NEWS
The MotionExpo is a symbol for the merging of innovation, information and emotion on the subject of mobility. One year after the premiere, this format entered the second round as the largest vehicle trade fair and mobility platform in Austria. Numerous innovations and further developments characterize the image of the MotionExpo2023. And among this year's exhibitors, the "CARpenTiER" project was also presented in hall C, where the latest technologies of the future could be found. The partners of the consortium were able to have many interesting discussions with trade fair visitors. In addition, Dr. Ulrich Müller, project manager of the scientific partner BOKU Vienna, could inform in the frame of the panel discussion “Innovative Vehicle Development” about the advantages of wood for use this renewable material in the mobility sector.
More information at: https://werbeagentur.or.at/view/motionexpo/motionexpo23/
10. - 12.03.2023
Graz, AT
Picture 1-6: ©CARpenTiER/W.E.I.Z.
That was the Green Tech Innovators Club on October 18th, 2022 in the MAKERSPACE Carinthia, where a wide variety of future makers from the Green Tech scene from Styria and Carinthia met and exchanged ideas about a wide variety of innovations, project ideas and opportunities for cooperation. To this event the consortium was also invited to present the "CARpenTiER" project and the existing partner consortium. Representing the entire consortium, Bernadette Karner and Thomas Krenke from the Innovation Center W.E.I.Z. and Christian Tippelreither from Holzcluster Steiermark were discussing after the keynote speech why wood can be a very good alternative for many new applications in comparison to conventional materials. Many thanks to the Green Tech Cluster for the invitation and the excellent event.
More information at: https://www.greentech.at/green-tech-innovators-club-herbst-2022/
18.10.2022
Klagenfurt, AT
Picture 1-3: ©Helge Bauer
We congratulate our cluster partner ACstyria on their 25th anniversary. Around this anniversary, the two-day “Moving ON ACsytria Mobility Congress” took place on 11th and 12th of October at the Redbull-Ring in Spielberg. The congress was characterized by numerous visitors, various exhibitors, exciting lectures and many opportunities for networking and interesting discussions. The "CARpenTiER" project was once again presented to a broad audience in this context.
A review can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCTj-EQ-5wg
11.- 12.10.2022
Spielberg, AT
Picture 1-4: ©ACstyria Mobilitätscluster / Picture 5-6: ©Holzcluster/Schmid
Claudia Mair-Bauernfeind from the partner institute for system sciences, innovation and sustainability research at the University of Graz (KFU) spoke at the 8th international conference of S-LCA about the sectoral social risks of the wood processing industries in Austria. As part of her presentation, she looked closer into the wood value chain and previous research results. In addition, Mrs. Dr. Mair-Bauernfeind gave an outlook on further research goals and possible applications for business, science and politics.
More information about the conference: https://slca-conference2022.com/
05.- 08.09.2022
Aachen, GER
Picture: ©KFU
After a few years of a break due to Corona, the International Wood Fair “Wood & Construction” took place again in Klagenfurt from August 31st to September 3rd, 2022. In the exhibition area of the Innovation Area, co-organised by our network partner Holzcluster Steiermark GmbH, the "CARpenTiER" project was also presented. With CARpenTiER the consortium is driving further steps in the industrialization of bio-based, lightweight-optimized wood-hybrid construction concepts, which was presented in Klagenfurt by the industrial partners LEAN MC and Glanzstoff as well as the scientific partners Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH, the TU Graz and the consortium leader Innovation Center W.E.I.Z.
31.08 - 03.09.2022
Klagenfurt, AT
Picture 1-4: ©Holzcluster Steiermark / Picture 5-6: ©Innovationszentrum W.E.I.Z.
NUMISHEET- Conference 202 in Canada
Hybrid sheets of 1-mm-thick EN AW-6016-T4 aluminum alloy and 4-mm-thick birch wood were produced by adhesive bonding. Wood fibre orientations parallel as well as perpendicular to the rolling direction of the aluminum sheet were considered. After curing the adhesive, the hybrid aluminum-wood sheets with overall dimensions of 250 mm × 60 mm × 5 mm were subjected to three-point bending.
Hybrid sheets (i) as fabricated at room temperature, (ii) moistened at room temperature, and (iii) moistened at approx. 100 °C were tested. Two bending modes were investigated, since either the aluminum sheet or the wood sheet was placed at the punch side. Moreover, a finite element model of the testing setup was built using the LS-Dyna software. Experiments were performed for determining individual properties of aluminum and wood which were used as input for the model. Punch forcedisplacement curves and deformation behavior observed in experiments and simulations showed good agreement.
10. – 14.07.2022
Toronto, CA
Every two years the “Long Night of Research” is carried out at 280 locations all over Austria. After a forced break in 2020, this year on the 20th of May 135 000 visitors took the chance again to get a live insight into science and research of various fields. The event aims to present the importance of scientific research for all ages and especially lets children and young people experience the daily works of scientists up close. From guided tours through to live experiments and join-in activities the concept is led by a hands-on and easily accessible way of knowledge transfer.
The CARpenTiER project team took the chance and presented the first results, goals and challenges in establishing wood and renewable materials in the mobility sector. With the sounds of cracking wood under a live bending test of a cars side impact beam, the attention of the audience was easily captured. Many were surprised to learn that the bio-based beam can reach the same standards as the steel version with the crucial benefits of weight savings, greenhouse emission reduction and lower primary energy use.
The exhibition of the bus staircase and wooden chassis of a snowmobile from the predecessor project WoodC.A.R. facilitated the transition to the current CARpenTiER research questions on enabling the use of wood and overcome the challenges of the variability of natural raw materials in a modern industrial production. On that night 1500 visitors at the BOKU-lab in Tulln learned about the projects approach via digital modelling of example units and function-oriented process control. Quickly, the interested discussion with the presenting team from BOKU and Innovation Centre W.E.I.Z. on the stations general question “how much wood is in a car?” turned into “how much wood could be in a car in the future?”.
As in previous years, the “ACstyria Lightweight Day 2022” took place on March 30th 2022 at the RedBull Ring in the Austrian Spielberg, in cooperation with the A2LT – Austrian Advanced Lightweight Technology platform. All in all around 130 participants and around 20 exhibitors took part. This year again, current information about the "CARpenTiER" project has been presented.
In specialist lectures, the audience was informed about new trends, ongoing developments and projects on the major topic of lightweight construction. Across the three sectors of automotive, aerospace and rail systems, the speakers provided insights into topics such as materials, manufacturing processes and also testing techniques. In addition to insights into a wide variety of materials such as metals or composites, new insights into the use of sustainable materials such as wood or hemp in lightweight construction applications have been also presented.
"Wood will play an important role in the mobility industry in the future", this conviction of the CARpenTiER consortium was brought closer to the specialist audience by the lectures Christian Tippelreither, managing director of the cluster partner Holzcluster Steiermark and Thomas Krenke, scientific lead of the project and key researcher at the Innovation Center W.E.I.Z. Thanks to the Cluster partner acStyria for providing this excellent platform year by year.
More information at:
30.03.2022
Spielberg, AT
Picture 1-4: ©HCS/Schmid / Picture 5-6: ©acStyria/Photoworkers
Finally, once again, a physical meeting of all project partners on the research field "Wood in new applications". On October 11th and 12th, as part of the “CARpenTiER” project, the 2nd consortium meeting took place in the W.E.I.Z. instead and you could feel the great joy of meeting.
Full of energy and full of energy, the partners listened to the presentations of the master's theses “From laboratory to industrial scale: ecological upscaling effects in the production of wood components for the automotive industry” and “The acceptance of wood as a sustainable high-tech material in vehicles. An end-user perspective. "
Afterwards, the participants discussed the defined research questions of the CARpenTiER project, in the context of the extent to which the further development of production technologies on the basis of functional, digital-based process control is in focus. The aim of CARpenTiER is the development of production technologies for wood-based hybrid constructions in automotive, plant and mechanical engineering.
The meeting was rounded off by an impressive tour of the company at the industrial partner Weitzer Parkett.
Weiz, AT
Picture 1-7: ©CARpenTiER/W.E.I.Z.
On September 2nd and 3rd, 2021, the kickoff workshop of the scientific partners - W.E.I.Z. Forschungs & Entwicklungs gGmbH, BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, VIRTUAL VEHICLE Research GmbH and Technical University Graz - in the innovation center W.E.I.Z. instead of.
At the beginning of the 2-day event, the previous work of the scientific partners was presented. Based on this, pre-prepared tests were followed by forming tests in different variations with different wood samples, in order to demonstrate by means of practical tests what possibilities there are in the raw material wood and what limits there are for it.
The various findings were then discussed in small groups in order to determine the scientific activities in the first year of research.
The aim of the CARpenTiER project is to develop production technologies with which wood can be used efficiently in automotive, plant and mechanical engineering. Not only the material wood, but also the associated manufacturing processes for industrial production should become economically efficient, controllable and reproducible.
In addition, suitable methods for woodworking and processing are to be developed in order to conserve resources and to maximize the use of raw materials in production.
Weiz, AT
Picture 1-7: ©CARpenTiER/W.E.I.Z.
On June 23, 2021, the kickoff meeting of the project “CARpenTiER‘‘ with the science and business partners took place in the form of an online event. Activities for the first year of research were defined and the entire project consortium was presented in detail. CARpenTiER is the successor project to the successfully completed WoodC.A.R. Project (https://www.woodcar.eu). As in the WoodC.A.R. In the CARpenTiER project, the W.E.I.Z. took over the management of the consortium.
The aim of CARpenTiER is to develop production technologies with which wood can be used efficiently in automotive, plant and mechanical engineering. Not only the material wood, but also the associated manufacturing processes for industrial production and the use of wood and wood hybrid components should be made predictable and manageable. In addition, suitable methods for woodworking and processing are to be developed in order to conserve resources and to maximize the use of raw materials in production.
The project CARpenTiER "Modelling, Production and further Processing of Eco-Hybrid Structures and Materials" is funded within the framework of COMET - Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies by BMK, BMAW and the Province of Styria. The COMET program is managed by the FFG.