News

Developing user-centered products requires a careful balance between usability and emotional design. While usability ensures efficiency and intuitive handling, emotional design shapes user perception and acceptance. But what factors influence this interaction? A recent systematic literature review i...

Dr. Christian Witzgall was appointed by Prof. Sandro Wartzack as a senior engineer and head of the lightweight construction research group at the KTmfk - Chair of Design Engineering at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg on 1 February 2025. He brings many years of experience in the simulation and experimental te...

Our new annual report is out and offers an exciting journey through 2024. This year has been particularly special for the Chair of Engineering Design (KTmfk) as we celebrated 40 years of innovation and growth. The research report provides exclusive insights into our current projects and key highl...

The ability to perform coordinated movements is a central factor in people's everyday lives. However, various events, such as trauma, strokes, etc., can damage the nerve structures and thus cause motor disorders. The lower leg muscles are frequently affected, resulting in a pathophysiological moveme...

In the context of digitalised product development, modern concepts such as Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), Digital Twin and Digital Engineering appear. However, it is often unclear how these concepts are linked and what role they play in holistic digital engineering. In an interview between ...

Researchers from the Institute of Engineering Design (KTmfk) have published a novel method for improving infill structures in additive manufacturing in the journal Materials. The article, entitled A New Slicer-Based Method to Generate Infill Inspired by Sandwich-Patterns for Reduced Material Consump...

On December 1st, a familiar face, Dr.-Ing. Benedict Rothammer, was appointed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sandro Wartzack as Senior Engineer and Manager of the “Machine Elements and Tribology” research team. As a long-standing team member at the KTmfk, he contributes valuable insights, particularly from but no...

The use of components made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) is steadily increasing. With these higher quantities, variation management during product development is becoming increasingly important. In this study, artificial fiber misalignment has been introduced into the outer plies of tens...

The Chair of Engineering Design congratulates Mr. Fabian Wilking on successfully passing the doctoral examination to become a Dr.-Ing. on 14.11.2024, which he completed with distinction. Mr. Wilking presented the contents of his dissertation entitled “Assistance system for the utilization of system ...

The Chair of Design Engineering congratulates Mr. Christian Witzgall on successfully passing the doctoral examination for Dr.-Ing. on 25.10.2024, which he completed with distinction. Mr. Witzgall presented the contents of his dissertation entitled "Consideration of previous fatigue damage in the cra...

The KTmfk welcomes Prof Régis Kovacs Scalice as a visiting professor at the Chair. Mr Scalice is a professor at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Joinville, Brazil. He conducts research in the fields of model-based systems engineering and IoT for product-service systems and is the author...

Following the invitation of Prof. Göbel, Head of the Chair for Virtual Product Development, the WiGeP Assistants Meeting took place in Kaiserslautern on October 17–18, 2024. Researches from across Germany, including Jessica Pickel from the Chair of Engineering Design (KTmfk), gathered to discuss cur...

The Stanford List, published annually by the Elsevier publishing house, presents the names and ranking of the 2% most cited scientists. In the current year, Prof. Sandro Wartzack (H-index according to Scopus.com of 34/555 publications) is gratified to be included in this select group with an improve...

Lightweight design is particularly important in the aviation industry. Therefore, the exploration of new lightweight potential is being strongly promoted in this sector. Potentials arise, for example, from the use of lightweight materials and the optimal structural-mechanical design of parts. This ...

The exciting field of tolerance management research has been a focus of the Institute of Engineering Design for many years, therefore we have taken this opportunity to consolidate the current state of knowledge in a single book. Under the title "Research in Tolerancing", this book unites the results...

This year's DfX Symposium took place from 12.-13.09.24 in Bamberg. In addition to organizing the event, the KTmfk also contributed various presentations and posters. The topics covered included multi-material topology optimization, the optimization of adaptation designs, the simulation-based design ...

The triennial conference of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) took place this year on the beautiful island of Jeju, South Korea. The conference, with a total of over 1,200 papers and 2,000 participants from research and industry, covered all topics relating to ergonomics. In two contrib...

Efficiency in product development is becoming increasingly important due to growing market requirements. The focus is often on developing products according to the "first-time-right" principle, thus reducing the number of iterations. This results in high costs, especially in late development stages....

Gwen Spelly joined the user-centred design research group as a research assistant at the beginning of September. Previously, she studied medical engineering, specializing in medical device engineering and prosthetics, at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. As a student assistant and d...

System models are used in the context of model-based systems engineering (MBSE) in order to improve communication and are essential for system documentation. However, scientific approaches in recent years show that the further utilization of these system models is of interest, for example in the for...

This year's NordDesign conference took place in Reykjavik, Iceland, from 12th to 14th August 2024. We contributed to the well-organised conference with several presentations. They covered our current research on the utilization of system models in the context of digital twins, plausibility check of ...

At this year's NordDesign conference, the paper "Investigating Modeling in Early Robust Design - A Study With the Modeling Method of Embodiment Function Relation and Tolerance Model" was selected as one of the ten best papers of the conference and thus received the Reviewer's Favorite Award. The pap...

Jan Kopatsch joined the Tolerance Management research group as a research assistant at the beginning of July. He previously studied mechanical engineering at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. He also wrote his project and master's thesis on the topics of metamodel-based optimization...

Mr. Marc Gadinger, a graduate of the Mechanical Engineering program, received the Master’s Award from the Diehl foundation for achieving the highest final grade in his class. His master’s thesis, titled "Adaptive Design of Experiments for Cyclic Characterization of Fibre-Reinforced Plastics," was su...

The seventh "Young Tribological Researcher Symposium", organized by the Young Tribologists Working Group of the „Gesellschaft für Tribologie”, was held on July 22 and 23 at the KTmfk. The two days were filled with diverse and informative presentations on current experimental and numerical research i...

Following numerous successful projects, the KTmfk and the Institute for Machine Components and Methods of Development at TU Graz met in Graz for a joint strategy meeting «Vision MBSE 2050», led by Prof. Dr. Hannes Hick and Prof. Dr. Sandro Wartzack. Topics included the future of model-based systems ...

This year's Bearing World Conference took place on June 25-26 in Würzburg, Germany. This time the KTmfk was represented by Mrs. Feile, Mr. Halmos, Dr. Bartz and Prof. Wartzack. In addition to a showcase, where current research work of the KTmfk in the field of rolling bearing technology was presente...

Digital transformation is pervasive in our daily lives, evident in new technologies like smart devices or AI chatbots. This digitalization extends to product development to enhance product quality and reduce development time and costs. However, design data is diverse and phase-dependent. This paper ...

Our former PhD student Tim Weikert was honored on 25.07.24 with the Innovation Award of the Schaeffler FAG Foundation for his doctoral thesis entitled "Modifications of amorphous carbon coatings to adapt friction conditions and increase wear protection", which he wrote at the KTmfk - Chair of Design...