MM4R-Recycling-ready multi-material design for lightweight structures

Lightweight components for vehicles are one of the key factors on the way to resource-efficient mobility. The MM4R project is researching and working on replacing the conventional aluminum/magnesium hollow profiles used, for example, as cockpit cross-beams in vehicles with functionalized fiber composite hollow profiles, leading the FuPro construction technique to series production readiness.
The FuPro construction technique, which combines thermoplastic fiber composite hollow profiles, organic sheets and injection molding, is virtually predestined to replace the energy-intensive aluminum/magnesium construction method and can comparatively reduce environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle of the materials. A key advantage of the FuPro construction method is its recyclability and the resulting contribution to neutral lightweight construction. At the same time, the construction method has considerable economic potential due to its integral character.
Furthermore, environmental and social aspects are increasingly playing a decisive role in the research, development and application of structural components. Therefore, in the sub-project of the Institute for Sustainability in Civil Engineering, the technological work is supplemented by a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). By integrating the LCSA method into the development process, environmental and economic aspects as well as possible social hotspots can be directly considered and integrated into decision-making processes in the future.
Such a comprehensive assessment of the impact of hybrid lightweight structures poses a variety of modeling and accounting challenges. The MM4R project is the first to provide holistic assessment techniques specifically for the FuPro construction method and its manufacturing technologies. The characteristically high resource and cost impact of this phase of product development is thus confronted with knowledge-based decision support tools. Through the proposed integration of the LCSA method into the development process, actually sustainable FuPro products can be created ex ante in the future.

The MM4R research and development project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economics and Climate Action (BMWK) with the funding code 03LB3026 and supervised by Project Management Jülich (PTJ).

Projekt partners: Dr.-Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG (Consortium management) ; ARBURG GmbH + Co. KG; AUMO GmbH; EKF Automation GmbH; Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoff- und Strahltechnik (IWS)
Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology (IWS); FRIMO GmbH; Institut für Leichtbau und Kunststofftechnik, TU Dresden, (ILK); Institute of Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology, TU Dresden (ILK); Motherson – SMP Deutschland GmbH
Period: December 2021 until November 2024
Funding amount: Approx. 2,76 Mio. Euro
Contact at INaB:
M.Sc. Suzana Ostojic; Tel.: +49 241 8022764; suzana.ostojic@inab.rwth-aachen.de