Aachen Research to Ensure German Competitiveness
The RWTH magazine on the "Production Engineering" profile area has been published.
Funded by the Excellence Initiative, RWTH Aachen established the Production Engineering Profile Area with the objective of increasing the field's competitiveness. In an initial environment analysis five relevant future markets were identified and selected as key topics of the profile area. These address not only complex production engineering problems but are also significant for social change. In the research magazine RWTH Themen the profile area offers an overview of its activities.
Mobility is an important function block of our society and improved concepts ensure mobility for tomorrow. The development and implementation of mobility must orient themselves towards changed social, economic, and ecological framework conditions. From the production engineering perspective, this means researching solutions for manufacturing the necessary components. The focus of research is thus on working with new lightweight and high performance materials, the qualification and optimization of manufacturing technologies, the design of holistic process chains, and the development of new business models. The first measure initiated in this topic area was the "Turbomachinery" project house in 2015.
The project house "Production for the Construction of Tomorrow" will be expanded to become an innovative place for construction in Aachen. Interdisciplinary research aims to increase energy and material efficiency in construction, whereby an important contribution will be made to the social challenges of climate protection and resource conservation.
The Innovative Concept of Vertical Farming
The production of plant and animal products in skyscrapers in an urban environment is the focus of the future concept vertical farming. In the topic area "Medical Technology, Biotechnology, and Nutrition" new research activities in this field are bundled together. The objective is to develop innovative, affordable, and scalable production units for the automatic, efficient, and safe production of biopharmaceuticals and foodstuffs. Furthermore, the development and scaling of cell- and plantbased processes are also at the focus of this interdisciplinary research field.
New Urban Planning Solutions
Increasing urbanization is requiring new urban planning, architectural, and infrastructural solutions for life and work in overcrowded areas. Living and production must occur simultaneously side by side in urban spaces. This requires modern architectural concepts, characterized by a high level of flexibility and structural expandability. They simultaneously integrate energetic, logistic, and transport aspects into building structures. The minimization of emissions and the creation of a zero-energy balance are also important.
An improvement in the efficiency of conventional and regernative energy generation is often hindered by missing economic feasibility in production. Particularly the high variability of product characteristics in small batch sizes and the use of innovative material systems that are not easily workable, make the automatic production of components difficult. The "Production Engineering" profile area aims to develop holisitic solutions to design and optimize process chains and manufacturing technologies for the economic creation of energy technology systems.
Please Note
The RWTH Themen magazine on Production Engineering can be requested free of charge by calling +49 241 8094322.