Tributech Joins InterQ

Achieving full control of the quality of industrial manufacturing processes and equipment, moving towards zero defect manufacturing, is a key challenge in strategic economic sectors, such as aeronautics, energy and automotive. The InterQ European project, led by the Basque research centre IDEKO, is focused on the development of a digital platform for the generation and integrated management of data emanating from the equipment, which allows product and process quality to be ensured with the aim of optimizing the zero-defect manufacturing paradigm. Currently, thanks to digital means, a large volume of data is generated and stored, but without adequate processing and management technologies, it is not possible to produce accurate, reliable, secure and relevant information to optimize efficiency and quality of industrial processes.

A platform made up of five modules for zero-defect manufacturing

The platform will be divided into five modules that will enable integrated quality management. InterQ-Process is the first of these and will be focused on monitoring the quality of the manufacturing processes. Next is InterQ-Product, which will control product quality. InterQ-Data will be in charge of evaluating the quality of the controlled data. The fourth is InterQ-ZeroDefect, whose purpose will be to improve manufacturing quality through the application of artificial intelligence fed with reliable and relevant data. Finally, InterQ-TrustedFramework will ensure full traceability of the product aimed at different parts of the value chain through the application of distributed ledger technology.

Within the InterQ-Process module, the solution will be capable of measuring, predicting and controlling the quality of the manufacturing process through the development of a new generation of virtual sensors and digital twins. Relevant data will be obtained from the process by means of a new generation of components capable of measuring very close to the cutting point and virtual sensors that allow these magnitudes to be predicted by means of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

The project promotes the application of the latest artificial vision and optical and magnetic sensor techniques for the measurement of topography surface quality and the surface integrity of the workpiece within the InterQ-Product module. The development of digital twins for final product quality prediction will complement these systems.

An opportunity to increase the efficiency of the value chain

In a context of high uncertainty, InterQ will contribute to driving the competitiveness of the European industrial environment through the incorporation of the possibilities that digital technologies and artificial intelligence offer.

The project, which started in November of 2020 and will go on to 2023, has a consortium of 25 partners from 11 European countries that will focus on strategic economic sectors, such as aeronautics, energy and automotive. Top companies such as Renault, Gamesa Energy Transmission and ITP can be found among these partners. The initiative has a budget of €11 million, 9 of which will be financed by the EU through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programm.

Tributech will contribute its Data Asset Management technology providing trustworthiness and traceability of data across systems and companies and the selective data sharing aspect. Within the project, Tributech, Inlecom Systems and Engineering collaborate to enable trustworthy data from source to consumer as part of the InterQ Trust framework. By creating a blockchain and identity solution the framework is able to provide auditable quality hallmarks of sensor and process data along the value chain.