Partners
The project is industry driven and TWI is involve>d both technically and in project management. The consortium has the responsibility for the success of the project and has therefore organised the work activities into a number of discrete work packages. Each work package (WP) will be led by the listed partner, and TWI is responsible to maintain an overview and to ensure that the WP administration and the milestones are achieved.
SME Partners
RTD Partners
- TWI Ltd, UK
- Ainoouchaou Pliroforiki A.E. Greece
- Asociación de Investigación Metalúrgica del Noroeste, Spain
TWI Ltd (UK)
Business activities: TWI is one of Europe's largest research and technology organisations. Based in Great Abington near Cambridge since 1946, TWI provides industry with solutions for all forms of welding technologies including robotic welding. TWI has over 435 staff and a turnover of €51 million. TWI has been involved in around 70 projects in total between FP1 and FP6, and has been project coordinator in approximately half of these. As part of FP6 TWI coordinated the NOMAD project which was a successful integration of technologies to a robotic platform to allow autonomous welding of large structural components. TWI's manufacturing support group (MSG) has worked across all industry sectors with all sizes of organisation to optimise manufacturing operations, trouble-shoot problem areas and assist with implementation of systems. From selection of the right joining techniques and material at concept stage right through to optimisation of existing operations, TWI has been able to offer technical and strategic input with knowledge, practical trials and prototyping.
Role in project: TWI will act as the project Coordinator, develop the DPDIC algorithm to be employed for creep strain measurement; they will also develop the image correction algorithms and perform the optical measurements.
Benefits expected: In return for remuneration for their R&D efforts TWI will hand over project foreground IP to the SME partners.
Pro Optica S.A.
Business activities: Pro Optica is a private joint-stock company, leader on the Romanian market of electrooptical systems. The fundamental idea PRO has been built on is to create a professional organization that will operate at international technical standards, but with competitive costs at national level. The company is based on an organizational concept that leads to a solid development, by combining the capabilities of the Research and Development department and the Production department, integrated in a coherent management policy. Pro Optica is an SME with 67 people, 22 of them working in R&D Department.
Role in project: Pro-Optica have been delivering complete solutions and capabilities for the Romanian Defence & Security customers and valuable electro-optical components for worldwide customers in the past two decades, including installation of machine vision and metrology systems into harsh industrial environments. This expertise will be essential to ensure that both the components selected and the mechanical design will operate reliably in such a harsh environment.
Benefits expected: This is an opportunity to exploit Pro Optica's expertise in design and manufacture of optical based systems for the energy sector.
Integrity NDT Turkey
Business activities: Integrity NDT Turkey is a Non-Destructive Testing service company who is specialised on advanced ultrasonic testing methods. Integrity NDT Turkey designs its own scanners and some accessories for those testing systems. The company is also specialised in Power Plant outage / shutdown NDT management. They are using their own software for databases (Site Inspection Management Database - SIMD) and QA / QC systems of plants (Plant Integrity Management System - PIMS).
Role in project: Integrity has extensive experience in inspection of power plants, especially using ultrasonic techniques. For this reason they will provide the benefit of their experience and will provide advice and guidance to ensure that the trials and evaluation of the DPDIC system is as representative as possible of the conditions encountered in a power plant. They will also act as Exploitation Manager.
Benefits expected: Integrity is an end user of inspection equipment and will seek to expand their business opportunities. The fact that the DPDIC system is designed to be used while the plant is on-line rather than just during outages will allow them to have a continuous revenue stream from condition monitoring rather than just depending on planned outages. This will reduce the cyclic nature of their business. In return for their participation in the project they will seek to obtain a DPDIC system at a preferential commercial rate.
Dantec Dynamics GmbH
http://www.dantecdynamics.com/
Business activities: Dantec Dynamics is a leading manufacturer of professional full field optical deformation and vibration measuring systems. With 18 employees the company produces and sells a range of measuring systems for full field and non-contact measurement. The company's product range includes miniaturised 3DESPI and correlation systems for fast and simple strain / stress analysis, pulsed ESPI systems for dynamic analysis as well as fully automatic shearography inspection systems for component inspection. Dantec Dynamics sells its products through a worldwide distribution and service net, and its own research capacities with a comprehensive application lab and equipment enable effective and on going improvements of the company's products to meet the markets requirements.
Role in project: Dantec Dynamics act as Chairman of the PSC, and will lead Work Package 4. Dr Hans Reinhard Schubach has acted as coordinator in FP6 projects, and is thus well placed to take on this role. Dantec Dynamics will act as the integrator of the DPDIC system, and therefore they will provide their experience and expertise in DIC measurements of strain, to ensure the resulting system achieves the objectives at a cost which will enable it to be commercialised.
Benefits expected: Dantec Dynamics's traditional market is to sell DIC and other optical diagnostic systems into research institutes and research and development departments of industrial enterprises. We have identified that monitoring creep strain in the power generation industry could be a significant opportunity for us. Additionally, we would like to gain from the industrial experience embodied within the consortium in particular applying optical measurement techniques to high temperature harsh environments. Developing a means to apply a speckle pattern that withstands long-term exposure to high temperature corrosive environments is particularly useful to expand the range of applications.
Ainoouchaou Pliroforiki A.E. (iKnowHow)
Business activities: IKH was originally founded in 2002. IKH has undertaken numerous projects on the development of custom applications for Greek private and public institutions, local subsidiaries of international organisations, as well as the National Authorities, and has been repeatedly recognised for providing innovative solutions applying the latest information technologies. The company has acquired a significant part of its technological know-how and expertise through its participation in R&D projects for state-of-the-art solutions under European Union and National Research and Technological Development frameworks. IKH is a Greek Technology Consulting firm, uniquely combining technology and business consulting expertise primarily in the sectors of information technology and automation. The field of activities includes the development of the following applications: relational databases, electronic educational material, electronic systems of documentation and maintenance, geoinformatics systems, electronic trade, e-learning and generally the concretisation of applications in environments like the Internet and the Intranet.
The company supplies complete solutions (H/W, commercial and/or tailor-made S/W for the customer, networks, installations, education, and testing) with continuous support/maintenance. It also specialises in the management of information technology projects and in software development with the use of programming languages (Visual Basic, Visual C++, Java), script languages, Internet Markup languages (HTML, DHTML, XML, WML) and RDBMS (SQL Server, Oracle). IKH also provides advisory services on reengineering of enterprise structures and processes, e business strategy development, business plan development for the best application of new technologies, deployment of ERP systems, research and development projects, and communication of research results to the market.
Role in project: IKH will develop the user interface and database and decision making engine which will guide plant operators on the frequency of the DIC measurements.
Benefits expected: In return for being remunerated for their R&D efforts IKH will grant ownership of the foreground IP to the SME consortium partners.
Asociación de Investigación Metalúrgica del Noroeste
Business activities: AIMEN is a non-profit private association based in the Northwest of Spain that provides industry with technological services and engages in R&D activities. Its prime objective is to develop and increase the technological competitiveness and innovation capacity of its clients by monitoring its technological evolution and acquiring and developing emerging technologies. They have over 220 skilled staff, including 66 Engineers, 45 University graduates and 11 PhD candidates. AIMEN has over 600 clients and 114 associated companies, representing sectors including automotive, shipbuilding, metal mechanics, aeronautics, civil construction, food processing, all benefitting from AIMEN services. AIMEN participates in numerous regional, national and international R&D projects, in the majority of cases in collaboration with industry, both SMEs and large multinational companies that can be grouped into the following five research lines: joining technologies, laser technologies, materials and manufacturing processes, design and simulation, and non-destructive testing.
Role in project: AIMEN will develop the high temperature coating and perform the creep rupture tests.
Benefits expected: In return for remuneration for their R&D efforts AIMEN will submit the foreground IP generated to the SMEs.
