IMA Award of Excellence for Process
The project consortium of the "Indrutec-E" project was honoured with the "IMA Award of Excellence for Process".
- Name of Proces: Ultra lightweight gearbox cover achieved by a novel design methodology.
Product Using Part or Process: Novel design process applied on a gearbox cover.
Function of Part: Gearbox cover for an electric drive train of a passenger vehicle.
Alloy Used: AS31 due to good corrosion resistance and fatigue properties.
Project consortium:
- DLR-Institut für Fahrzeugkonzepte
- Robert Bosch GmbH
- Oskar Frech CmbH + Co. KG
- Gühring KG
- Hochschule Aalen
- EJOT GmbH & Co. KG
- ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co. KG
DLR and the partners of the Project “Indrutec-E” are convinced that the novel design methodology will offer additional lightweight potential of 15 to 35 % in load bearing applications like housings and covers, compared with topology optimized Magnesium structures designed with today’s common approach. Aim of the methodology is to design parts in a way that more Magnesium material is used to bear loads in a more homogeneous way. This is reached firstly by starting the design process with a step of analyzing all load vectors before designing the first draft of a part shape. Then an outer shape is chosen, which doesn’t orient on the covered parts inside the housing but on the criteria to minimize the development of bending loads and to strive for clean tension and compression load transfer. By better utilizing the given load bearing potential of the material, less material is needed to carry all mechanical loads. Simulations of conventionally designed generic shapes compared with novel designed structures impressively show how stress levels can be lowered by up to 50 % through this step, leading to significant lightweight potentials.
Further information on the Indrutec-E project here.