PRESENTATION
The consortium currently develops and characterises several hundred materials every year, either from research projects or internal developments which need to be characterised.
These materials pass through a range of laboratories or testing techniques that are finally drawn up in reports, ready to be analysed by the consortium’s researchers for their conclusions, or to be submitted to scientific reviews or other publications.
There is no effective way to interrelate reports from different projects, therefore making it impossible for us to reach general conclusions based on the interaction of the individual reports. Moreover, data management is not efficient, since there is no search system capable of managing all the information generated over the years and giving it an appropriate value.
Apart from information management itself, there is also the complexity of developing formulations in polymeric materials, as this requires a great deal of experience developed through trial and error during many hours of work.
A person with some experience may be able to know the influence of 10-15 additives and perhaps the interaction (synergies or inhibitions) between 2 or 3 of them. With a great deal of experience, these values could possibly be doubled; however, unfortunately, the ingredients in a plastic mixture can be up to a few hundred, and knowing all their influences and interactions is practically impossible.
The project aims to leverage artificial intelligence in order to analyse large amounts of data and generate predictions that help increase efficiency in developing new formulations.
The project will be developed by the consortium formed by the Spanish Plastics Centre (CEP), Leartiker Technology Centre, and the companies Batz Zamudio and Plásticos Clossa S.A., who have identified a real technological need when managing large amounts of data on materials and a great opportunity in terms of developing new formulations using artificial intelligence tools.
GOALS
The goals in this stage will be achieved by structuring the work in the following activities, to be carried out over 11 months:
- Develop and adapt a centralised data management system.
- Feed this database with data from historical formulations developed in other research projects (Biharkonp, Nextcomp, MAT-EV).
- Develop an intelligent system for new formulations of polymeric materials.
- Test and validate the tool by developing a formulation based on specifications.
The main activities will be broken down into different tasks to be developed throughout the project, in order to optimise the development of formulations in future projects.
CONCLUSIONS
The details and main findings of the project will be published at the end of the project.
FUTURE WORK
Future work based on the project.
FUNDING
This project, with reference number AEI-010500-2021-208 and title FORMULA 4.0, has been funded by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism through the programme to support Innovation Business Partnerships (AEI), which seeks to improve the competitiveness of small- and medium-sized companies.
Total project budget: €231,163.00
Total project financial aid: € 169,589.00
