A collaborative project of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), evopro and eCon engineering brings the realization of a Hungarian manufacturing base closer to reality.

The goal of the project is to create a short-cycle automated production cell that is capable of producing high-quality, heavy-duty automotive composite components. The developed technology will be of great interest to car suppliers. The collaboration is projected to last three years, and it’s broken down by the cooperating partners into basic research, industrial research, and experimental development. The material science research will focus mainly on the in situ polymerization of lactams, on the selection and structuring of fiber reinforcements, and on the enhancement of the quality characteristics of surface coatings. The task of finite element research is to explore the field of application of metal-composite hybrid components, the modeling and simulation procedures, as well as the development of the knowledge and technology transfer and the simulation of manufacturing processes. The aim of the technology research is to develop automated textile precursor technology and to develop monomer-based, injectable, in situ polymerization manufacturing technologies and technical solutions, to optimize its parameters, and to develop post-manufacturing injection molding technologies and tools. As part of this work package, evopro Engineering Ltd will develop and build the automated composite production process according to the principles of Industry 4.0.

The consortium will be headed by Dr. Péter Molnár of evopro Systems Engineering Ltd., a mechanical engineer with experience in research and composite manufacturing from Germany and Russia, and as part of the management team he was also involved in the production of the composite fiberglass elements of the Modulo buses. He has returned to Hungary specifically to lead this project. The research team of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) will be led by Dr. Béla Iván, a corresponding member of the Academy. The contributions by the Department of Polymer Technologies of the Budapest University of Technology and Economy (BME) will be led by Dr. Tibor Czigány, a corresponding member of MTA, dean, and professor at the university. Select tasks will be carried out – amongst others – by Prof. Dr. József Karger-Kocsis, scientific advisor, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and by assistant professor Dr. Gábor Szebényi. The finite element work-group of eCon engineering will be led by László Takács, mechanical engineer.

The project is funded by the National Research and Development and Innovation Fund as part of the National Competitiveness and Excellence Program, the amount of support is 1,376,799,243 HUF (about 4.5 million Euros). The projected completion date of the "NVKP-16-1-2016-0046" project for “the production of polymeric composite products with short-cycle automated manufacturing technology for automotive applications, with particular regard to the complexity and recyclability of composite elements”, is December 2019. While the intensity of the support to the research institute and university is 100%, the consortium leader evopro can count on a sum of one billion HUF with a 57% support intensity.