At the end of September, Prof. Groche and our research associates Stefan Volz and Jonas Launhardt participated in the 57th Plenary Meeting of the International Cold Forging Group (ICFG) in Busan, South Korea. The ICFG is a global association of leading companies and universities in the field of cold forging. Prof. Groche heads the “Lubrication” subgroup there and in this role moderated a subgroup meeting in which joint research projects on tribology in multi-stage processes were discussed.

A highlight of the event was the awarding of the ICFG's Best Paper Prize 2024 to our colleague Stefan Volz. In his awarded paper, “Advanced friction modelling for cold forging using machine learning”, Mr. Volz presents an innovative method for friction modelling using machine learning. With the help of time series analyses, he succeeds in significantly reducing the number of tribometer tests required for ML algorithms and thus making data acquisition more efficient. Stefan Volz was also recognised for his outstanding contributions to the ICFG over the past three years. During this time, as part of the “Lubrication” subgroup, he organised an international research group with companies and universities from China, Denmark, France, Japan and Germany. The research results of this group have been published in various publications, including the renowned CIRP Annals and at the ICFG.

We warmly congratulate Mr. Volz on this recognition and look forward to further advancing research into cold forging together!