TOMORROW TODAY KRYOALU
ICE-COLD ALUMINIUM FORMING AUTONOMOUS DRIVING // When tractors drive themselves AIT: POSITIVE BALANCE FOR 2015 // In the top league of European research KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION AND CO-CREATION // Development of web-based interactive tools
Andreas Kraly, LKR Managing Director
04 16
TOMORROWTODAY II
AN ICY DIET FOR COMPLEX COMPONENTS
Top-Story
Cryogenic sheet metal forming is a completely new process for manufacturing bodywork components, which has been developed and successfully tested at LKR under close-to-production conditions.
The KryoAlu process developed at LKR can optimise industrial production wherever weight and moving masses play a role and aluminium is used as a material. It‘s very simple: the lighter a vehicle, the lower its level of fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. And for electric cars a lower vehicle weight means a greater driving range. The LKR Light Metals Technologies Ranshofen unit of the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology is therefore working towards making tomorrow‘s cars lighter. Aluminium alloys are a group of materials which are believed to hold particular potential in this regard. „However, the formability of aluminium sheets is limited at room temperature,“ explains Carina Schlögl, Head of the LKR Forming Group. It is currently standard practice to form aluminium at higher temperatures. This alters the microstructure so that additional processes are required to return the sheets to the desired state.
Photos & Coverphoto: AIT/Johannes Zinner
COMPLETELY UNCHARTED TERRITORY This is why the scientists working on the KryoAlu research project at LKR have taken a completely new approach to form aluminium at low temperatures. This effect will be used to both lower manufacturing costs and to bring greater flexibility to the production process. Working together with major companies in the metal and mechanical engineering industries, most based in Upper Austria, scientists have developed a process to form aluminium at temperatures as low as -150°C. “The sheet blanks are precooled in liquid nitrogen, placed in the forming press by a robot, and then removed
TOMORROWTODAY IV
REDUCED MATERIAL USE It requires significantly less material to manufacture complex components using this method. Kraly: „The range of potential applications is very broad. Theoretically, every deep-drawn automotive sheet metal part made from aluminium can also be produced using cryogenic forming. The process is economical when used to manufacture highly complex components of high strength and excellent surface quality.“ The high level of potential savings more than compensates for the costly process of nitrogen treatment. The KryoAlu project received the 2015 Upper Austrian Prize for Innovation. The follow-up project, KryoAlu2, started in January 2016 and focuses on using the process in an industrial setting and expanding the range of materials used. Project manager Florian Grabner explains: „In KryoAlu2 we are investigating new aluminium alloys with optimised properties which are even more suitable for forming at very low temperatures.“ Cryogenic sheet metal forming is a completely new process for manufacturing
KryoAlu can also help achieve emissions targets.
bodywork components which has been developed and successfully tested at LKR under close-to-production conditions. „The production of components in Ranshofen at temperatures down to -150°C is unmatched worldwide. This project currently places us in a unique position. In turn, this makes it even more important that we maintain our high pace of development,“ stresses Andreas Kraly. The primary and immediate benefit of these development activities for industrial users is the newly developed production line which demonstrates the
feasibility of sheet forming at extremely low temperatures in a close-to-production process. The automotive and automotive supply industries, as well as consumers, can profit from the industrial application of this pilot process. The new cryogenic sheet forming process makes it possible to manufacture complex aluminium parts which were formerly produced from sheet steel. For example, several individual parts of a car door can be combined and manufactured as a single component in order to reduce the number of welding seams. This provides direct benefits, both for the automotive supply industry which can now offer a new segment of aluminium bodywork components, and for the automotive industry which comes one step closer to achieving emissions targets. Formerly only used for expensive premium vehicles, lightweight aluminium design will also become available to consumers in other vehicle classes. How long before this is the case? Andreas Kraly: „We will complete the development of the tool cooling and lubrication systems and the relevant alloys by the end of the KryoAlu2 follow-up project. In specific terms, we expect to be ready for industrial pilot production in around two years.“
AMOREE: A closer look at aluminium and magnesium In the AMOREE Comet project (Aluminium and Magnesium processing Optimization with special respect to resource and Energy Efficiency) LKR is working closely with major Austrian industrial partners and scientific institutions, investigating topics along the process chain for the processing of aluminium and magnesium materials. The intention is to increase the energy efficiency of manufacturing and processing these light metals, and to significantly reduce the negative impacts on the environment. The material properties are improved by optimising the microstructure. This involves grain boundary strengthening and precipitation effects during solidification (crystallisation) and during the subsequent process steps. Partners include AMAG, HAI, Magna, nonferrum, HPI and MAS, as well as ETH Zürich, University of Salzburg, Vienna University of Technology and Graz Univer sity of Technology.
Photo: AIT/Johannes Zinner
after deep drawing,” explains LKR Managing Director Andreas Kraly. The tools are also cooled during this process.
Performance & Success
FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE & SUCCESS Looking back on a successful 2015: AIT Managing Director Wolfgang Knoll, AIT Supervisory Board President Hannes Androsch, AIT CFO Alexander Svejkovsky and AIT Managing Director Anton Plimon (from left)
Helmut Leopold: „AIT has established wide ranging cybersecurity expertise.“
AIT: POSITIVE BALANCE FOR 2015
Photos: APA-Fotoservice/Preiss, AIT/Johannes Zinner
AIT IN THE TOP LEAGUE OF EUROPEAN RESEARCH In 2015, and for the eighth consecutive year, AIT has presented a positive balance sheet. Both the profit for the year of EUR 3.1 million and the profit from ordinary activities of EUR 3.2 million are at 2014 levels. The AIT 2015 financial year is characterised by a thoroughly positive result, with higher turnover and a good overall economic performance. „We have succeeded in establishing AIT as a Research and Technology Organisation which consistently ranks among Europe‘s best,“ said AIT Managing Director Anton Plimon at the annual balance sheet press conference. Hannes Androsch, President of the AIT Supervisory Board added: „AIT has become a player in the top league of European research institutions and is on a scale with other Research and Technology Organisations of European calibre such as TNO, VTT and Fraunhofer. We give thanks for the support shown by the shareholders in the form of long-term performance agreements and financing commitments. The Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology, together with the Federation of Austrian Industries, have strengthened our position.“ 2015 saw an above average number of strategic co-financed research projects being concluded and billed. In addition to the continual growth in external revenues, the figures show that two-thirds of growth has been financed through external sources. And AIT CFO Alexander Svejkovsky announced that „AIT will continue to intensify its efforts to expand contract research.“ The number of employees at AIT also increased by around 50 to a total of 1,261. Wolfgang Knoll, AIT Managing Director: „AIT is extremely well-connected and has established a name for itself as a Research and Technology Organisation of international repute. Talent attracts talent, and this is a vital factor for research institutions when it comes to finding the best employees.“ But it‘s not only AIT‘s financial performance which was very positive in 2015: the Scientific & Performance Indicators have also developed strongly, with improvements across almost all scientific comparison parameters.
CYBERSECURITY
AIT PLAYS A LEADING ROLE IN EUROPE The European Commission recently signed a contract for a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) ASBL. The aim of the partnership is to establish a strategic alliance in the field of cybersecurity. The EU will make available a total of EUR 450 million in funding for this partnership as part of its Horizon 2020 Programme for Research and Innovation (R&I). This cybersecurity partnership is expected to generate total investment of around EUR 1.8 billion by 2020 in order to develop innovative and reliable European solutions, products and services in the field of cybersecurity. Helmut Leopold, Head of the Digital Safety & Security Department at AIT: „We‘ve established wide ranging cybersecurity expertise here in Austria over the past ten years, with the primary goal of ensuring high levels of digital security for future cyberphysical systems and Industry 4.0. Thanks to our intensive involvement at European level, we are actively positioning Austria within a global context in key technology areas over the long term.“
TOMORROWTODAY VI
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
SMART GRIDS
SELF-DRIVING TRACTOR AT THE ELROB
ENERGY FROM EVERYWHERE
AIT and the Austrian Armed Forces successfully showcased the first autonomous vehicles based on AIT driver assistance technology at the international European Land Robot Challenge (ELROB). AIT has comprehensive expertise in the field of Intelligent Vision Systems with a focus on advanced camera technology and self-learning IT systems. AIT presented a modern drive-by-wire tractor for use in special off- road scenarios which has been developed into a completely autonomous vehicle using AIT driver assistance technology. This opens up innovative applications in the fields of agriculture (precision farming), public transport, construction machinery and special purpose vehicles.
A large number of demonstration projects have been carried out over the past few years in order to encourage the integration of renewable energy sources in medium and low-voltage power networks. „Different voltage control concepts have been investigated, such as the use of smart photovoltaic inverters or voltage regulated distribution transformers for defined grid sections,“ says AIT project manager DI Benoît Bletterie. So far, however, these concepts have not been evaluated for their transferability and scalability. The AIT Energy Department and consortium partners of the EU project IGREENGrid therefore investigated six successful demo projects from Austria, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Greece. Under the leadership of AIT, the project consortium developed simulation tools for the technical and economic evaluation of the individual approaches. This makes it possible to calculate scenarios with different proportions of wind power and photovoltaic systems in order to find out where and to what extent the use of smart grid solutions would be viable and to assess the potential cost savings compared to traditional grid expansion.
„The challenge of our project lies in locating knowledge production and Europe both geographically
KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION AND CO-CREATION HOTSPOTS IN EUROPE
and thematically at stakeholder level.“
The European Commission has commissioned the AIT InnovatiSenior Scientist Thomas on Systems Department with developing a web-based, interacScherngell, AIT Innovation tive tool for visualising and analysing knowledge production and Systems networking (co-creation) within the European research area. The project focuses on activities in the context of the EU Societal Grand Challenges (SGC) and Key Enabling Technologies (KET). It involves identifying stakeholders in a variety of research databases and classifying their activities and networking in terms of specific SGC and KET topics. The new tool not only creates a new and substantial basis for policy development within the EU, but also opens up completely new opportunities for scientists to empirically analyse the dynamics of the European research area. Together with the Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, Leiden University, the University of Manchester and the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI), the RTI Policy unit will contribute its expertise in analysing innovation networks and developing R&D databases.
Photos: AIT, AIT/Michael Mürling, Rita Skof/Starrdynamo Studios
co-creation hotspots within
CO-CREATION
PERSONNEL
AIT EXPERT IS THE NEW PSCE PRESIDENT The Public Safety Communications Europe Forum (PSCE) has chosen Andrea Nowak, Deputy Head of the Digital Safety & Security Department at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and Head of the Information Management Business Unit, as its new president – proof that AIT has successfully positioned itself within European security research.
Andrea Nowak: Strengthening AIT‘s position.
MULTIMODAL MOBILITY SYSTEMS
MOBILITY AT INNOTRANS 2016 Researchers in the Dynamic Transportation Systems unit at the AIT Mobility Department are working on multimodal mobility systems. They are improving transport systems so that pedestrians, bicycles, public transport and private vehicles can get from A to B faster, more safely and with less impact on the environment, while at the same time ensuring that the transport system functions optimally. The latest EXPERIENCE and SIMULATE technologies as well as a smartphone-based service for transport mode detection will be presented for the first time at the InnoTrans 2016 trade fair in Berlin from 20 to 23 September. Contact: Silvia Bernkopf, Dr. Stefan Seer and DI Markus Ray.
INNOVATION CALENDAR 23-26/8/2016 // ERSA CONGRESS 2016 The ERSA Congress focuses on issues of regional development, spatial structure and urban development. The topic of „Cities & Regions: Smart, Sustainable, Inclusive?“ relates directly to the Europe 2020 Strategy. Venue: Vienna University of Economics and Business AIT contact: Thomas Scherngell, Wolfgang Loibl Info: http://vienna.ersa.org/ // 2-3/9/2016 // AIRPOWER 16 AIRPOWER16 organised by the Austrian Air Force will showcase all of the pioneering aircraft in its history. AIT will use this event to present innovations in the fields of airborne vision as well as crisis and disaster management developed in cooperation with the Armed Forces. The event is expected to attract some 300,000 visitors. One of the programme highlights in Zeltweg: the last airworthy Draken interceptor aircraft. Venue: Zeltweg, Styria AIT contact: Michael Mürling Info: www.airpower.gv.at // 29-30/9/2016 // D-A-CH+ ENERGY INFORMATICS CONFERENCE AND COMFOREN 2016 Smart grids conference organised jointly by Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The conference focuses on the application of concepts from informatics and related disciplines to energy systems. The conference is accompanied by the ComForEn Symposium on Communications for Energy Systems. Venue: Klagenfurt, Austria AIT contact: Friederich Kupzog, Michaela Jungbauer Info: www.energieinformatik2016.org //
11- 14/10/2016 // EUROSUN CONFERENCE The programme of this year‘s confe rence includes topics such as solar architecture and zero energy buildings. Venue: Palma (Mallorca), Spain AIT contact: Michaela Jungbauer, Tim Selke Info: www.eurosun2016.org/ // 20- 21/10/2016 // 5TH RENEWABLE ENERGY FINANCE IN PRACTICE FORUM This conference focuses on renewable energies and associated research and business models. Venue: Austria Trend Hotel Savoyen, Vienna AIT contact: Michaela Jungbauer Info: www.glceurope.com/5th-annualrenewable-energy-finance-in-practiceforum/ // 22/10/2016 // GIRLS! TECH UP Female school students meet up with experts and career professionals from key players, who provide the girls with personal advice on pursuing an education and career in engineering. Venue: Haus der Ingenieure, Vienna AIT contact: Michaela Jungbauer Info: www.ove.at/mitglieder-plattformen/femove/girls-tech-you-up/ // 22/10/2016 // SAIL VIENNA 2035 The conference deals with current problem areas such as third and fourth ager care and the ageing of residents in self-governed communal housing projects. Venue: Vienna AIT contact: Doris Wilhelmer Info: www.sailvienna2035.at //
AIT Top Journal Papers
IMPROVING VEHICLE SPEED ESTIMATES
OPTICAL SIMULATION OF MULTILAYER SYSTEMS
This paper describes a novel approach to improve prediction models which estimate vehicle speeds and their diurnal variation for road network links in urban street networks using only static map attributes. The presented approach takes into account previously neglected spatial information by integrating network centrality measures for closeness (indicating how central a link is) and betweenness (indicating how important a road link is) into the prediction model. The model is calibrated with a real-world dataset of 100 million individual speed measurements from a fleet of 3500 taxi probe vehicles in Vienna, Austria. Given that centrality can be derived directly from readily available street network data, the experimental results demonstrate that integrating centrality measures considerably improves the predictions without the need for adding a supplementary data source. Improvements for vehicle speed estimates are particularly prevalent on important street network links in the city center as well as rural streets in the periphery.
Transparent electrodes, combining high transparency and good electrical conductivity, are key components of modern optoelectronic devices, such as flat panel displays, touch screens, LEDs and thin film photovoltaics. Transparent electrodes based on ultrathin metals embedded between high refractive index oxide layers are an efficient alternative to conventionally used transparent conductive oxides such as ITO (indium tin oxide). The presented work involved optical simulations of multilayer systems consisting of ultrathin metals and oxides to determine the optimum thickness of the layers and consequently achieve maximum transparency. To further improve the accuracy of the simulations the effect of interface roughness was included and an excellent agreement between sputter deposited electrodes and simulation was achieved. The maximum transmittance in the visible was up to 88 % while the sheet resistance was 14 Ω/square. M. Bauch , T. Dimopoulos: Design of ultrathin metal-based trans parent electrodes including the impact of interface roughness,
Anita Graser, Maximilian Leodolter, Hannes Koller & Norbert
Materials and Design 104 (2016) 37–42
Brändle (2016): Improving vehicle speed estimates using street network centrality, International Journal of Cartography 2(1), 2016 77-94. DOI: 10.1080/23729333.2016.1189298 Imprint: Editor-in-chief: Michael H. Hlava, Production manager: Daniel Pepl, Editorial team: Michaela Jungbauer, Michael Mürling, Fabian Purtscher, Beatrice Rath-Fröhlich, Juliane Thoß. Please send your feedback to: presse@ait.ac.at