News & Press Release

The members of the Forming Technology Working Group (AGU) accepted Professor Till Clausmeyer as a new member at their working meeting on March 6, 2024 at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg.

The AGU pursues the goal of scientifically based technical and economic development of forming technology. Its members represent research-intensive universities and non-university institutions. In future, Chemnitz will be actively represented in the AGU with two members.

Professor Birgit Awiszus was Head of the Chair of Virtual Production Engineering at Chemnitz University of Technology until 30.09.2023 and has been successfully involved in the network, which was founded in 1974, since 2001. With his appointment to the Chair of Forming Technology at Chemnitz University of Technology, Professor Clausmeyer has taken over the teaching and research activities of the Chair of Virtual Production Technology (provisional head until 29.2.2024: Dr. Carolin Binotsch). The Chair of Forming Technology also includes the teaching and research activities of the Chair of Forming and Joining, which was most recently headed by Dr. Andreas Kunke on an interim basis.

On March 1, 2024, the symbolic handover of the baton from the former professorships to Professor Clausmeyer took place during a ceremony. Birgit Awiszus and Till Clausmeyer are looking forward to working together at Chemnitz University of Technology and their joint representation in the AGU.

On 2 August 2023, Mr Robert Laue successfully defended his dissertation on the topic of "Development of self-regulating flow-forming" and received the grade "summa cum laude" (very good with distinction) for it.

The development of self-regulating flow-forming makes a decisive contribution to increasing the productivity of this forming process. Due to the fact that flow-formed components can be produced independently of the disturbance size, rejects and process start-up times can be reduced. A further decisive advantage of self-regulation is that the requirements (delivery tolerances) for the semi-finished product used can be reduced, which significantly increases the economic attractiveness of the process.

The dissertation was written as part of his research activities at Chemnitz University of Technology.

We congratulate our colleague Dr.-Ing. Robert Laue on the successful completion of his doctorate.

Martin Heckmann successfully defended his dissertation on 21 April 2023 on the topic of "Stress-based approach to increasing the buckling stiffness of car body outer skin parts". The thesis was written in cooperation with Heilbronn University.

The result of the work is the realisation that the buckling stiffness of car body outer skin parts can be increased specifically and significantly by elastic prestressing. Consequently, thinner sheet metal can be used. The presented work thus contributes to lightweight automotive construction and thus to the improvement of industrial resource efficiency.

We congratulate Dr.-Ing. Martin Heckmann on his successfully completed doctorate.

The Institute of Materials Science and Engineering (IWW) at Chemnitz University of Technology cordially invited participants to the 23rd Materials Engineering Colloquium (WTK). The two-day programme was filled with current research topics from the fields of materials science as well as surface and joining technology and the additional accents such as hydrogen storage and new trends in welding technology.

The Chair of Virtual Production Technology participated in this year's colloquium with a lecture. Sandra Friedrich presented the current research results on the DFG project "Macromechanical model for predicting the susceptibility to acid corrosion and hydrogen embrittlement of austenitic thin sheets and foils after complex forming processes" in her lecture "Numerical mapping of near-surface corrosion susceptibility on cold-rolled austenitic stainless steel 316L".

The paper presented an approach to calculate the corrosion rates by numerical forming simulations for the material 316L (1.4404) after cold rolling. For this purpose, the numerical approach for predicting the microstructure was extended by empirically calibrated models to include the component surface, the microstructure near the surface, the forming-related residual stresses and the roughness. This allows the forming to follow an adapted process route so that these properties can be specifically adjusted and a reduction in the corrosion rate can be achieved.

After a three-year break, the 12th SAXSIM (SAXon SImulation Meeting) user meeting was held on 7 March this year. The focus of the meeting is generally the application of simulation in the engineering context, with the main focus on the Finite Element Method (FEM). The aim of the event is to be a mainly regional forum where specialists of the different simulation applications can meet, exchange and discuss. The conference started with an informal "come together" the evening before, this time at the Turmbrauhaus in the centre of Chemnitz.

The Chair of Virtual Production Technology again contributed to the conference this year. Dr. Kai Kittner presented an overview of the BMWK project "SiPro" (simulation-based property design along the combined process chain of forming-forming). Within the presentation, after the motivation, the project, the structure, the contents and the current project status were dealt with in more detail, combined with a few selected work contents.

The members of the professorship are already looking forward to the next SAXSIM user meeting in 2024.

The 36th Aachen Steel Colloquium - Forming Technology was held on October 26-27, 2022. The event has become one of the most important discussion forums for the steel producing and processing industry in Germany. The scientists of Prof. Awiszus' professorship Virtual Production Engineering also took part. The event focused on presentations on the sustainable design of forming processes. In particular, the challenges to future process design associated with the goal of decarbonization in the manufacture of semi-finished products were discussed. In addition to the successful presentation of the research work by Mr. Robert Laue on property-controlled flow-forming in the digital twin, the ViF scientists used the opportunity for discussions and exchange with other conference participants. Due to the industrial presence at the ASK, it was possible to establish new contacts outside the usual research environment and to build up cross-sectional networks.

On June 21 and 22, 2022, the project members in the BMWK project "SiPro" met in Chemnitz. For the first time since Corona, the project partners were able to meet in presence and exchange ideas and opinions also in an informal setting. On the first day, with the social evening, the focus was simply on the actual getting together over food and drinks at the Janssen restaurant. The following day, the first biannual project meeting took place. In short excerpts, the status of the SiPro project, the individual work packages and their planning for the next half year were presented. Afterwards, the project partners could visit the experimental area of the Professorship Virtual Production Engineering and inform themselves about further research topics. The next project meeting will take place in Pfinztal at the project partner Rosswag GmbH.

Further information about the project will be given in the article of the TUC Press Office (only in German).

At the University Information Day "TUCdiscover" on June 11, 2022, the Department of Mechanical Engineering was able to give an insight into the world of technology at 17 stations of the "Mechanical Engineering Experience Road". At the booth of the Professorship Virtual Production Engineering, interested visitors had the opportunity to make their own cup out of metal on the modern high-performance spinning machine. In addition, the staff and minor scientists provided information about studying mechanical engineering at TUC as well as insights into current research projects.

Further information about the University Information Day "TUCdiscover" is given in the article of the TUC Press Office (only in German).

Under the motto "Clean drives. Produced efficiently.", the innovation cluster "HZwo - Antrieb für Sachsen" and the Fraunhofer IWU invited participants to Chemnitz for the second time. The aim of the conference is to investigate manufacturing processes around the topic of fuel cells.
The Professorship Virtual Production Engineering (ViF) is also involved with a project within the "HZwo-Cluster" and was represented at the conference with an information booth. The project focuses on manufacturing processes for large-scale production of bipolar plates, which are being investigated at the professorship. The focus of the investigation is on the one hand the production by roll embossing and on the other hand the industrial standard process, deep drawing (embossing). Individual aspects of the work could be followed at the booth. For example, ready-formed biploar plates were available, which attracted great interest from visitors due to their low nominal plate thickness of 0.05 millimeters. With the support of augmented reality, visitors were able to get a closer look at the forming process and forming results by overlaying the components with simulation results. The active tool surfaces and a video showing key aspects of the project were also on display. In the future, we will continue to work on carrying the "spirit" of hydrogen beyond the projects of the "HZwo-Cluster", so that hydrogen will make the contribution we all hope it will, despite the enormous challenges that must be overcome on the way to a hydrogen economy.

In a statement by ZEIT magazine on September 17, 2020, Prof. Birgit Awiszus and student Sandra Friedrich explain what is meant by virtual production engineering. The importance of simulations is emphasized in the pre-fix and reference is made to medical engineering.

The book by Prof. Dr. Birgit Awiszus, Prof. em. Dr. Jürgen Bast, Dr. Thomas Hänel and Dr. Mario Kusch, entitled "Grundlagen der Fertigungstechnik", is available now as eBook and printed version.
The textbook provides the essential foundations of modern processes in manufacturing technology (including primary shaping, forming, cutting, joining, coating, heat treatment processes and additive manufacturing). Not only technical and technological relationships are considered, but also economic and organizational aspects of all components of the manufacturing processes are taken into account. For a better understanding, the basic knowledge is illustrated by practical application examples from various branches of industry. The textbook is ideal for beginners to learn about the essential basics of manufacturing technology as well as for practitioners as a reference book.
Further information can be found on the associated website of the publisher.

Start of the SPP 2183: Property-controlled forming processes with Kick-off meeting in Cottbus
On January 14th and 15th, 2020 the Priority Program (SPP) 2183 of the DFG was launched with a Kick-off meeting in Cottbus. The aim of the SPP is to explore the scientific basis of new approaches for process-integrated property control of forming processes. The challenge is to control the process during forming based on the measurement data in order to adjust the desired property in a targeted manner. The new sensors and actuators required for the property control are developed and tested in cooperation between working groups from different disciplines.
The Chemnitz University of Technology is represented by an interdisciplinary research team consisting of the Professorship Virtual Production Engineering (ViF) and the Professorship o of Measurement and Sensor Technology (MST). The aim of the project "Controlled shear spinning for the production of components with defined hardening" (DFG project number: 424334154) is the development of a new control strategy for the incremental forming process. The basic concept consists of the determination and targeted adjustment of the target value strength on rotationally symmetric components during the forming process. For this purpose, a multi-sensor system is used, which consists of a magnetic field sensor with integrated temperature and distance measurement. In addition to the targeted adjustment of component properties, it is also possible to react to external influences such as batch fluctuations or irregularities in the sheet thickness during the forming process.

Research stay at the UiTM in Shah Alam/Malaysia as part of the DAAD-funded cooperation project
On October 13th 2019 Prof. Awiszus and four research assistants embarked on a one-week research stay at the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in Shah Alam/Malaysia. The reason for the stay is a joint research project funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Within the scientific cooperation between the Professorship Virtual Production Engineering (Prof. Awiszus) and the Smart Manufacturing Research Institute (Prof. Yupiter HP Manurung), various case studies on simulation-based method planning for additive-manufactured metal components are currently being developed.
During the first few days, the cooperation partners presented their current state of research to a broad scientific audience. In the subsequent technical discussions, various aspects of the previous work were examined in more detail and future research approaches were derived. In addition to exchanging experiences at UiTM, the German-Malaysian delegation also visited Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah in Shah Alam. After a guided tour of the campus area and a visit to the technical and scientific laboratories, Prof. Awiszus was honoured to sign her name into the institution's Golden Book. In a subsequent talk with the director of the institute, Dr. HJ Mohd Zahari Ismail, and other members of the institute and faculty management, Prof. Awiszus and Dr. Ismail gave an overview of their respective national education and research systems. In this context, the participants discussed advantages and disadvantages of the different systems as well as cooperation possibilities in the fields of research and exchange of scientists and students. After one week, the delegation of the professorship travelled on to Taiwan with many new findings.

Active participation in the international conference in Taipei/Taiwan
The International Conference on Advances in Materials & Processing Technologies (AMPT) took place this year October 20th to 24th in Taipei/Taiwan. For the 22nd time the annual conference discussed topics and trends in manufacturing technology. On this year's main topic: "Smart Manufacturing Technologies in the Age of Industry 4.0" 160 technical papers were presented. Dr. Thoralf Gerstmann and Stephan Lüder were able to leave a lasting impression on the conference participants with their presentations on flat clinching technology. Robert Laue reported on current investigations of radial-rotation profile forming. Finally, Dr. Sebastian Härtel presented the latest findings on the forming of hybrid plastic and metal components. In a second contribution, he described the development of WeldForming, a combination of the welding and forming processes. In addition, Dr. Härtel chaired a session focusing on welding and forming.
The delegation of the TU Chemnitz was honoured for their participation due to the high quality of the contributions. Representing the professorship, Mr. Laue was presented with an award at the concluding conference banquet.
Together with other conference participants the National Palace Museum and the Yangmingshan National Park were visited. The impressive history of the country could be admired and explored. Overall, the conference provided a good framework for scientific and cultural exchange as well as new research impulses.

11th of November 2019 the theme day of the Research Association Smart Engineering e.V. took place for the third time in Darmstadt. From 10:00 to 16:00 o'clock Professor Alfred Katzenbach guided the participants as moderator through the event "Working World of Tomorrow - Digitalization in Medium-Sized Businesses". In the presentations by Marc Foullois (Fraunhofer IEM), Jörn Steffen Menzefricke (University of Paderborn), Julian Schallow (IPS Engineers GmbH), Hermann Ferstl and Tanja Sindram (mosaiic GmbH), as well as Professor Torsten Groß (Technical University Mittelhessen), the attendees gained different insights into the implementation of digitalization projects in medium-sized companies. In addition to presenting opportunities and risks as well as possible obstacles, the necessary framework conditions for implementation and numerous practical examples were also presented.
During the lunch break the participants were able the make their first own experiences with the use of a HoloLens and the conversion of requirement analysis in the Augmented Reality at the booth of the :em engineering methods AG.
In the second part of the theme day, the panel discussion once again clearly showed that digitization is changing and influencing daily work processes and private life. In addition to the numerous challenges and problems of digitization, which have already been often discussed, the participants agreed that the consideration of the socio-technical system (humans, technology, organization) is indispensable within the digital transformation. However, only change projects that focus first and foremost on humans and then on technology and processes will be able to achieve sustainable success.

Through the "Major Instrumentation" funding program of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the participation of the Saxon State Ministry for Science and the Arts (SMWK), the Professorship Virtual Production Engineering was able to receive a new high-performance spinning machine with CNC control for current and future research projects in October 2019.
The spinning machine is used for the production of rotationally symmetrical hollow parts from a circular blank by the process principle of spinning. The machine is characterized by a high machine rigidity and high support forces, which enable the forming of steel sheets up to a material thickness of 5 mm.
With this new machine, the expertise in the field of incremental forming processes that has been developed for decades at the Professorship Virtual Production Engineering can be further expanded and researched in a contemporary manner. This is becoming increasingly important as increasing product variants mean that incremental forming is becoming more and more important in industry. Fundamental research into incremental forming processes thus forms an excellent basis for sustainable industrial application. Furthermore, Chemnitz University of Technology is the first Saxon university to integrate this technology in research and teaching.
For further information, please contact, Phone: 0371 531-37384, Mail: sebastian.haertel@mb.tu-chemnitz.de

The Simufact RoundTable is an annual conference for users and experts from industry and science who deal with the simulation of forming, joining and additive manufacturing processes. For the twentieth time, this year the event took place from May 22 to 23 in Marburg.
Robert Laue from the Professorship Virtual Production Engineering presented current research results from the development of the incremental forming process Radial Rotation Profile-Forming. The aim of this process is the production of profiled hollow components with minimal sheet thinning due to the process. For this purpose, a preform with folds is produced. These folds are used specifically for profile forming in the subsequent forming process. Due to the uneven formation of folds, however, identical component properties do not occur globally. As part of his presentation, Mr. Laue presented a research approach on "Influencing wrinkle formation in sheet metal forming by local heat treatment". Based on the numerical analysis of the wrinkle formation, an approach was developed which produces an even wrinkle formation during the preform production. For this purpose, a tailored blank with locally different strengths is produced by an upstream local heat treatment in order to bring about the formation of wrinkles in the areas of lower strength. This approach was validated numerically and experimentally in a feasibility study and forms the basis for further investigations.
Special thanks go to the Chair of Welding Engineering at the Chemnitz University of Technology for their support in laser processing.

For the 22nd time, the prostep ivip Symposium 2019, one of the largest independent conferences on PLM and digital transformation, took place at the ICS in Stuttgart on April 9th and 10th, 2019. In numerous keynotes, lectures and workshops the participants were able to learn more about the topic "Collaboration in the Age of Smart Products and Services". In addition to the special sessions, the additional exhibition with over 40 booths served visitors to inform themselves casually and network with other experts.
In addition to participating in the symposium, Prof. Birgit Awiszus, Dr. Thoralf Gerstmann and Jeannette Boll presented the research association Smart Engineering e.V. with a booth in the exhibition. In numerous discussions, information about the work of the research association was provided and new interested parties were won for the association.

Michael Hirsch from PROFIROLL TECHNOLOGIES GMBH successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis on April 2nd, 2019, on the topic "Analysis of the systematic geometric deviation during profile cross rolling of screw profiles". His supervisor Prof. Dr. Birgit Awiszus (Professorship Virtual Manufacturing Technology/TUC) gave advice with technical questions.
The aim of the Ph.D. thesis was to determine and analyze the complex three-dimensional geometric deviation that occurs during profile cross rolling of worm gears and is mainly represented as flank line shape deviation. Furthermore, it was necessary to generate corresponding solutions for compensation. A newly developed mathematical model for predicting the shape deviations now makes it possible to counteract the causes and minimize the deviations.
The examination committee rated the work presented as "magna cum laude" as a very good achievement. We congratulate Dr.-Ing. Michael Hirsch on his successfully completed doctorate.

On March 26th 2019 the 11th SAXSIM - Saxon Simulation Meeting took place at the TU Chemnitz. The user meeting offered a network of analytical and CAD-oriented applications, simulations and optimizations. In addition, the participants could inform themselves comprehensively in presentations on current topics of numerical simulation. The employees of the Professorship Virtual Production Engineering also contributed to the conference. Dr.-Ing. Thoralf Gerstmann presented the topic "Hybrid Joining: Numerical Process Development of Flat Clinch Bonding" and Mr. Stephan Lüder presented a contribution to "Methods and Challenges in Numerical Simulation of Selective Laser Melting (SLM)". Dr.-Ing. Marcel Graf and Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Härtel led in several sessions as chairmen through the program.

The TU Bergakademie Freiberg hosted the international conference for forming technology (MEFORM) from 19. to 21. of March. More than eighty participants from research and industry, including visitors from eight European countries and Central America, were guests at the annual conference of the Institute of Metal Forming. The focus of the conference was on "Simulation-based technology development for material forming".
Robert Laue from the Professorship Virtual Production Engineering presented current research results on the development of the incremental sheet metal forming process: radial-rotation profile forming. His presentation entitled "Approach for the development of forming tools for Radial Rotation Profile-Forming" focused on the numerically supported development of forming tools and experimental validation. Further information on the lecture can be found in the article of the same name at www.scientific.net/MSF.949.125.

At this year's Materials Technology Colloquium, which was hosted by the Institute of Materials Science and Engineering at the TU Chemnitz on March 6th and 07th,2019, our Dr.-Ing. Marcel Graf received the prize for the best conference contribution.
After detailed examination, the jury selected his paper "Study on determination of flow behaviour of 6060-aluminium and AZ31-magnesium thin sheet by means of stacked compression test" with co-authors from the Institute for Metal Forming of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg as "Best Paper". It compared different methods for material characterisation using the example of an aluminium alloy EN AW-6060 and a magnesium alloy TRC-AZ31 in order to generate material data for numerical simulation. Like all contributions to the conference, this article will be published in the conference series "IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering" (https://iopscience.iop.org/issue/1757-899X/480/1).
Congratulations on the Best Paper Award!

From February 27th to March 1st, 2019 the FC EXPO, the world's largest trade fair for hydrogen and fuel cells, took place at the Tokyo Big Sight in Japan. Mr. Alexander Bauer from the Professorship Virtual Production Engineering also took part in the fair as a project member of the Saxon innovation cluster for fuel cells and hydrogen "HZwo - Antrieb für Sachsen".
Further information: @HZwo_Sachsen