Research team
Plastic Components and Tribology

The research team Plastic Components and Tribology is part of Professorship of Conveying Engineering and Materials Handling at the Institute of Materials Handling, Conveying and Plastics Engineering of the Chemnitz University of Technology. Our team is working on following subjects:

Development and research of traction and load-bearing mechanisms preferable made of plastic

System monitoring and system analysis of continuous conveyor systems

Dimensioning fundamentals for traction and load-bearing mechanisms as well as conveyors

Research of fundamentals regarding friction and wear of slide-pairings in conveyor systems

Our specific know-how concerns conveyor chains or modular belts made of plastic. We support our project partners in developing, prototyping, testing and creating dimensioning basics. A particular role plays the study of materials behaviour concerning friction and wear, the development of low-friction materials as well as the structural design with the demand on decreasing the motion resistance.

Of increasing importance is the monitoring of conveyor systems with regard to crucial state variables such as wear, temperatures in sliding contacts, chain tension or chain vibrations. Based on such measurements, the reliability of the systems can be improved and maintenance intervals can be optimized.