Permit of the LOEWE-priority program ALLEGRO and the LOEWE 3 program WarmAp

In the course of this, a project of the funding line 3 was also approved, which is intended to ensure the industrial testing and implementation of the results from ALLEGRO by means of three dual doctorates.

Under the coordination of the Institute for Separating and Joining Production Techniques (Prof. Dr.-Ing Stefan Böhm) at the University of Kassel, Hessian Minister of Science and Art Boris Rhein has given the preliminary starting signal at the beginning of July for a project to expand the possibilities for aluminum as a lightweight construction material. Compared to steel components, aluminum alloy components are up to three times lighter with the same volume. However, due to the lower load-bearing capacity of the material, this advantage cannot be fully exploited, especially in the case of structure-critical components. However, the key to exploiting the light weight of aluminum is to increase the geometric and microstructural complexity of products, which is not possible at the present time. The goal of the LOEWE-priority program ALLEGRO involves the design of new technologies for efficient processes of shaping and heat treatment of aluminum wrought alloys based on transferable, quantitative descriptions of relevant interrelationships as well as fast technology development by the combination of technology components. In addition to two other institutes of the University of Kassel and the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF in Darmstadt, the Institute of Materials Science (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Oechsner) and the Institute for Production Technology and Forming Machines (PtU) of the TU Darmstadt are involved. The state of Hesse funds ALLEGRO over 4 years with 4,680,656 €. The start is 01.01.2018.

Regarding the part of the PtU, the project will investigate sustainable and energy efficient hot roll forming of aluminum alloys. Here, the focus is also on the increase in microstructural complexity with regard to load-optimized property gradients.

The Hessenagentur-project WarmAp is part of the LOEWE-funding-line 3, which was also granted at the beginning of July. WarmAp's goal is to implement and test the technology modules developed in ALLEGRO in an industrial environment in the medium term. Multidisciplinary cooperation is going to benefit substantially from the promotion and model testing of three dual doctorates. Graduates in this cooperation form receive half a post in the participating companies and another half at the TU Darmstadt. Through the direct cooperation between industry and research in production science, significant synergies can be expected and strengthened. The parties involved are Filzek Tribotech (Mühltal), Werner Schmid GmbH (Fulda) and Hörmann Automotive Gustavsburg GmbH (Ginsheim-Gustavsburg).

You will find more information about the projects (coming soon) at:

• Pressemitteilung Konsortium
• Pressemitteilung Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst
• Pressemitteilung Hessen Agentur