Department of Mechanical Engineering

Production Technology – taking an integrated approach

The holistic treatment of products and production in an international environment is central to industrial engineering research projects at Karlsruhe; included in this is not only manufacturing itself, but also operation, maintenance and recycling. The opening of national borders for industries results in the necessity to reduce development times and in turn increase the application of technical models and computational simulations. Research at Karlsruhe in production focuses on taking an integrated approach to the product and the production within an international context. It is not restricted to the process of production alone, but also includes aspects such as plant operation, maintenance and recycling. Another aspect is the increasing pressure to intensify automation. Research and teaching at the Department’s production-technology oriented institutes cover almost every phase of the product life cycle. Research includes issues such as product planning, design, production planning, manufacturing and assembly, quality management, material flow technology and logistics as well as industrial management and ergonomics.

Product Development and Design - the creative element

Product Development and Design have the goal of examining and developing a theoretical basis for methodical development processes including the respective computing systems (CAD/CAM). Taking traditional design methods as a starting point, researchers use an integrated approach to accompany and systematically manage the entire product development and production process. Complex product development and production tasks are solved in close cooperation with industry. In doing so the focus is on the entire development chain – from environmentally compatible and strategic product planning brainstorming all the way to creating complete three dimensional CAD designs is focused on. Simulations and prototype construction are also part of the process. Other research areas include:

Energy and environment – developing sustainable technology
Material Technology – enabling innovative engineering
Microsystem technology- large impact from small devices
Mechatronics – a symbiosis of two technological worlds
Vehicle and powertrain technology – the motors of a mobile society
Theoretical basics – the foundations of engineering

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Department of Mechanical Engineering