Adhesive bonding is an increasingly recognized joining process, especially for novel maritime multi-material applications. Flexible and automated equipment and processes are needed to exploit the advantages efficiently and on a broad scale.
In smartBOND, technological and organizational solutions are being developed with the aim of establishing adhesive bonding technology in shipbuilding by increasing product quality, productivity as well as healthy working conditions. The main requirements are versatility and flexibility. The equipment should be able to handle a wide variety of materials and adhesives, be used not only in prefabrication areas but also in confined spaces of ship outfitting, and handle different automated process steps including pre- and post-processing. The equipment developed should be safe to operate after a short training period and relieve workers of hard physical or monotonous work. Thanks to their low mass, the devices are to be easy to install and move around in the ship. Process and product quality will be ensured by, among other things, online process monitoring and control that can cope with tolerances, temperature fluctuations and other challenges. A suitable data management system in accordance with Industrie 4.0 should pass on process data to existing systems and enable holistic quality management. Comprehensive logging of process parameters is to guarantee existing documentation obligations.

CMT is leading a sub-project in smartBOND, which includes LCPA studies and process simulation, and is thus dedicated to the ecological and economic performance of the technology and its integration into the overall process of shipbuilding production. The aim is to ensure that the technology can be taken into account in regulations and that the national maritime community will benefit from the transfer of know-how.