Digital Modeling and Simulation for Design, Processing and Manufacturing of Advanced Materials

Project description

The DiMAT project aims to establish holistic digital tools in the European materials industry in order to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of companies. However, digital tools are currently hardly used in this important industrial sector for the EU. DiMAT addresses this gap by providing SMEs and mid-sized enterprises with advanced digital tools that are easily accessible to end users to optimize value chains (from product design to manufacturing) according to their needs. DiMAT develops nine tools, bundled into three suites:

1. DiMAT Data and Assessment Suite: Tools for storing and assessing heterogeneous materials and process data.
2. DiMAT Modeling and Design Suite: Tools for modeling materials behavior and designing materials.
3. DiMAT Simulation and Optimization Suite: Tools for the simulation and optimization of manufacturing processes.

These suites are being used successfully in four pilot projects with European partners in the fields of textiles, composites, glass and graphite materials, with the glass processing pilot project being driven forward at the Fraunhofer IWM, among others. DiMAT is thus making a direct contribution to the digital transformation of the European materials industry with the aim of creating a more sustainable and resilient economy.

Fraunhofer IWM subproject:

To provide companies with targeted support in the management and evaluation of heterogeneous materials and process data, Fraunhofer IWM is developing two key tools in DiMAT: the Cloud Materials Database (CMDB) and the Materials Design Framework (MDF). CMDB is a data room platform in which companies can store and link their data in a user-friendly way in accordance with the FAIR principles of data management (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). CMDB represents a central data repository based on semantic technologies, which should be able to exchange data with all other tools developed in DiMAT. This is where the MDF comes in, providing the user with extended functionalities for evaluating and using the data stored in CMDB. On the one hand, this is the identification of correlations (within data records but also in linked data records) with the aim of improving the understanding of relationships between materials and process parameters of product quality in manufacturing processes as well as optimizing these in a targeted manner. On the other hand, MDF allows complex search queries in CMDB that go far beyond simply finding data records. This is to be achieved with the help of AI methods so that the user can ask questions in everyday language (e.g. "Which process parameters lead to a certain bending angle when bending glass?") and receive suitable data records. CMDB and MDF, but also toolkits that deal with the life cycle, materials and process design, as well as simulation and process monitoring, are being used by Fraunhofer IWM in the glass pilot project. The aim is to develop a digitalized, cognitive glass bending system by combining process data, simulation and machine learning models.