"The motivation of the project is the confirmation that ICT is an important factor to maintain competitiveness, since not only do they facilitate the design and development of new efficient products, but they also provide intelligence to the production plant. The contribution of ICT Its objective is to improve the efficiency, adaptability and sustainability of manufacturing systems, as well as its better integration in business processes in an increasingly globalized industrial context. SME technicians in the plastic sector involved in manufacturing management have a lot of experience, acquired over the years, and they know how to deal with the problems they usually face. However, they are not sufficiently familiar with the application of advanced ICT tools to their work, within the new paradigm of manufacturing model, which results in a reduction of the competitiveness of their companies. Technicians must be trained in Digital skills. and high-level ICT in order to apply them to new manufacturing models and to increase the overall efficiency of the industry, as well as its own performance.Fundamental objectives:• Improve the digital and ICT skills of SME Technicians in the plastic sector.• Promote learning based on work, with a training methodology based on ""learning-doing"" focused on the application of concepts and tools to real cases of each company.The participating entities were: 4 associations of the plastics industry, Valencian Association of Plastics Businessmen AVEP (Spain), Consorzio per la Promozione della Cultura Plastica PROPLAST (Italy), Associação Pool-Net - Portuguese Tooling & Plastic Network Pool-Net (Portugal), Gospodarsko Interesno Zdruzenje Grozd Plasttehnika PCS (Slovenia) and 2 universities, Universitat Politècnica de València - Center for Research in Management and Production Engineering CIGIP-UPV (Spain), Université de Bordeaux UB (France).The training elements have been classified in 6 Modules:• M1: Demand forecast. Predicting the future demand of the company's products.• M2: Aggregate Production Planning. Decide the levels of production capacity in a long-term planning horizon.• M3: Master Production Planning. Decide the amount of products to be produced in each period with a mid-term planning horizon.• M4: Sequencing of Production Operations. Decide the order in which different products will be manufactured and assembled in a short-term planning horizon.• M5: Procurement Planning. Determination of the acquisition of raw materials in a medium and short term horizon.• M6: Distribution Planning. Establishing the delivery of goods and services to meet customer demand, including order management and transportation management.A total of 60 multimedia training elements were developed (videos with animation / narration) in English, of which 20 were translated into the different languages ​​of the consortium associations (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Slovenian). The translated training elements have been the corresponding to the introduction, basic concepts and tools in each Module.Five ICT tools were selected for practical training: E-forcst (M1), WinQSB (M2), LEKIN (M4), Frepple (M3 and 5) and ODL Studio (M6). For each tool and Module a guide has been developed. practice of use, with data from a case study.An e-Training platform was created using Moodle, one of the most widely used Learning Content Management (LCMS) in the world. In the e-Training platform, 1 course was created for each of the project languages ​​(including English) ), composed of the 6 Modules, which contain the multimedia training elements, the guides to use the tools, questionnaires, forums and wikis.The Validation Pilot Actions were programmed in batches of 2 weeks for each Module. In the first week the session 1 was developed, consisting of 4 hours of self-learning by the students, using the multimedia training elements and 1 hour of webinar with the teacher; and the session 2 in which the students attended a practical 3h classroom day in which the teacher trained them in the use of the tool. In the second week, the self-learning of the use of the tools for the resolution of a problem was developed. with data from the companies themselves during 4h; and session 3 was a 3h face-to-face practical day in which the teacher solved the doubts that had arisen in the resolution of the real case and closed the Module with the lessons learned. The students who validated the pilot actions were:• Spain: 52• Italy: 62• Portugal: 54• Slovenia: 59• France: 14"

"After a little more than 2 years the 4Zeroplast project has been successfully completed and validated in the 3 project partner countries: Portugal, Italy and Spain.The participating entities were: 3 associations from the plastics sector: AVEP (ES), PROPLAST (IT), Pool-Net (PT); 1 university: POLIMI (IT); 1 technology centre: CENTIMFE (PT) and 1 private company: NUNSYS (ES).In total 51 managers (17 per participating country) have validated it and it is now available for companies in the sector to download and use the APP for free and get their personalised report.What are you going to learn? - Training MaterialsA training program was developed, aimed at strengthening the skills of Managers in the Plastics Industry (SMEs) for them to be able to take on new business models and challenges launched by Industry 4.0 and to assist them in evaluating and planning the applicability of I4.0 in their business.The 4ZeroPlast training program will be facilitated through a guided learning APP supported on an e-learning platform. The training is based in MOOC - Massive Open Online Course and follows a collaborative learning approach supported in training itineraries adapted to the pace of each trainee. The structure of the MOOC consists of case studies, informative micro-pills, and various reference materials, facilitating the learning and integration of knowledge. The case studies consist of video contributions with interviews of experts from companies providing their testimonials strongly related to the application of Industry 4.0 to plastics. The micro-pills are short videos introducing sub-topics which are deemed as essential for the comprehension of the topic and for better understanding of reference materials. Reference materials are training materials such as papers, videos, documents, and infographics that the students can use to delve deeper into specific topics. The training materials are available in English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.The training lasts about 3 weeks and the course is divided into 3 modules, as follows: -M1: Impact of I.4.0 in Plastic SMEs-M2: Basis of I.4.0-M3: Strategy Innovation Management Each module is composed of 4 main topics structured in learning units with a duration of one week each.Participants will be able to validate their knowledge on specific topics through an inquiry while always being able to reinforce their learning on the e-Learning platform. After that, students should complete a diagnosis to understand the current situation of their company regarding digitalization. Once the training is finished trainees will obtain a personalized Report, supporting the definition of the strategy and applicability of I.4.0 within their company.WHERE? - e-learning platformThe training course for managers of the plastics industry is provided through an e-learning platform that uses Moodle as LMS (Learning Management System). It contains 1 Moodle course organized into 4 sections, the content of which is filtered by language. There are 4 languages available: English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The language chosen by the user also affects the interface translation.The user ID required to access the platform can be obtained free of charge by registering on the 4zeroPlast APP; users may then access the “E-learning” section of interest. All operations are managed by the APP using a Single Sign On protocol,HOW? - the APP toolThe 4ZeroPlast project required a highly customized technical solution in order to provide a feasible and state of the art tool that would help CEOs and other C-suite staff in plastics companies to learn, evaluate their knowledge, and diagnose the state of their company regarding I.4.0.In this regard, it was clear to us that in order to make it a suitable solution we had to create a mobile APP that users were able to use ""on the go"", but also with a process that was as easy as possible to use, so non-technical users could easily navigate the process.Thus, we created a back-end infrastructure based on the programming language Python, with the framework Django. This is one of the most modern and flexible frameworks for backend development in current times. This back-end has an administration dashboard where admin users can edit the translations of the questions that appear on the mobile APPs, but mainly, it serves to follow-up on the user registrations and validation process, in order to analyze if users are getting into the APP and using it.This back-end has been put together with API's in order to provide the data to the APPs. These APPs were developed in a native way both for Android and IOS to guarantee full compatibility with the largest possible number of users and devices. The entire infrastructure is hosted in a Tier3+ Data Center in order to guarantee the greatest availability in time and security levels for the tool.Do you want to dive deep into Industry 4.0?Download the APP from the official stores: GOOGLE PLAY and APP STORE"

Today 2.5 million tonnes of composite material are in use in the wind energy sector globally. Wind turbine blades are made up of composite materials that allow lighter and longer blades with optimised aerodynamic shape, which boost the performance of wind energy. However, current wind blade composites exhibit relatively short life spans, are problematic to repair and are notoriously difficult to recycle. As we continue to build more wind farms these issues pose a major problem to achieving a truly sustainable European wind energy sector. The EOLIAN project will develop an innovative new smart wind turbine blade, manufactured from an infinitely recyclable circular platform chemistry, with in-mould electronics (recyclable sensors and heating actuators) that detect damage early before it becomes a major issue. EOLIAN is the breakthrough that will make obsolete single-use engineering resins in wind blade manufacture. Our unique blade is made using vitrimers, a new class of polymer combining the performance of thermosets with the processability and logistical benefits of thermoplastics. Vitrimer resins enable circularly recyclable composite structures (1), and the option of post-cure processing provides unprecedented manufacturing flexibility (2), but also repairability (3). These three features will provide a truly sustainable and step-change approach in how wind turbine blades are maintained, re-shaped for new applications and/or recycled in a circular economy. In the project we will validate these performance claims through the manufacture, testing and benchmarking of a smart sensor-assisted vitrimer-based composite 14m prototyped wind blade. Additionally, we will prove circular recyclability through the manufacture of 2nd generation composites with (i) recycled fibers and recycled vitrimer obtained after the chemical recycling by vacuum infusion; (ii) with composite parts produced by SMC (Sheet Mould Compound) following mechanical recycling.

Plastics are an important and value material for the economy that is used in our daily life. However, at the same time they have serious downsides on the environment and health. World plastics production (2016) is of 335 million metric tonnes of which 91% is not recycled. The first-ever European Strategy for Plastics adopted on January 2018 highlights the need for transformation of the way plastic products are designed, used, produced and recycled in the European Union.Key elements for this transformation within the plastic packaging sector are investments in innovative solutions and talented and skilled professionals able to transform waste into value. Nevertheless, the plastic packaging industry is affected by a shortage of professionals with appropriate skills in innovative packaging, and low level of collaboration between Higher Education Institutions & the Plastics Industry reflected by insufficient knowledge transfer and mismatched curricula. Hence, it is crucial to provide with market oriented high education & training for students and professionals in the area of sustainable packaging.PackAlliance is a Knowledge Alliance that brings together academic and industry partners from 4 EU countries (Spain, Poland, Finland and Italy) in order to foster Academia-Industry collaboration for innovation and competence building in innovative and sustainable packaging as a nuclear element for the transition to the Circular Economy within the plastic industry. Based on the partners’ experience and mutual interest for cooperation, PackAlliance consortium seeks to:- To equip HE students and packaging professionals with skills required for circular economy transformation within the plastic packaging sector- To modernise and align Higher Education Institutions curricula with the plastic packaging industry needs- To establish innovation collaboration scheme between HEIs and industry on the knowledge, talent transfer and entrepreneurship in sustainable plastic packaging

The objective of NEWPACK is to validate in industrial setting the production of at least two new bio-plastics based on PHB- PLA blends with improved sustainability performance, obtained by the addition of natural extracts with antioxidant/antibacterial properties and nanoadditives from cellulose and chitin. A new circular economy value chain will be generated from agro-food wastes that will be exploited for the production of PHB, while designing and validating the process up to pilot scale. Blending of PLA and PHB will be validated at pilot scale to achieve specific final product requirements based on targeted products. New bioplastic properties and functionalities will be achieved through incorporation of nanocellulose or nanochitin additives (to improve typical problems of processability and mechanical properties of PLA-PHB), antioxidant and antimicrobial additives. The ability to extend the functionalities will be validated in real industrial environments. NEWPACK activities are underpinned by the prior experience and results (already validated at TRL 3-4) of the partners in order to achieve advanced TRLs (5-6) for the developed technologies, including PHB production from agro-food waste; co-blending of PHB with PLA; nanocellulose extraction from wheat straw and incorporation into PHB-PLA blends and encapsulation of natural antioxidants/antimicrobials for addition to PHB-PLA. Great emphasis will be on assessing technical and economic feasibility of the processes; demonstrating the biodegradability of solutions; ensuring the compliance to the market and regulatory requirements; LCA evaluation; preparing for future scale-up of the processes to achieve a pre-industrial production and identification of stakeholders perceptions, attitudes and expectations towards bioplastics. The NEWPACK consortium has 12 partners with academic research organizations and small and large industries which cover the whole innovation, production and final use value chain.