Unite! Seed Fund project explores sustainable solutions for metal forming
How can engineering reduce the environmental impact of industrial manufacturing? This was the question at the heart of the Unite! Seed Fund Project 25/26, which brought together students and academics from ULisboa, TUDa and UPC.
Delivered as a 6 ECTS collaborative course from September 2025 to January 2026, the project challenged participants to work across borders, disciplines and cultures to tackle a real industrial problem. By combining research, experimentation and international teamwork, students experienced first-hand how collaborative engineering can drive innovation for a more sustainable future.
Engineering a more sustainable manufacturing process
Sheet metal stamping is widely used in industries such as automotive manufacturing and home appliance production. During the process, friction between the metal sheet and the forming tool requires large amounts of chemical lubricants to prevent material damage and surface defects.
The project explored a more sustainable alternative by engineering microscopic surface textures directly onto the metal sheet. These micro-features act as lubricant reservoirs, helping to reduce friction while decreasing the amount of lubricant needed during manufacturing.
To evaluate the concept, the team investigated two different texturing techniques and combined computational simulations with experimental testing to assess their effectiveness.
A truly collaborative approach
Each partner university contributed its own expertise.
The University of Lisbon carried out the mechanical characterisation of the aluminium sheets and validated the textured samples through real stamping trials.
The Technical University of Darmstadt developed simulation models to identify critical friction zones during the forming process and produced one type of surface texture using a high-precision hammering system.
The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech applied a second surface texturing technique based on ultrasonic vibration-assisted machining and performed detailed surface characterisation to verify the quality of the manufactured textures.
“Throughout the project, an international team of students from TU Darmstadt, Universidade de Lisboa and UPC worked together to solve a problem of the manufacturing industry in terms of sustainability. But the project did not only have technical challenges, it also presented challenges arising from the fact that the students came from different cultures and they had to solve the problems by adapting to other ways of thinking and doing.”
Throughout the semester, results and physical samples travelled between Lisbon, Darmstadt and Barcelona, allowing each stage of the project to build upon the work carried out by the partner institutions.
Learning beyond borders
The project began with an online kick-off session focused on team building and intercultural collaboration. Students then worked in international teams while participating in regular online meetings to coordinate activities and share progress.
Three face-to-face workshops strengthened collaboration throughout the project: the first was hosted by TU Darmstadt in November, the second by the University of Lisbon in December, and the final workshop took place at UPC -BarcelonaTech in January 2026, where students presented their results and reflected on the project's outcomes.
The course concluded with an online final presentation, educational videos showcasing the knowledge gained, and simultaneous poster sessions across the three universities, enabling the wider academic community to discover the project's achievements.
The value of the Unite! Seed Fund
The Unite! Seed Fund Project 25/26 demonstrates how the alliance creates opportunities for students and academics to collaborate across institutions while addressing real-world engineering challenges.
By combining complementary expertise in materials engineering, computational modelling and advanced manufacturing, the project not only contributed to the development of more sustainable industrial processes but also strengthened participants' technical, intercultural and teamwork skills—core competences for the next generation of European engineers.