On 6 and 7 November, the VDI Symposium on Shafts and Shaft-Hub Connections took place in Garching near Munich, where IKAT was able to make a significant contribution to the conference with several presentations and posters. The IKAT presentations covered topics such as friction coefficient determination, fretting fatigue, knurled press-fit joints and sensor-integrated machine elements. Another highlight of the event was the company tour at MAN. We would like to thank the VDI for organising the conference and the exciting scientific exchange!

 

The Sustainable Products group welcomes Mr. Stahr as a new member of staff. His subject area is the application of artificial intelligence, in particular deep learning, in the optimisation and design process. The artificial intelligence is intended to perform supporting tasks as well as generate geometries independently. Mr. Stahr studied Mechanical Engineering at Chemnitz University of Technology and Sports Engineering at the Master’s level. During his studies, Mr. Stahr worked as a student assistant in the field of CAD and programming at the chair. His master’s thesis in the research field „Creation of selectively compliant mechanisms by deep learning networks“ forms the basis for his subsequent research projects. Welcome to IKAT Mr. Stahr.

 

 

We congratulate Ms. Seltmann on her successful doctoral thesis on the topic: „Topologieoptimierung von pfadgenerierenden nachgiebigen Mechanismen mit selektiver Nachgiebigkeit und mehrfachem Pseudolaufgrad.“ In an engaging presentation, a new optimization approach for compliant mechanisms was introduced. Ms. Seltmann’s research provides important insights for the development of innovative solutions in engineering design. The results of her work could deliver significant impacts for future developments in this field. We congratulate Ms. Seltmann on this significant achievement and look forward to the further dissemination of her research findings.

Growing ecological and economic pressure leads to ever higher and more complex stresses in the development of plain bearings. The research at the institute is therefore primarily concerned with the investigation and development of alternative sliding materials and the influence of geometric deviations. The main focus of the investigations is the wear behavior under the most varied operating conditions (particles, mixed friction, hydrodynamics).

The permissible loads of selected WNV (tapered and cylindrical interference fit as well as feather key, knurled, polygonal joints, etc.) have been investigated primarily at IKAT for decades in the area of fatigue, fatigue and fatigue strength. The behavior under individual loads (bending, torsion) as well as combined dynamic loads is analysed.

In contact with various components, deformations in connection with the prevailing joint pressure initiate the damage process of fretting fatigue. Current research activities at the institute focus on basic research on the damage phenomenon of fretting fatigue and pursue the objective of developing an impact-compliant calculation method.

While conventional mechanisms owe their deformability to the sliding or rolling interfaces in the joints, flexible mechanisms fulfill their function through elastic stretches in places that are deliberately designed to be flexible during design. This functional principle enables novel, shape-adaptive structures, which can be used, for example, in softrobotics or in variable-shape wings. The professorship focuses its research on optimization-based synthesis methods.

The strength tests focus on the tooth root load-bearing capacity of worm gear units. The challenge to numerical imaging lies in the complex geometry and the special material bronze.

The coefficient of static friction (also: coefficient of friction or coefficient of friction) is to be understood as a system variable with a multitude of influencing parameters. In order to use existing potentials in friction-locking connections (e.g. screw, flange, press-fit connections), an experimental investigation is indispensable. With the help of standardized test methods on model samples, a wide variety of tribological configurations are examined at the research centre with regard to their transmission behavior. A major field of research is the synthesis of new design/selection tools for friction-enhancing measures (e.g. micro/laser structures, hard particles, coatings) for static and dynamic load cases.