Martin Krech

Conjoint forming - technologies for simultaneous forming and joining

The market demand for new products optimized for e. g. lightweight applications or smart components leads to new challenges in production engineering. Hybrid structures represent one promising approach. They aim at higher product performance by using a suitable combination of different materials. The developments of hybrid structures stimulate the research on joining of dissimilar materials. Since they allow for joining dissimilar materials without external heating technologies based on joining by plastic deformation seem to be of special attractiveness. The paper at hand discusses the conjoint forming approach. This approach combines forming and joining in one process. Two or more workpieces are joined while at least one workpiece is plastically deformed. After presenting the fundamental joining mechanisms, the conjoint forming approach is discussed comprehensively. Examples of conjoint processes demonstrate the effectiveness and reveal the underlying phenomena.

Methodical Approaches to Describe and Evaluate Uncertainty in the Transmission Behavior of a Sensory Rod

Load carrying mechanical structures like trusses face uncertainty in loading along with uncertainty in their strength due to uncertainty in the development, production and usage. The uncertainty in production of function integrated rods is investigated, which allows monitoring of load and condition variations that are present in the product in every phase of its lifetime. Due to fluctuations of the semi-finished parts, uncertainty in governing geometrical, mechanical and electrical properties such as Youngs moduli, lengths and piezoelectric charge constants has to be evaluated. The authors compare the different direct methodical approaches Monte-Carlo simulation, fuzzy and interval arithmetic to describe and to evaluate this uncertainty in the development phase of a simplified, linear mathematical model of a sensory rod in a consistent way. The criterion to compare the methodical approaches for uncertainty analysis is the uncertain mechanical-electrical transmission behavior of the sensory rod, which defines the sensitivity of the sensory compound.