Excursion to the VW engine plant in Chemnitz
The team from the Chair of Materials and Surface Technology visited the VW engine plant in Chemnitz on 5 September 2025. After a friendly welcome and an informative presentation on the history and key data of the Chemnitz site by the assistant to the plant management, Florian Herrberger, the tour of the production and assembly areas followed.
Jörg Weigel gave a tour of the plasma coating stations, where the cylinder liners of the engines are coated using a thermal spraying process to minimise friction and thus increase the efficiency of the engines. Particularly impressive was the HUSKY data processing system developed at the site, which records up to 90,000 measured values for each individual engine during the fully automated coating process, correlates them with the resulting coating properties with ML support and thus makes an important contribution to quality assurance. Equally interesting was the guided tour of the engine assembly line led by Richard Hofmann, where three and four-cylinder engines for various VW, Audi, Škoda and SEAT models are manufactured on several assembly lines. It was extremely informative to see that, despite modern technology, precise manual labour and well-trained personnel are still required in many areas of car manufacturing.
After the factory tour, the WOT team walked to the moated castle of Klaffenbach. Tasty food and cool drinks were served in the „Torwache“. The result was another informative and team-building day.
We would like to thank the plant manager, Franziska Fischer, as well as the production manager, Mario Blank, and the entire team at the VW engine plant in Chemnitz for their hospitality and the exciting insights. Special thanks go to Jörg Weigel, Florian Herrberger and Richard Hofmann for the organisation, presentation and tour.
We look forward to further encounters and collaborations!
Picture:
The team from the Chair of Materials and Surface Technology with the twenty millionth engine produced at the VW engine plant in Chemnitz. (Photo: private/WOT)
12.9.2025 – Events of the professorship ( rico.drehmann@mb… )
