EXC 1075:  Merge Technologies for Multifunctional Lightweight Structures - MERGE

• Subject Area: Production Technology ; Mechanics and Constructive Mechanical Engineering
• Term: from 2012 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 194654001

The main objective of this Cluster of Excellence is the fusion of fundamental technologies suitable for the resource-efficient mass-production of lightweight structures of high-performance and functional density. Manufacturing processes that are currently discrete for different groups of materials such as metals, plastics or textiles have to be merged, through fusion and interlinking, to produce continuous large-scale technologies for the production of high-performance structures. A technology merger of this kind is characterised by significant savings of energy and materials. The material utilisation is inherently efficient in lightweight structures, which reduces both consumption and CO2-emissions in mobile applications. The vision of the Cluster of Excellence is to tap into the joint saving potential of technology fusion and lightweight structures pursuant to the central idea of resource-efficient manufacturing technologies that produce resource-efficient components. To this end, the Chemnitz Cluster of Excellence is pursuing a long-term strategy of bivalent resource efficiency or BRE strategy. This requires close cooperation between the engineering and natural sciences, on the one hand, the technology-related and design-related work domains, on the other. The fundamental production methods that form the basis for this research are textile, plastics and metal processing methods characterised by high flexibility and mass-production compatibility, combined with reproducibility. At Chemnitz University of Technology (CUT), its affiliated institutes and Fraunhofer Institutes, these fundamental technologies as well as microsystems integration have already been developed at an early stage, concentrating all manufacturing methods at one research location: the Technology Campus of the Chemnitz University. This geographical proximity facilitates the knowledge transfer necessary for process merging. The Cluster of Excellence as a new structural and organisational unit concentrates the core competencies in the field of resource-efficient technologies for lightweight structures and allows the cooperation and involvement of national and international companies in the Cluster platform.

• DFG Programme: Clusters of Excellence
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Chemnitz
• Participating Institution: Fraunhofer-Institut für Elektronische Nanosysteme (ENAS); Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkzeugmaschinen und Umformtechnik (IWU); Leibniz-Institut für Festkörper- und Werkstoffforschung Dresden (IFW) e.V.
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Lothar Kroll
• Participating Researchers: Professorin Dr.-Ing. Birgit Awiszus; Professor Dr.-Ing. Welf-Guntram Drossel; Professor Dr. Uwe Götze; Professor Dr. Wolfram Hardt; Professor Dr. Roland Herzog; Professor Dr.-Ing. Jörn Ihlemann; Professor Dr.-Ing. Thomas Lampke; Professor Dr. Heinrich Lang; Professor Dr.-Ing. Jan Mehner; Professor Dr. Arnd Meyer; Professor Dr. Bernd Michel; Professor Dr.-Ing. Egon Müller; Professor Dr.-Ing. Klaus Nendel; Professor Dr.-Ing. Reimund Neugebauer; Professor Dr. Thomas Otto; Dr. Isabelle Roth; Professorin Dr. Gudula Rünger; Professor Dr. Oliver G. Schmidt; Professor Dr. Stefan Spange; Professorin Dr. Birgit Spanner-Ulmer; Professor Dr.-Ing. Martin Franz-Xaver Wagner; Professor Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Wielage; Professor Dr. Dietrich R. T. Zahn