Institute for Digital Materials Research
DFG Research Training Group 1483 - Process Chains in Manufacturing: Interaction, modelling and evaluation of process chains
The Research Training Group is located in the interdisciplinary research and development field "Computational Engineering - Materials Science - Production Engineering". The guiding theme is the process chain from semi-finished product to component, the holistic consideration and cross-process simulative mapping of which pushes the boundaries of engineering knowledge into a key technology. Based on its well thought-out overall concept, both in terms of content and organisation, the Research Training Group became operational very quickly in the first funding phase and can demonstrate visible success in research-intensive graduate training. This path is to be consistently pursued in the second funding phase.
As in the first funding phase, the research work deals with process chains for the production of sheet metal components with the steps rolling, intermediate annealing and deep drawing, and the research work with solid components with the steps soft machining, heat treatment and hard machining. While the work on sheet metal components, starting from a simple deep-drawing steel, will be extended to dual-phase and later TRIP steels, in the case of solid components, process chains with case-hardening and induction-hardening steels will be considered competitively and mechanical surface treatments and energy efficiency will be included in the consideration. The connection between the areas is to be strengthened by looking at press hardening. The close cooperation of the fellows along these process chains is supported by the formation of working groups that deal with forming, machining and heat treatment. All work is interdisciplinary in nature and combines manufacturing technology laboratory tests, experimental material and component characterisation and cross-scale material and process simulation. The technical and interdisciplinary qualifications of the fellows are strengthened with the research-accompanying study programme "CAMP - Computer Application in Materials Processing" in order to qualify them for the national and international academic and non-academic job market. In the process, the fellows are taught essential technical-scientific knowledge in a compulsory and individual curriculum, and methodological knowledge and key qualifications are strengthened via the KIT Personnel Development (PEW) and the KIT House of Competence (HoC).