Cocoon

MECANO Engineering and Development (MECANO ID, Toulouse) and the Inter-university Centre for Materials Research and Engineering (CIRIMAT, Toulouse) aim at joining their skills and resources in order to face efficiently the challenges of the aerospace market. Collaborations initiated in 2010 led to the development of innovative and bankable solutions, but they also uncovered technological bottlenecks and development issues that we endeavor to circumvent in the framework of our co-laboratory: the Co-laboratory of coatings on Three-dimensional surfaces (Cocoon). MECANO ID is specialized in the engineering and the fabrication of mechanical systems, in the development and fabrication of composite materials, and in testing mechanical and thermal properties of pieces in their working environment (e.g. vibrations, humidity, thermal cycling). One of its strategic activities concerns the development of composite pieces whose surface is functionalized by specific coatings. In the past, our research group at CIRIMAT –specialized in vapour phase coating techniques– successfully faced some of the challenges proposed by MECANO ID by exploring and conceiving coating processes for satellites pieces. However, MECANO ID and the CIRIMAT need to consolidate this activity within a common framework and with a common strategic orientation. Therefore, we propose the formation of a laboratory with the ambitions of (i) translating industrial questioning in terms of research needs, (ii) answering efficiently materials and processes challenges, (iii) and to create value-added in the forms of patents, employment, and richness. With this vision, we designed a roadmap that includes the joining of human and material resources. Our program concerns the development of genuine products of high value-added and the surface treatment of complex geometry parts. It comprises applied an innovative researches which will considerably increase the knowledge in materials and processes, and which will result in optimized products and processes. We already identified challenges of interest, such as the adhesion and durability of the metal/polymer interfaces, or improvement of the process yield. Our most advanced program will consists in the industrialization of a product and a process that we jointly patented in December 2012. It may start at the same time as the joint-laboratory launch (February-September 2014) to end up with a prototype within 1 year. Innovation objectives are numerous since they target the replacement of metallic parts in the space (short-term) and aeronautic (long-term) sectors. This will allow a significative structure weight gain (30-40%), and an increase of the durability of assemblies which suffer from severe thermal cycling conditions. World-leading companies (Thalès Alenia Spaces, EADS, …) that are regular CIRIMAT and MECANO ID partners, already validated the high potential of these products, with large economic benefits.