In addition to the IKK, represented by Niklas Rode and Felix Mehrens, two other researchers from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Leibniz University Hannover, Michael Wulf and Frederik Wiesener from the Institute of Production and Machine Tools (IFW), took part in CIRP ICME '25. In interesting presentations, they showed their latest results in the field of simulative prediction of wear and friction effects and the optimisation of process understanding in the tool grinding process.
The presentation of the results from the ‘TurbuStruk’ research project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), contributed to the topic of sustainable production processes. Together with the IFW, Felix Mehrens investigated the influence of surface structures in temperature control channels of injection moulding tools on the cooling time. The approach: The cooling channel walls are structured in such a way that turbulent flows can be generated in a targeted manner, which have improved heat transfer performance compared to laminar flow. This reduces cooling and cycle times, which directly leads to increased productivity, cost-effectiveness and improved energy efficiency of the plastic components produced.
In his thesis, Niklas Rode investigated the influence of various catalysts (metallocene and Ziegler-Natta) in polypropylene production on the physical and chemical properties after repeated mechanical recycling, taking into account thermo-oxidative ageing. His investigations showed that the ageing process in combination with repeated recycling attempts significantly alters the structure and mechanical properties of the materials, with a significant impact on the molecular weight distribution. At the same time, however, the influence of the two catalyst systems, which differ mainly in the width of the polymer chain distribution, decreases with the increasing number of recycling loops.
In addition to the exchange of technical information, the three-day conference focused in particular on networking. Inspiring insights into other research work and approaches, valuable feedback on the participants' own project results and new contacts for potential interdisciplinary collaborations made the conference particularly beneficial. ‘Through the exchange with scientists from a wide range of production-related disciplines, I have gained valuable approaches, methods and ideas that are extremely valuable for my own research work,’ Mehrens sums up.
