The EIT manufacturing organises a competitions between manufacturing and space starters or corporates with the ultimate goal to solve the following four different challenges: 

• Challenge 1: Predictive tool for weldability – Development of a predictive tool that quantifies both operational weldability (the likelihood of producing acceptable welds without critical defects) and technical weldability (properties of the weld zone after the thermal cycle: hardness, toughness, phase composition) for (C-Mn) steels and provides process parameter recommendations.
• Challenge 2: Multi-purpose structural optimisation tool – Development of a software solution that couples parametric CAD models with automated FEA and multi-objective optimisation (e.g., stiffness vs. weight, payload vs. cost), including material selection and manufacturing constraints, to generate manufacturable design alternatives systematically.
• Challenge 3: Non-destructive inspection (NDI) methods – Reduce cost and lead time of Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) for (large-series) spacecraft manufacturing.
• Challenge 4: Serial production technologies for hardware and (space) electronics – Reduce cost and lead time for space electronics Hardware, to support trend towards larger series commercial spacecraft.

The challenges will be presented during an event on the 9th of October in Noordwijk and the starters should present their solutions for the challenges during the closing event on the 27th of November. More information can be found on the website.