Based on the cluster strategy redefinition work, it was asked to cluster's companies to identify their training needs. To maintain or improve their performance and to get successful R&D and investments projects, the challenge was to identify the goals and objectives of the training actions that will have to be conducted.

Trainings requested by companies and included in the SW_CAMPUSS project are essential for improving the skills of workers, their profitability and thus improving the productivity of their companies.

SW_SOCOEV project addresses the needs of the space market. In this project, the partners combine their expertise in numerical multi-physics simulation and characterization of behavior laws of materials like glue, and equipment testing and optical measurements, to meet new challenges in designing innovative opto-mechanical systems.

In a competitive environment with emerging countries, reducing overall development lead-time is linked with a significant reduction in non-recurring development costs and recurring costs. Moreover, the end-user demand requires a reduction of operating expenses requiring to ensure better control of the behavior of equipment over time in relation to different environmental parameters.

The EI-OPT project focuses on a basic industrial research in order to allow two Walloon SMEs, Numflo and Open Engineering, to upgrade their existing simulation tools into an integrated design environment for optimizing aeronautical industrial components, especially rotating machines and helicopters. 

In order to have competitive advantages over the market, the following areas will be covered:

One of the major challenges for aeronautics is the reduction of engine specific fuel consumption by increasing the engine bypass ratio. This involves :

• to use complex transmissions requiring greater oil cooling
• to preheat the outside air with the energy recovered from the exhaust gases.

It is therefore necessary to optimize the performance and the control of heat exchangers

In Virtual Prototyping approaches, the optimization of industrial configurations, taking into account objectives and constraints, is a must to ensure real technological progress. 

However, industrial processes are often affected by numerous uncertainties : operational, material, geometrical, … 

The project SW_ORFI aims at developing robust and reliable approaches in numerical optimization by incorporating the uncertainties effects into its optimization algorithms. 
 

Following 15 years of continuous growth, GDTech will gather all services and its workforce in one single place.  

Early 2015, GDTech finally acquired an existing building in the economic park of Alleur (near Liège).  Thanks to the help of the Walloon region, this 800 sqm building  will be arranged and furbished to answer  the needs of the Engineering office.  

Later on, it will be extended with an additional 600 sqm office area and with a 300 sqm industrial hall.  

This training project is specifically oriented towards one of the strategic target of Skywin : improving competitiveness of the Walloon Aerospace workforce. 

The “Excellence in Development” part of the project relies essentially on CAD/CAM, numerical simulation and soft skills deployment, whereas the “Excellence in Assembly” axis relies more on processes and quality control.  

The project’s primary target is to setup industrial and competitive tools to perform Additive Manufacturing of aerospace components. 

In order to do this, it is necessary to select and develop the most suitable process related to each type of component.

The first part of the project aims at optimizing process parameters in function of the desired microstructure and mechanical properties. It also a must to put in place the upstream and downstream processes to ensure quality and repeatability of the parts. 

Additive manufacturing in Aerospace still represents a major technological breakthrough. The SW_AERO+ project is the first major project on this topic involving Walloon Aerospace industries.

The main target of the project is to develop knowledge and skills that will eventually control the full cycle of design and manufacturing, while respecting the constraints that are specific to aeronautics and aircraft engines in particular.