Process Modelling and Mechatronic Design
The research area Process Modelling and Mechatronic Design involves both
computational and experimental simulation of processes. The team of Prof.
Dr. Klaus Zeman deliberately merges the computational and experimental
approaches because this is the best way to model reality.
The focus is on production processes, especially in the metals industry and
recently in plastics production. Market pressure for new products is immense.
New materials need to be lighter but safer and production must be
environmentally friendly. As computational models and experiments
approach reality, the chances of success rise significantly for new products
and materials and their speed of development. Good computational models
that are backed by experiments deliver an important foundation for the
development of the required products. In this way, the influences of
countless parameters that occur in these processes can be explained, which
in turn becomes a continuous source of new processes. The conception and
design of experimental simulators that enable the modelling of processes in
experiments demands utmost mechatronic development skill.
Large systems such as machines and vehicles are so complex nowadays that
they are scarcely comprehensible. Although product development has
immense computing power available, the development of suitable
computational models takes much time due to their complexity. Therefore
the trend in research and development today tends toward frameworks on
which enhanced applications can be built. This brings enormous time and
cost benefits for research and development.
Guided by the key concept of integrated models, Klaus Zeman and his team
are researching a new generation of reduced (simplified) models that enable
building system models in a modular way. This helps to better master the
complexity of systems, which is of huge importance for the design of
processes, machines and production facilities (model-based design) and their
control systems (model-based control). The trick is not to consider every
detail, but to know which details to omit.
The ultimate goal is to design the mechatronization of production facilities -
processes, machines and systems - such that they can be controlled in a way
that the products that they produce always have exactly the required
attributes. This is the prerequisite for ensuring closest tolerances even for
minimum batch size (e.g., 1).
Area Coordinators
Univ.Prof. Dr. Klaus Zeman
Tel.: +43 732 2468-6541
Mail: klaus.zeman(at)accm.co.at
Dr. Peter Hehenberger
Tel.: +43 732 2468-6554
Mail: peter.hehenberger(at)accm.co.at