Bühler Motor Mechatronic Award 2016 presented

Johannes Christian Seefried, M.Sc., receives award for outstanding master's thesis

Nuremberg, 08. February 2017 - "Identification of suitable clamping conditions for the process of ultrasound crimping, and derivation and validation of a suitable clamping device": This was the title of the thesis with which Johannes Christian Seefried impressed the jury of the Bühler Motor Mechatronic Award.

The focus of the excellent work is a newly developed process of ultrasonic crimping. A novel and energy-efficient production process with a high tool life as well as good process monitoring options for the production of electrical drives. This relatively new method for bonding contact parts with electric conductors gives a process energy saving of around 95% compared with the widely used hot crimping method.

Through systematic tests, Johannes Christian Seefried succeeded in determining how the clamping conditions affect the achievable connection quality. In his further work, he developed a new clamping device that dramatically increases the process reliability of ultrasound crimping.

A further series of tests was carried out to evaluate the optimized clamping device. The tests showed a clear improvement over the old clamping device, as far as manageability, in particular was concerned. The result: the time needed for fixing a sample is reduced by around 75%. Wire shifting, a problem that occurs if the parameters are set incorrectly or if the stranded wire clamping is insufficient, is also reduced by the new device. In addition, the standard deviation is decreased for both the mechanical and the electrical connection quality, which further increases the process reliability of the method. Longer tool lives help to cut tool and setup costs.

"The device developed and perfected by Johannes Christian Seefried increases the quality of the connections achievable with ultrasound crimping quite considerably. Defining the individual influencing factors also allows systematic monitoring and thus improves the process reliability of this energy-efficient method even further", said Mounir Kudsi, Vice President Research & Development at Bühler Motor GmbH, in his presentation speech at the award ceremony.

"The dissertation submitted by Mr. Seefried is characterized by absolute stringency and thoroughness. The results of his work can be transferred directly into everyday operating practice and show that optimizing new process technologies can make a major contribution to optimizing processes and resources in production", commented Mounir Kudsi.

The jury was made up of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Gerling from the Department for Electrical Drive Technology and Actuator Technology at the University of the Federal Armed Forces, Munich, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Franke from the Department for Manufacturing Automation and Production Systems at the Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, PD Dr.-Ing. habil. Andreas Möckel from the Department of Small Machines at the Technical University, Ilmenau, Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Mounir Kudsi, Vice President Research & Development at Bu?hler Motor GmbH and Dipl.-Kfm. Peter Muhr, President & CEO of Bu?hler Motor GmbH.

Entries for the Bühler Motor Mechatronic Award were once again invited by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Gerling, Prof. Dr.-Ing.Jörg Franke and PD Dr.-Ing. habil. Andreas Möckel in collaboration with Bühler Motor GmbH. The aim of the award is to honor and encourage outstanding achievements in first degree, master's and doctoral theses.

The Award was presented on 1 December 2016 as part of the E|DPC (6th International Electric Drives Production Conference and Exhibition in Nuremberg). The prize is worth €5,000. The Bühler Motor Mechatronic Award will be awarded again in the year 2017.