Expert Group: Lightweight Design

Shot of a group of scientists belonging to the Lightweight Design-Expert Group. — The Expert Group Lightweight Design at the Institute of Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology..

Innovative. Powerful. Sustainable.
The realisation of new ideas, such as Neutral Lightweight Engineering, requires a strategy of holistic product development. Thus, modern lightweight engineering solutions represent more than a material substitution on the individual part. The scientists in the Lightweight Design Expert Group are therefore pursuing a methodical development approach that focuses on overall systems and functional spaces in order to demonstrate the entire lightweight engineering potential.

Eine Leichtbau-Felge steht vor einem Bus der Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe. — Produced in the Pilot Line 64 project: Carbon-aluminium rim in hybrid mixed construction made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastics for the rim base and the light metal aluminium for the wheel centre.

On the basis of material-appropriate design and construction approaches and with the help of methodical concept analyses, lightweight components and systems are developed up to the prototype component for cross-sectoral applications in close international industrial cooperation, which go far beyond the state of the art. The development strategy is characterised above all by the material-oriented approach, which allows all construction materials and material combinations to be considered and thus forms the basis for highly efficient hybrid lightweight engineering. To achieve demanding development tasks, a systematic development process is applied that actively considers the models, methods and data to be used and makes use of possibilities for digitalisation in order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of individual process steps and the entire development process. In particular, numerical methods that accompany the engineering design process are used.

Tribologische Untersuchung am Klötzchen-Ring-Prüfstand. — Tribological study on the block ring test rig.

The necessary interfaces and interactions between lightweight components and systems are researched in a fully equipped tribology laboratory. Using standardised and project-specific, flexible testing technology, tribological and material-mechanical problems are addressed from material development through to practical testing.