ASPECT had its first progress meeting in Ijmuiden at Tata Steel. The partners assessed the progress made in the first six months on the way to achieving accurate, robust and efficient tribological simulations, accounting for temperature increase during start-up. Significant progress has also been made on the development of an efficient tool control strategy, to allow in-line adjustment of process settings based on input from temperature-dependent friction simulations. The demonstrators are currently being designed so that they best reflect the issues addressed by the project.
To ensure a widespread dissemination of the results, the consortium foresees the development of a simplified, more generic demonstrator line, where the temperature effects on the tribological conditions in the process will be fully demonstrated to interested groups of participants. The visits to the public demonstrator will be coupled with dedicated trainings covering the whole range of tribology topics relevant for metal sheet forming, to be organised as of 2018. If you are interested in these actions, you are kindly invited to join the ASPECT Interest Group