Coordinated by Xavier Martínez Garcia, a professor at the UPC’s FNB and a researcher at CIMNE, FIBRE4YARDS is developing new composite material manufacturing technologies that enable a redefinition of shipyards, aiming to minimise environmental impact, improve vessel quality and reduce construction costs. The initiative has won the Maritime Transportation & Shipbuilding category of the JEC Innovation Awards—prestigious awards recognised as a benchmark in the field of advanced materials.
Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, the project FIBRE composite manufacturing technologies FOR the automation and modular construction in shipYARDS (FIBRE4YARDS) aims to maintain Europe’s leadership in shipbuilding and maintenance by implementing the Shipyard 4.0 concept. This initiative seeks to transfer, adapt and combine advanced production technologies from other competitive industrial sectors and introduce them into a digitalised and automated shipyard environment.
Through FIBRE4YARDS, new composite material manufacturing technologies have been developed to redefine shipyards, incorporating automated processes and modular ship construction. The project has created a digital shipyard model to enhance vessel production and maintenance, and numerical tools to integrate new manufacturing processes into the design stage. The study will help to reduce environmental impact, improve vessel quality and lower the construction costs of composite material ships.
The project is coordinated by Xavier Martínez Garcia, a professor at the Barcelona School of Nautical Studies (FNB) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) and a researcher at the International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE). It also involves researchers Daniel di Capua, Fermin Otero, Rafael Pacheco, Francesc Turon, Daniel Sa and Montserrat Dolz. The initiative has been carried out by a consortium of 13 partners from six European countries.
The Oscars of composite materials
The awards were announced on 13 January at the JEC World, the largest international trade fair dedicated to composite materials and their applications, which is held annually in Paris. The event brings together professionals from various sectors, including aerospace, automotive, construction and naval engineering, to share and discover the latest innovations in advanced materials, manufacturing technologies and industrial applications. The JEC Innovation Awards recognise the best innovations in the field of composite materials. They highlight outstanding projects across all these industrial sectors.
The awards are given to initiatives that stand out for their excellence in innovation, sustainability and industrial application, involving companies, research centres and academic institutions from around the world. Winning projects often set trends in the development of new materials and manufacturing technologies.
Press Room: https://www.upc.edu/en/press-room/news/international-award-for-a-upc-project-to-pave-the-way-for-the-shipyard-of-the-future