Responsible extraction and processing of Titanium and other primary raw materials for sourcing EU industrial value chains and strategic sectors

General Information

REPTiS offers a sustainable and energy efficient solution for responsible extraction and processing of Titanium and other Primary Raw Materials from strategic partner countries to EU supply chains with a net zero-waste approach. The project will demonstrate the capability of Titanium (Ti) extraction and processing as a Critical Raw Material in collaboration with strategic partnership country Ukraine in all stages of the value chain ranging from open pit ilmenite ore mining and carbon-free Ti powder production to full-scale deployment in the EU, thanks to the commitments of the industrial partners after the end of the project. Demonstrating an approach towards zero waste manufacturing by means of energy and resource efficiency, and by a validation using real parts from the industry, the project will go beyond the state-of-the-art in terms of maturity (from TRL 5 to 7) and hence contribute to the European Green Deal.

Hereon will contribute to the goal of the project on the one side, by characterizing the produced powders with respect to their chemical and morphological properties as well as their ability to be processed by modern techniques like Metal Injection Moulding and 3D printing. On the other side, the sintering behaviour, microstructure and mechanical properties of fabricated components will be assessed. The results will be returned as feedback to the partners for optimizing the production process of the powders and the processing techniques for fabrication of real components.

MBP will care mostly for the investigations on the powder side and everything connected to sintering. Flowability of the powders, contamination by oxygen, nitrogen and carbon will be analyzed. Test specimens will be fabricated for sintering experiments like dilatometry and optimization of parameters. The effect of powder properties on sintering and microstructure is one of the aims of research. Furthermore, the suitability of the powders for Metal Injection Moulding and 3D printing will be analyzed to estimate the potential for commercial application. The focus of the WDF department is on the mechanical characterization of the specimens, which are made both from standard powder and from the powder developed in the project using additive manufacturing processes. In this context, quasi-static tensile, fatigue and fracture mechanics tests will be performed. Particular attention will be paid to understanding the relationship between microstructure and the resulting mechanical properties.

EU-Programme Acronym and Subprogramme Area	HORIZON-CL4-2024-RESILIENCE-01-11
Project Type	Innovation Action (IA)
Contract Number	Grant Agreement 101177704
Co-ordinator	European Powder Metallurgy Association AISBL (BE)

Funding for the Project (€)	Funding for Hereon (€)
7,304,086	807,968

Contact Person at Hereon

Dr. Thomas Ebel, Institute of Metallic Biomaterials, Department Powder-Based Materials Development (MBP), Phone: +49 4152 87 1944; and Dr. Nikolai Kashaev, Institute of Material and Process Design, Department Laser Processing and Structural Assessment (WDF), Phone: +49 4152 87 2536 E-mail contact

Participants

Element 22 GmbH (DE), European Powder Metallurgy Association AISBL (BE), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (DE), GKN Aerospace Sweden AB (SE), Hogskolan Vast (SE), Innovation in Research & Engineering Solutions (BE), International Additive Manufacturing Group (PL), MIM Tech Alfa SL (ES), Montanuniversität Leoben (AT), Tecnalia Research and Innovation (ES), VELTA LLC Production & Commercial Company (UA), VELTA RD Titan (UA)

Last Update: 25. September 2024