The project “Flexible and Autonomous Manufacturing Systems for Custom-Designed Products” (FASTEN) aims to develop, demonstrate and validate an additive manufacturing system connected in units of production of custom products with low unit cost. A scalable, modular and standalone manufacturing system will be developed for the production of products with a personalized design; it will also be developed a unified industrial open source IoT (Internet of Things) platform for manufacturing execution and product customization services; as well as a data analysis application for predictive and prescriptive analysis of machine performance and customer service for digital manufacturing. This will increase the ability of companies to produce small batches or unique parts to meet the needs of highly customized products using additive manufacturing techniques (such as 3D printing or laser sintering). The pilots will be executed in the environments of the aeronautical and metalomechanical industry. These characteristics of the FASTEN structure will adequately support the operational and strategic objectives of industrial companies that incorporate the Industry 4.0 concept.
Held in cooperation between Brazil and Europe, FASTEN is focusing on developing an open and standardized structure to produce and deliver tailor-made products capable of operating autonomously and delivering products from inexpensive additive manufacturing . The resources come from the Horizon 2020 (European Commission and Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications of Brazil) with resources managed in Brazil by the National Network of Teaching and Research (RNP).
The Brazilian side of the team includes the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS), Thyssenkrupp Brasil, Embraer Brazil and Bradel Distribuição Ltda, under the leadership of INESC P&D Brasil. The European side of the team involves Politecnico di Milano (PoliMi), PACE Aerospace Engineering and Information Technology GmbH, Consorzio Intellimech (iMech) and Embraer Portugal, under the leadership of INESC TEC.
The project lasts three years and began in November 2017.