Objective
Lead (Pb) is a heavy metal very harmful to health and the environment. Lead is particularly harmful to children resulting in 600,000 new cases of children with intellectual disabilities every year due to Lead exposure. Cost-benefit analysis suggests that, in France alone, overall benefit of €22.72 billion/year could be achieved in terms of avoiding future medical interventions, limiting the need for special education and increasing future productivity by reducing Lead exposure.
The European Commission has been working on reducing Lead exposure in different areas. Despite this, the large-bore engine industry still heavily relies on Lead-based journal bearings. 7 tonnes of Lead will be released to the environment from large-bore engines manufactured in 2015. This amount of Lead would be enough to potentially poison 2 times the global population.
BeLEADFREE aims to deliver novel Lead-free journal bearings to large-bore engine builders worldwide, ranging from medium and heavy-duty diesel engines (e.g. commercial road vehicles) to large four-stroke medium-speed engines (e.g. ships, engine generators or gensets). This will be achieved by optimising novel manufacturing approaches that have proven successful at TRL6 and designing and building a pilot line to manufacture Lead-free journal bearings to be validated in real engine working conditions. The completion of the project will ensure the initial market take-up of the new product and its implementation in manufacturing businesses in EU.
The proposed project will be conducted by a multidisciplinary consortium with two industrial partners, Daido Industrial Bearings Europe Ltd. (1st time industry applicant and project co-ordinator) and Elsyca NV (SME), who will be supported by academic partners IK4-Tekniker and Coventry University who have a strong experience in applied research and knowledge transfer from Academia to Industry.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineering
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringtribologylubrication
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste management
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringautomotive engineering
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
TA19 9PH ILMINSTER
United Kingdom