FormPlanet: a ground-breaking testing hub for the rolled steel industry

Arania takes part in FormPlanet, a European Test Bed on metal characterisation and modelling services. SMEs and companies in the rolled steel industry can now apply for a range of services designed to optimise the characterisation of sheet properties, predict part performance and avoid production losses.

Arania is involved in the European project FormPlanet Open Innovation Test Bed (OITB), an open call for SMEs and companies in the rolled steel sector to access a dedicated platform to improve the entire steel sheet design process and predict the formation of defects in an early stage of design, anticipating part performance in a more accurate way.

FormPlanet’s services include novel and differentiated metal characterisation testing, in-process control systems and new modelling approaches, as well as informatics materials, software tools and other complementary services, such as consulting or on-demand training.

This European project aims to deal with upcoming challenges in formability and part quality testing, supporting the use of advanced high-strength materials in sheet metal forming end-user sectors such as transport, household appliances, machinery, packaging and construction.

Begoña Casas, FormPlanet’s technical coordinator and researcher of the unit of Metallic and Ceramic Materials at Eurecat technology center (Barcelona), explains the goal of this project: FormPlanet’s objective is to “to ease companies process of technological uptake by offering services that support all steps of the development of innovative sheet metal forming parts and products”.

“Companies applying for FormPlanet, such as Arania, will benefit from innovative testing techniques designed for advanced high-performance metals, limiting productivity losses due to forming cracks and inaccurate quality assessment that cannot be predicted in the product’s design stage using traditional experimental or computational approaches,” adds Casas. The result is to increase the use of high-strength sheet materials for high value-added products in different applications.

The race has started! The call for receiving applications is open and will run until March 31, 2021 offering financing up to 140,000 euros to SMEs and companies. Applicants such as Arania are able to propose a problem to be solved with FormPlanet offering and will receive technical services, advisory support and visibility through FormPlanet project channels.

The assessment of proposals will take place during April 2021. Therefore, selected applicants will start their activities in May, which will last until November. Successful companies will validate the effectiveness of FormPlanet characterisation and modelling approaches: a fresh dynamic for the metal sheet sector.

FormPlanet is a platform designed as an innovating hub: an Open Innovation Test Bed (OITB) is a group of entities providing common access to physical facilities, capabilities and services. Arania can greatly benefit from taking part in this project, since the new entity to be created as part of FormPlanet project will represent the entry point to a powerful interregional network of innovation stakeholders, that will benefit from a set of tools and services conceived to support industry, especially Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), and increase the competitiveness of the European sheet metal forming sector.

The project is framed within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, and it is backed by a European consortium formed by eight industrial enterprises (Arania, Centro Ricerche Fiat (CRF), ArcelorMittal, Estamp, Arçelik, Aludium, APT and Lamera), three research centres (Eurecat, coordinator of the project, plus Fraunhofer IWU and COMTES FHT), two universities (Lulea University of Technology and the University of Pisa), three companies (Letomec, Ansys GRANTA and Applus+ Laboratories), and the Spanish Association for Standardisation (UNE).