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MATERIALS TECHNOLOGY: TAILORTOOL
TailorTool, “Development of New Tool Materials with Tailored Thermomechanical Properties” is an R+D project which has the objective of developing a new generation of materials whose thermomechanical properties vary gradually (p.e. Functionally Graded Materials, FGM).
TailorTool has been designed with the aim of finding a solution for the use limitation of ultra high strength steels (UHSS) in structural components in the field of automotion. This limitation is mainly due to the fact that the tools used in the forming processes of these steels have to undergo harsh thermomechanical requirements that drastically reduce their lifespan.
With the aim of solving this issue and therefore, significantly improving the lifespan of tools as well as offering the possibility of producing components by hot forming processes with mechanical properties (tenacity, mechanical resistance …) which vary gradually thanks to a gradual variation of the thermal conductivity of the tools; two families of FGM materials are going to be developed:
- Materials with variation of the thermal conductivity for hot stamping moulds of UHSS steels and injection of aluminium and magnesium.
- Materials with optimisation and variation of the microstructure for cold forming moulds and hot forging.
The budget of this Project is of 4.5 million Euros and it is financed by the European Commission in its competitive program NMP within the 7th Framework Program of R+D. Its time of execution will be three years.
TailorTool is led by Fundació CTM Centre Tecnològic and it will count with the participation of the following companies, Technological Centres and European Universities: Rovalma, S.A. (Spain), Volkswagen, AG (Germany), ARMINES (France), Technische Universität München (Germany), Metakus UniKassel Transfer GmbH (Germany), OC Oerlikon Balzers AG (Liechtenstein), Gestamp HardTech (Sweden), Lulea University of Technology (Sweden), Fundación Inasmet (Spain) and Fundación Labein (Spain).
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