DigiTain - Digitalization for Sustainability

In the "DigiTain" project, IVW and its project partners will develop an innovative winding process for the production of H2 pressure vessels to industrial maturity. There will be a digitalization to optimize the process as well as the quality of the pressure vessel and to increase sustainability.

Ecological aspects of sustainability are recently gaining importance, especially due to current challenges such as climate change. In the transport sector, electric drives offer great potential for sustainable mobility. The combination of a fuel cell and a hydrogen tank provide high ranges and eliminate long charging times. In order to integrate ecological and economic sustainability more thoroughly and earlier into the product development process, a sustainability-oriented development process (SDP) for fully digital product development is being elaborated in the project DigiTain - Digitalization for Sustainability. The project involves 27 other partners from industry and research.

To apply and validate the SDP, a vehicle with a hybrid drive concept consisting of a fuel cell and an HV battery system is being developed. One key element is the hydrogen pressure vessel. So-called Type-IV tanks enable the high pressures required due to the low volume-related energy density of gaseous hydrogen at room temperature and fulfill lightweight construction requirements. They represent a classic field of application for fiber reinforced polymer composites.

Together with the project partners IVW optimizes and enhances a special direct towpreg winding process for the production of Type-IV tanks. Objectives are to increase the efficiency and sustainability of the process and transition it from the current laboratory scale to industrial readiness. Process digitization ensures data acquisition for digital twins, process optimization and quality assurance. Innovative material technologies that promise improved properties and resource efficiency will also be investigated. These include „thin-ply“-materials, whose suitability for the production of Type-V tanks is being evaluated. The IVW contributes significantly to material characterization.