On 10 May 2025, the Institute of Construction and Drive Technology (IKAT) presented itself as part of the Open Day at Chemnitz University of Technology with two interactive formats: the shadow building game and the MUT Lounge.
The shadow building game offered visitors the opportunity to playfully test their spatial imagination. The starting point was a 3-panel projection – a central form of representation in the Construction Theory I module (Technical Drawing). Starting from this two-dimensional representation, the task was to reconstruct the corresponding three-dimensional object using cube-shaped building blocks. The activity provided a vivid demonstration of basic engineering skills and made the programme tangible.
The new Bachelor’s degree programme in Human-Environment Technology was presented in the MUT Lounge. This future-oriented course takes a generalist approach to education, enabling future engineers to analyse and design technical systems holistically – taking into account ecological, economic and social factors. Particular attention is paid to an innovative didactic concept that deliberately departs from traditional frontal teaching and focuses on modern, interactive forms of learning.

With these contributions, IKAT emphasised its commitment to practical teaching, interdisciplinary training and sustainable technology design

On 10 May from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., IKAT will be represented with the MUT stand and an activity area at Chemnitz University of Technology’s Open Day. The focus will be on the presentation of the new degree programme in Human-Environment-Technology – MUT, which will start in the coming winter semester from October 2025. As part of the Long Night of Science, we will be opening the doors to our experimental field and providing insights into current research at the institute.

We look forward to welcoming you as our guests!

In mechanical engineering, bearing creep refers to the relative movement between a bearing’s outer or inner ring and its seating surface. In order to prevent the phenomenon of bearing creep, the relevant countermeasures can be categorized into two primary groups: those which pertain to the bearing itself, and those which pertain to the housing/shaft. From the bearing perspective, parameters such as the number of rolling elements, the thickness of the bearing wall, radial loading, and the bearing clearance can exert a substantial influence on the creep behavior of the bearing. In the context of housing/shaft, factors such as contact pressure, structural bending, and housing thickness assume pivotal roles. A judicious calibration of these parameters is instrumental in ensuring a precise fit and mitigating the probability of creep under operating conditions.

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.