Sep 05, 2023

DigiTain – Successful first steps for fully digital product develop-ment of sustainable electric drive architectures

Gruppenfoto_DigiTain — Meeting participants at TU Dresden

The DigiTain (Digitization for Sustainability) research project for fully digital product development of sustainable electric drive architectures is moving full speed ahead.

After the first project meeting in Stuttgart on Jan. 31, 2023, about 100 participants of the consortium met on July 6 to 8, mostly on site in Dresden at the project partner Institute of Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology (ILK) of the TU Dresden, but also partly virtually.

In the course of the three-day meeting, 7 intensive workshops on the respective work packages and an overall consortium meeting took place.

Opened by Dr. Norbert Dölle (Mercedes-Benz, project coordinator) and Prof. Niels Modler (ILK TU Dresden, host & project partner), the overall consortium meeting focused on the current status of the work packages and the report of the first goals achieved by the WP leaders.

In addition, the workshops provided an opportunity for extensive discussions and coordination between the project partners on the topics of total vehicle integration, electric axle, battery system, hydrogen storage system, digital methods and models, and sustainability. Further research work and interfaces were deepened and the next steps planned, so that exciting interim results can be expected at the next DigiTain project meeting in January 2024 at the Fraunhofer Institutes EMI and IWM in Freiburg.

One of these workshops was dedicated to the topic "Sustainability-oriented Development Process" (SDP). The TU Dresden, represented by the ILK Startseite Institut für Leichtbau und Kunststofftechnik — Institut für Leichtbau und Kunststofftechnik — TU Dresden (tu-dresden.de) und the Chair of Virtual Product Development (VPE) Startseite Professur für Virtuelle Produktentwicklung — Professur für Virtuelle Produktentwicklung — TU Dresden (tu-dresden.de), works here primarily, but not exclusively, with the companies Mercedes-Benz, BMW, iPoint, GreenIng and EDAG, as well as the research institutes Fraunhofer EMI, Fraunhofer IWM and INATECH (University of Freiburg) on the integration of sustainability aspects into product development. The aim is to specifically consider the sustainability of products at an early stage of development and thus minimize the ecological footprint over the entire life cycle. The SDP is a research focus of the new initiative and expert group Neutral Lightweight Engineering (Fachgruppe: Neutralleichtbau — Institut für Leichtbau und Kunststofftechnik — TU Dresden (tu-dresden.de) at the ILK.

For a detailed description of the TU Dresden's research content in the DigiTain project, click here for more information. https://tu-dresden.de/ing/maschinenwesen/ilk/das-institut/news/digitain-digitalization-for-sustainability

General information about the project can be found on the project page of Arena2036, the partner responsible for knowledge transfer. https://arena2036.de/de/fokusprojekte/digitain