On the history of welding in Chemnitz

Welding education and research in Chemnitz can look back on almost 100 years of tradition and is closely linked to the history of the TU Chemnitz.

As early as 1922, the later director of the State Academy of Technology in Chemnitz, Prof. Schimpke, founded one of the first welding laboratories in Germany. The focus was on the training of oxyacetylene and electric welders as well as the calculation and design of welding constructions.

After World War II, a new beginning was made with the founding of the Chemnitz Technical Schools. Welding technology was integrated in the Institute for Mechanical Engineering Technology.

In 1962, under Prof. Neumann, the Department of Welding received the status of an independent professorship. With the expansion of the College of Mechanical Engineering into a Technical College in 1963 and then into a Technical University in 1986, the teaching and research conditions steadily improved. Since 1973, students in the newly founded scientific department of joining and assembly technology have been trained as welding designers or technologists in direct studies. The main areas of research were welding design, welding and soldering technologies, assembly processes and assembly-oriented design.

After the reunification of the two German states, the structures of the universities in the Free State of Saxony were reorganised in the early 1990s.

In 1992, Professor Matthes was appointed to the newly founded professorship of welding technology. In the same year, the Institute for Joining/Welding Technology was established at the Faculty of Mechanical and Process Engineering at Chemnitz University of Technology. In 1999, the institute was expanded to become the Institute of Production Technology/Welding Technology (IFS Chemnitz) with the professorships of Welding Technology and Production Engineering. In addition to the traditional teaching and research areas of welding design and welding technology, the specialist areas of mechanical joining, coating technology, laser technology, automation and numerical simulation were newly installed.

Further information on this period can be found in our commemorative publication here, which was published on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of welding education in Chemnitz on 18 April 2002. The document is available in PDF format (40 pages - 1900 kb, german language).

From 2003 to 2011, Prof. Matthes was also Rector of Chemnitz University of Technology. In addition, he was a member of numerous national and international research committees and boards and worked for many years as an expert reviewer. During his second term as Rector from 2007-2011, he was represented at the professorship by Prof. Gunnar Bürkner, who mainly expanded the area of industry-related research.

With the retirement of Prof. Matthes, Prof. Peter Mayr was appointed to the Chair of Welding Technology in April 2011. His teaching and research main fields were in the areas of materials, joining technologies and component safety, with a holistic approach to the joining process in the sense of process-structure-property relationships

Prof. Mayr also promoted the internationalisation of the professorship and supervised a large number of guest researchers from all over the world.

In September 2019, Prof. Mayr changed to the TU Munich, where he took over the chair of Materials Technology of Additive Manufacturing. From 2019 to 2021, Dr Kusch was acting head of the professorship until it was reappointed.

On 01.12.2021, Prof. Jonas Hensel was appointed to the professorship of welding technology and has headed it since then. One of his first official acts was to organise the celebratory event "100 Years of Welding Research and Teaching in Chemnitz" in June 2022.