COMPASS at IDDRG 2025. Driving Circularity in Automotive Manufacturing | 2 June 2025
| Johannes Österreicher presents COMPASS research on Circular Manufacturing at IDDRG 2025. On June 2, 2025, COMPASS project researcher Johannes Österreicher, by AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, LKR Light Metals Technologies, presented a talk at the International Deep Drawing Research Group (IDDRG) 2025 Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. His presentation took place during the Parallel Session on Sustainability, chaired by Leopold Wagner. The talk, titled “Toward a circular economy in deep drawing: remanufacturing end-of-life automotive parts”, showcased a novel approach to increasing the sustainability of sheet metal forming processes, one of the central objectives of the COMPASS project. 🔗 Full publication available here Advancing Circularity in Deep Drawing The publication, co-authored by Florian Grabner, Paul Oberhauser, Sindre L. Hovden, and Carina Schlögl, explores an innovative remanufacturing strategy in which deep drawing processes are applied end-of-life automotive sheet metal components. By integrating pre-strained aluminum sheets, originally formed during a component’s first life cycle, into new forming operations, the research addresses a key challenge in circular production: how to reuse metal parts without downcycling or melting, thereby reducing energy consumption and material waste. The paper presents a comparative experimental study on the forming behavior of both new and used EN AW-6016 aluminum sheets. Results show that, although formability is lower than for new sheet, remanufacturing of used parts remains feasible. Impact for Sustainable Manufacturing This work directly supports the COMPASS project’s mission to develop circular, efficient, and scalable forming processes for the automotive sector. By demonstrating the potential of remanufacturing over conventional recycling, the research opens new avenues for reducing the carbon footprint of car production and moving toward a more resource-efficient manufacturing paradigm. The study reinforces the idea that circularity in forming processes is not only technically possible but also ecologically promising, a message strongly aligned with the goals of the Horizon Europe programme. |