thereafter filled by welding. This step is followed by heat treatment. A case of repair welding of Alloy 718 used for model validation is shown in Fig. 3. The final heat treatment is performed in order to restore the microstructure condition and the residual stresses caused by welding are relaxed. The filler material is initially in its annealed state with no precipitates. These precipitates grow during the heat treatment leading to a creep-resistant material in the end. Modelling this behaviour requires coupled precipitate growth and flow stress models. Fig. 3 shows the temperature field during repair welding (left) and heat treatment (right). Adding small features on large castings can both reduce costs as well as improve quality. An example is shown in Fig. 4, where the added features are encircled. Models for this process were developed and validated in the VERDI project. A validation case is shown in Fig. 5 together with a finite element model. This model couples a phase change model for Ti-6Al-4V with a flow stress model. The material behaviour in the above cases is not only a function of the loading conditions, temperature and strain, but also its current microstructure. Some variables representing the latter are dislocations, grains, solutes and precipitates. Their contributions to the plastic properties of the material need be accounted for. Luleå University of Technology, Sweden Luleå University of Technology (www.ltu.se) is the northernmost university in Sweden. It was founded about 45 years ago and has 15,000 students and 1,800 employees. The total turnover is SEK 1.6bn (~€170m). The department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics has 280 employees and a turnover of about SEK 400m, of which nearly SEK 300m is research and two thirds is externally funded.The department has been at the research forefront concerning manufacturing simulations for 20 years. The research is in most cases performed in co-operation with industry ensuring the transfer of knowledge, technology and people. More than 25 PhD degrees have been awarded within this field. The research in material mechanics within the Division of Mechanics of Solid Materials is summarised well by Fig. 1. The area of solid mechanics within the same division also performs related research and has excellent characterisation facilities. The future The ever-increasing emphasis on sustainable growth affects mechanical engineering tremendously. The components and products must be efficient, durable and light. This can best be achieved by increasing the design space to include materials and manufacturing. The computational tools indicated in the boxes in the centre of Fig. 3 can support the designers for managing this complexity. The models and computational mechanics software of IDeoM2P2 is the centrepiece for evaluation of the integrated effects on component performance and life. The industrial cases above illustrates how companies like Gestamp HardTech, GKN Aerospace Engine Systems, Sandvik Materials Technology and Philips CL have realised the potential in this integrated design approach. The main focus of the Division of Mechanics of Solid Materials at Luleå University of Technology in co-operation with industrial partners is to bridge the gap between material science and computational mechanics in order to achieve integrated design of material, manufacturing, product and performance (Fig. 1) through a top-down approach starting with the desired properties of a product. Lars-Erik Lindgren Professor Luleå University of Technology +46 (0)920 491306 Lars-Erik.Lindgren@ltu.se http://www.ltu.se/org/tvm/Avdelningar/Material-och-solidmekanik?l=en The post IDeoM2P2 appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.

The EIT Digital Conference & Partner Event 2016 and Net Futures 2016 will both be hosted by Belgian capital Brussels later this month. Both events will be held at The Egg, a 5,000m² area of the city centre that includes lecture halls, meeting rooms and restaurants. On Tuesday 12 April the EIT Digital Conference will welcome EIT Digital stakeholders, showcasing their latest achievements. The conference programme allows government and industry experts, as well as entrepreneurs, to introduce their experiences and innovative products. Seminars and discussions on the digital economy will be performed as will showcase exhibitions and over 50 disruptive digital innovations EIT Digital is marketing. With over 700 delegates expected to attend, networking with attendees and organisations in the digital sector (large corporates, SMEs, universities and research institutes) as well as with policy and decision makers from both the European Commission and public authorities is another benefit that the event hopes to bring. The EIT Digital Partner Event 2016 will follow on the 13-14 April and will take ‘sustained Impact’ as its theme. Registration for the event can be completed here. The Net Futures 2016 event takes ‘Driving Growth in the #DigitalSingleMarket’ for its theme and will take place at the same venue on 20-21 April. Keynote speakers include Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip and Commissioner Günther Oettinger as well as EU Prize for Women Innovators finalist Professor Susana Sargento and the director general of European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) Lise Fuhr. Further registration details for the Net Futures 2016 event can be found here. The post Two digital events in Brussels this April appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.