Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design TechnologyOrganizations within the aviation industry incur significant costs and effort when material specifications must be manually transferred from physical documents to digital systems. The »AeroMatPass-X« project is developing solutions to automate and standardize this process through seamless data exchange within open data ecosystems. In addition, the project explores how this information can be used to develop new products and to assess them throughout their lifecycle, for example with regard to recycling.
AeroMatPass-X
Early supply chain in aviation: the digital material passport as a driver of innovation within the data ecosystem
Material-focused data exchange for all stakeholders along the supply chain
AeroMatPass-X links the Platform MaterialDigital (PMD) with the technological solutions of the Manufacturing-X project family as well as other Gaia-X-based data ecosystems focused on the aviation industry. The goal is to implement a material-focused data exchange based on sovereign and open standards that takes into account the requirements of all stakeholders along the supply chain. This involves applying solutions from Gaia-X-based data ecosystems to specific use cases requiring material data or extending them with material ontologies.
A central element is the integration of material data into digital product passports (DPPs). In particular, companies in the early stages of the supply chain – such as those involved in materials manufacturing – should be empowered to provide and consume material data in a trustworthy manner. This material data is described in a standardized format based on the Platform MaterialDigital (PMD) and exchanged via the architectural building blocks of existing Manufacturing-X projects as well as existing data ecosystems such as Aerospace-X.
The focus here is on three key subgoals:
- SME-compliant provision and processing of data: For data ecosystems to function, there must not only be a demand, but also partners capable of providing relevant data. In the context of materials, these partners are often situated in the early stages of the supply chain, such as in materials manufacturing. They must be empowered to provide PMD-compliant data within the data ecosystem. However, the full benefits are realized only when other stakeholders along the chain can also process and enrich the data in their systems. Since many of these partners are small and medium-sized enterprises, simple, open solutions for processing and providing information within the data ecosystem are needed.
- Verification and validation in the data ecosystem: When developing new products based on material data or optimizing processes, trust in the data and its origin is crucial. The data ecosystem should create a foundation for this trust through data space governance. In addition, a concept for certifying data through external bodies is being tested.
- Integration of batch- and serial-part-specific material data with AI methods: The digital material passport contains batch- and serial-part-specific material data that accumulates along supply chains and can eventually be used by all participants for product and process optimization. Integration with AI methods becomes possible through the semantic description of the material data. This typically requires merging with internal and external material data as well as material models.
Services provided by Fraunhofer IPK
Fraunhofer IPK addresses the technological foundation of the overall project. Here, the focus is on the data ecosystem as a test bed: Services from Tractus-X and other Manufacturing-X initiatives are analyzed, adapted and made available. To achieve this, the team designs, develops and tests a reference application for consuming and providing digital material passports (DMPs) – as the material-specific component of the DPPs – within the data ecosystem. The primary focus is on enabling SMEs to participate in a data ecosystem.
The consortium
- Arconic Extrusions Hannover GmbH
- Fehrmann Materials GmbH & Co. KG
- Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoffmechanik IWM
- INDUSTRIOUS CONSULTING EXPERIENCE GMBH
- Präwest Präzisionswerkstätten Dr.-Ing. Heinz-Rudolf Jung GmbH & Co. KG