Context: Applying the concept of "small is beautiful" into a conservative relatively low technology manufacturing sector where the "economies of scale" argument has been used for the last decade to build ever more so-called efficient process lines is a major challenge. The UK is at the forefront of casting technologies with investment by EPSRC at Brunel, in the LiME CIM and new Research Hub focused on developing a novel disruptive melt treatment process especially aimed at recycled alloys, and at the MTC in the New High Temperature Alloy research laboratory part funded by Rolls-Royce and EPSRC. Manufacturing expertise, including casting, in super-alloys, titanium, copper, aluminium and new alloys, underpins advancements in design and energy-efficiency of the end product. This research is vital for the global aerospace and automotive industries but doesn't specifically address the Energy and sustainability challenges from a systems viewpoint. Thus the energy efficiency of the casting process has only been investigated in a limited fashion, for example by a previous EPSRC funded project (Jolly (PI) EP/G060096/1/2) Energy Saving in the Foundry Industry. Since that proposal was written and the research carried out the whole energy landscape has changed. New concepts of "energy harvesting" and "design for sustainability and the circular economy" have been developed and capturing low grade heat is now an important concept. Aims & Objectives: The aim of this project is to introduce the concept of "small is beautiful" into a conservative relatively low technology manufacturing sector where the "economies of scale" argument has been used for the last decade to build ever more so-called efficient process lines. This will be a major challenge. The new philosophy, "small is beautiful", starts by encouraging the use of high quality feedstock, only melting what is required and only when it is required. Recycling of internal scrap is not necessarily acceptable but an aim for higher yields is. Applying counter gravity casting methods to improve yield and give enhanced quality is encouraged as is the recovery low grade heat from solidification. Driven by the findings in the feasibility study the project will aim to develop a methodology and a modelling toolkit, to enable true energy resilient manufacture with the production of castings at maximum yield rates with minimal energy and material usage through process routes that maximise profit, while meeting customer needs accurately and timely. In contrast to existing approaches the methodology and toolkit will determine the optimal balance between those often conflicting objectives through integrated and through-process models of the energy, materials and manufacturing process chains. Potential Applications and Benefits: The project will achieve this by the development of a software tool incorporating a new philosophy/methodology and metric for the handling of materials and energy throughout the process in foundries using computer numerical process simulation to support the decision making. The project will also look at the full energy chain from charge materials through to waste heat and energy in the process and identify the opportunities for scavenging waste heat and the costs associated with the whole process. This will therefore enable cost/benefit analysis to be undertaken so that companies will be able to make informed decisions about design, material and process at a very early stage.

The aim of the this project is to introduce the concept of "small is beautiful" into a conservative relatively low technology manufacturing sector where the "economies of scale" argument has been used for the last decade to build ever more so-called efficient process lines. This will be a major challenge. The new philosophy, "small is beautiful", starts by encouraging the use of high quality feedstock, only melting what is required and only when it is required. Recycling of internal scrap is not necessarily acceptable but an aim for higher yields is. Applying counter gravity casting methods to improve yield and give enhanced quality is encouraged as is the recovery low grade heat from solidification. The project will achieve this by the development of a software tool incorporating a new philosophy/methodology and metric for the handling of materials and energy throughout the process in foundries using computer numerical process simulation to support the decision making. The project would also look at the full energy chain from charge materials through to waste heat and energy in the process and identify the opportunities for scavenging waste heat and the costs associated with the whole process. This will therefore enable cost/benefit analysis to be undertaken so that companies will be able to make informed decisions about design, material and process at a very early stage.

This project aims to compare the energy used in traditional foundry processes and a novel single shot foundry technology, CRIMSON, and to develop a model of the processes that encapsulates the energy content at each stage. This model can then be used to persuade casting designers to use more energy-efficient processes which consider casting quality as well as design flexibility. The UK retains a globally recognised casting expertise, in copper, aluminium and new light-metal alloys that underpins many competitive, technology-based industries vital to keep the UK's aerospace and automotive base ahead of the competition. These industries draw on advanced R&D work carried out by Birmingham's high-profile Casting Research Group.The University of Birmingham has been at the leading edge of casting R&D for many years. Today, it is internationally acknowledged as a front runner, and the CRIMSON technique - Constrained Rapid Induction Melting Single Shot method - is one such technology which is helping the casting industry make a step-change in product quality, manufacturing responsiveness and energy use.A typical light-metal foundry will tend to work in the following way: from 100 kg to several tonnes of metal is melted in a first furnace, held at about 700 oC in a second, transferred into a ladle and finally poured into the casting mould. It can take a shift (8 hours) to use all the melt in a typical batch and any leftover unused melt is poured off to be used again, or becomes scrap. Quality issues also arise, which must be mitigated: during the time for which the melt is held at temperature, atmospheric water is reduced to hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is highly soluble in the metal at this temperature, but as the casting cools and solidifies, the gas is ejected into bubbles. The bubbles become porosity in the solid casting and have a detrimental effect on performance, therefore, as much gas must be removed as possible from the melt. The oxygen forms a thin layer of oxide on the melt surface, which is then inevitably entrained in the liquid metal when it is transferred between the different furnaces and when the metal is finally poured. The oxide layer (or bi-film) is now an inclusion which, again, has a detrimental effect on the material properties. The longer the metal is held liquid, the more hydrogen is absorbed and the thicker the oxide becomes on the surface.At each stage of the process there are energy losses due to oxidation and furnace inefficiencies, casting yields and eventually scrap. So from an initial theoretical 1.1 GJ/tonne required tomelt aluminium it is possible to estimate that each tonne of aluminium castings shipped will actually use about 182 GJ/tonne.Instead of going through this batch process, the CRIMSON method uses a high-powered furnace to melt just enough metal to fill a single mould, in one go, in a closed crucible. It transfers the crucible into an up-casting station for highly computer-controlled filling of the mould, against gravity, for an optimum filling and solidification regime. The CRIMSON method therefore only holds the liquid aluminium for a minimum of time thus drastically reducing the energy losses attributed to hold the metal at temperature. With the rapid melting times achieved, of the order of minutes, there isn't a long time at temperature for hydrogen to be absorbed or for thick layers of oxide to form. The metal is never allowed to fall under gravity and therefore any oxide formed is not entrained within the liquid. Thus higher quality castings are produced, leading to a reduction in scrap rate and therefore reduced overall energy losses.The first challenge in the project is to measure accurately the energy used at each stage in each of the processes investigated and to calculate the energy losses from oxidation and scrap. The second challenge is to incorporate this information into a model that can be used by casting designers and foundry engineers.

This project aims to compare the energy used in traditional foundry processes and a novel single shot foundry technology, CRIMSON, and to develop a model of the processes that encapsulates the energy content at each stage. This model can then be used to persuade casting designers to use more energy-efficient processes which consider casting quality as well as design flexibility. The UK retains a globally recognised casting expertise, in copper, aluminium and new light-metal alloys that underpins many competitive, technology-based industries vital to keep the UK's aerospace and automotive base ahead of the competition. These industries draw on advanced R&D work carried out by Birmingham's high-profile Casting Research Group.The University of Birmingham has been at the leading edge of casting R&D for many years. Today, it is internationally acknowledged as a front runner, and the CRIMSON technique - Constrained Rapid Induction Melting Single Shot method - is one such technology which is helping the casting industry make a step-change in product quality, manufacturing responsiveness and energy use.A typical light-metal foundry will tend to work in the following way: from 100 kg to several tonnes of metal is melted in a first furnace, held at about 700 oC in a second, transferred into a ladle and finally poured into the casting mould. It can take a shift (8 hours) to use all the melt in a typical batch and any leftover unused melt is poured off to be used again, or becomes scrap. Quality issues also arise, which must be mitigated: during the time for which the melt is held at temperature, atmospheric water is reduced to hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is highly soluble in the metal at this temperature, but as the casting cools and solidifies, the gas is ejected into bubbles. The bubbles become porosity in the solid casting and have a detrimental effect on performance, therefore, as much gas must be removed as possible from the melt. The oxygen forms a thin layer of oxide on the melt surface, which is then inevitably entrained in the liquid metal when it is transferred between the different furnaces and when the metal is finally poured. The oxide layer (or bi-film) is now an inclusion which, again, has a detrimental effect on the material properties. The longer the metal is held liquid, the more hydrogen is absorbed and the thicker the oxide becomes on the surface.At each stage of the process there are energy losses due to oxidation and furnace inefficiencies, casting yields and eventually scrap. So from an initial theoretical 1.1 GJ/tonne required tomelt aluminium it is possible to estimate that each tonne of aluminium castings shipped will actually use about 182 GJ/tonne.Instead of going through this batch process, the CRIMSON method uses a high-powered furnace to melt just enough metal to fill a single mould, in one go, in a closed crucible. It transfers the crucible into an up-casting station for highly computer-controlled filling of the mould, against gravity, for an optimum filling and solidification regime. The CRIMSON method therefore only holds the liquid aluminium for a minimum of time thus drastically reducing the energy losses attributed to hold the metal at temperature. With the rapid melting times achieved, of the order of minutes, there isn't a long time at temperature for hydrogen to be absorbed or for thick layers of oxide to form. The metal is never allowed to fall under gravity and therefore any oxide formed is not entrained within the liquid. Thus higher quality castings are produced, leading to a reduction in scrap rate and therefore reduced overall energy losses.The first challenge in the project is to measure accurately the energy used at each stage in each of the processes investigated and to calculate the energy losses from oxidation and scrap. The second challenge is to incorporate this information into a model that can be used by casting designers and foundry engineers.

The 20th Century was characterised by a massive global increase in all modes of transport, on land and water and in the air, for moving both passengers and freight. Whilst easy mobility has become a way of life for many, the machines (planes, automobiles, trains, ships) that enable this are both highly resource consuming and environmentally damaging in production, in use and at the end of their working lives (EoL). Over the years, great attention has been paid to increasing their energy efficiencies, but the same effort has not been put into optimising their resource efficiency. Although they may share a common origin in the raw materials used, the supply chains of transport sectors operate in isolation. However, there are numerous potential benefits that could be realised if Circular Economy (CE) principles were applied across these supply chains. These include recovery of energy intensive and/or technology metals, reuse/remanufacture of components, lower carbon materials substitutions, improved energy and material efficiency. While CE can change the transport system, the transport system can also enable or disable CE. By considering different transport systems in a single outward-looking network, it is more likely that a cascading chain of materials supply could be realised- something that is historically very difficult within just a single sector. CENTS will focus on transport platforms where CE principles have not been well embedded in order to identify synergies between different supply chains and to optimise certain practices, such as EoL recovery and recycling rates and energy and material efficiency. It will also be 'forward looking' in terms of developing future designs, business models and manufacturing approaches so that emergent transport systems are inherently circular. More specifically, our Network will carry out Feasiblity and Creativity@Home generated research that will develop the ground work for future funding from elsewhere; provide travel grants to/from the UK for both established and Early Career Researcgers to increase the UK network of expertise and experience in this critical area; hold conferences and workshops where academics and industrialists can learn from each other; build demonstrators of relevant technology so that industry can see what is possible within a Circular Economy approach. These activities will all be supported by a full communication strategy focusing on outreach with school children and policy influence though agencies such as Catapults and WRAP.