Projects

Inspired by a new research approach by Mühenad Bilal and Christian Mayer, the project group has developed a concept for the optical identification of constructive component and surface defects of highly complex optically critical tools via intelligent lighting. The solution approaches have enabled the project group members to achieve better images with significantly less noise and image distortion of drills and milling cutters, so that damages can now be detected and characterized more precisely. With the images we can even measure cutting angles with an accuracy of 1%.

The aim of the project was to design means of transport for people with disabilities, among other things for faster evacuation in emergency situations. These can be used in situations for which wheelchairs are unsuitable. In addition to the medically correct positioning of the person in the means of transport, it was particularly important that the "transporter" can be easily manufactured, repaired and used in many different ways. For this purpose, it must be able to move in a controlled manner even on difficult surfaces and be able to be folded up to save space, e.g. so that the person can be taken along by a shared cab. Among other things, the students designed concepts for means of transport in which the person hangs stably in a fabric full-body belt that can be securely fastened to a transportable frame with spring-loaded carabiners. The advantage: impacts that can easily occur during transport are not transmitted to the body of the person, who typically reacts very sensitively to stress. Another concept allows the person to be pulled, which is a great advantage especially in rough terrain. The Shonaquip Charity Foundation, which is now examining the concepts for possible implementation, has already offered the students internships in South Africa where they can realize their concepts.

In times of shorter innovation cycles and massively changing global conditions, small and medium-sized companies will lose touch with global market requirements without continuous development of new products and processes. Large companies position themselves globally and follow the markets - small companies usually cannot take this step and are bound to their location in Germany. Why not turn this supposed disadvantage into an advantage? The question is: How can small and medium-sized companies, especially in the New Mobility sector (NACs, NEVs etc.) bundle their strengths and position themselves successfully? The goal of the project was to design an innovation, product and marketing platform, to identify what is technically feasible and commercially reasonable, to develop a business model for the platform and to create an initial implementation plan and prototypes. Focus and "showcase" was the application area of "Smart Urban Logistic" with its vehicles and systems. Project partner from the industry was the company vRbikes from Switzerland. The goal was to develop a solution for a "White Label Urban Delivery".

Small, flexible and electric: That was the premise for developing a miniature electric vehicle for short-distance inner-city travel. In the summer semester of 2020, eleven students from the faculties of Industrial Engineering and Management and Mechanical Engineering worked on this task across all courses of study. Since the number of users of small electric vehicles for short-distance traffic, such as e-scooters and e-bikes, is currently growing rapidly, the project group is faced with the question of which product is suitable for the so-called last mile and how its market acceptance is. Therefore the students conducted a market analysis and identified three different target groups. This resulted in the final objective of the project: construction of a low-cost e-longboard and preparation of an associated business plan. Each of the students - supervised by the lecturers Dr. Martin Bornschlegl and Dr. Dennis Böhmländer - worked on their own topic area in order to achieve the project goal: The development mainly included the construction, simulation and rendering of the miniature vehicle as well as the dimensioning and networking of the powertrain. These work packages were processed simultaneously and agilely in small work teams. In addition to the classic development activities, the students learned project management tasks such as time and resource management as well as the creation of a business plan adapted to the E-Longboard.

Special challenge: Due to COVID-19 the project took place completely virtual for the first time. For this reason the originally planned subproject "building a prototype" could not be realized and was replaced by simulation and rendering. Thanks to the support of the THI and the willingness of the students to use the new situation in the best possible way, the project could be finished successfully.

Competitive production in Germany demands a high level of ergonomics and productivity, especially in manual work steps. In addition, compliance with a large number of laws must be ensured.  The aim of the project was to develop an economically and technically feasible concept for the redesign of the lamp packaging. In consideration of the main objectives (reduction of personnel deployment, technical and economic implementation, application of lean and ergonomic principles), the project group under the leadership of Mr. Andreas Böhm developed a new concept for a future-oriented logistics system within production. In a first step, different layout alternatives were worked out and the corresponding investment and personnel costs were estimated. Afterwards the favored variant with layout, required inventory and corresponding orderable offers were elaborated in detail. The final report was then made available to the company.