MAIT goes academic

The hydrogen-based and virtually emission-free fuel cell is considered to be one of the pioneering technologies for generating energy in vehicles. And that’s why researchers from Chemnitz are currently working alongside SMEs from the region on the next steps in developing fuel cell cars. For this, they need not only excellent scientific expertise, but also particularly powerful software for 3D design and ensuring streamlined collaboration between the different disciplines. MAIT gives the Saxony-based mechanical engineers both—in the form of Siemens NX and Siemens Teamcenter.

In the "HZwo:FRAME" research project family from HZwo e.V., everything has revolved around the fuel cell for years. And like almost any big research project, this one too consists of several sub-projects. One of these is "InTherm" from the research institute Institut Chemnitzer Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V. (ICM), led by Jens Heinrich, an experienced graduate engineer and head of mobility at ICM. Together with several project partners, Heinrich's team at ICM aims to optimize distribution and use of the thermal energy generated by the fuel cell in the vehicle to make driving more energy-efficient and more comfortable and to reduce costs.

Jens Heinrich's plans go even further: "We want to do more than merely promote and simplify the use of fuel cells. Through interdisciplinary cooperation, we want to give small and midsize companies in the automotive state of Saxony the opportunity to be part of the value chain of this technology in the future with their concepts," the InTherm project manager explains. Heinrich even believes that mass production is possible in the future, or that the project initiative might evolve into an automotive supplier or at some point lead to their own fuel cell car-sharing fleet rolling through the streets of Chemnitz—at the very least.

It doesn’t take a technical expert to appreciate that a sophisticated research and quasi-economic development project such as HZwo:FRAME demands many different technical prerequisites, specialized partners, and precise planning. And this is the very reason why the project group has relied on Siemens and MAIT as partners from the outset. In their design projects, Jens Heinrich and his team primarily use the reliable CAD and CAM solutions from the Siemens NX product family as well as Siemens Teamcenter, the central source of information for product and process knowledge.

Siemens NX creates new design opportunities

Jens Heinrich is also convinced of the advantages of Siemens software. And not just since joining ICM. He was already familiar with Siemens NX—and MAIT—as a student at the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg. "Siemens NX has the most tools for design and is extremely user-friendly," he says. "If I can't get any further with one tool, I just use another one. The range of features is remarkable." That's why, at Heinrich's request, the software was also used in the ICM research project on fuel cells right from the start. It allows the product developers to easily design the outer shell of the vehicle, the entire interior, and, of course, all the necessary technical subsystems of the vehicle on screen, and to adapt them as required. The result is a hyper-realistic 3D model of the entire platform. The so-called "large assembly", in which all components are shown down to the smallest detail, can be called up with Siemens NX within just one minute. A milestone when you consider that other programs still take up to half an hour to complete the same task.

No limits to collaboration with Siemens Teamcenter

True to Jens Heinrich's ambition to get companies in Saxony involved in conducting research into vehicle concepts, nine other partners are participating in the HZwo:Frame InTherm project alongside MAIT. They contribute not only a great deal of expertise to the platform, but also the necessary components and assemblies. And it is in this constellation that Siemens Teamcenter really comes into its own: The partners can share all data on geometry and structures as well as on product development, manufacturing, and maintenance in this server-based solution—with seamless integration into existing IT systems. "In the academic world in particular, collaborative systems play a key role. Projects often involve numerous partners from research and industry, and the better and smoother they can work together, the more likely the project is to be successful in the long term," MAIT’s Jörg Freudenberg points out. "And this often particularly complex type of collaboration works best in the Siemens cosmos, which we open up to research institutes and their partners," he adds.