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The Gear Research Center (German: ‚Forschungsstelle für Zahnräder und Getriebebau‘, abbreviated: (FZG)), also known as Institute for Machine elements at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), is a Research institute for Gears and Transmissions. It is part of the Faculty for Mechanical Engineering, located in the Research center in ‘Garching bei München’. Current Director of the institute is Prof. Dr. – ing. Karsten Stahl.

History
The Institute was founded in 1951 by Gustav Niemann, who initiated pioneering research in the areas of Gears and Transmissions development. These areas of research generally remained the most important part of FZG’s work under the new director Hans Winter, who succeeded Niemann in October 1968. After Winter, Bernd-Robert Höhn was appointed director of the institute in October 1989. Under his supervision, the existing research activities were expanded to the areas of Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVT) and self-sufficient Hybrid vehicle drivetrains. In the year of 2011, Karsten Stahl took over from Höhn and is currently in charge of research at the FZG.

The FZG constitutes the competence center for issues regarding mechanical propulsion at the Faculty for Mechanical Engineering at the TUM. In research and development as well as in the Standardization process the FZG plays a significant role nationally and internationally in the area of gears and transmission elements.

The research projects at FZG range from theoretical basic research to practical and application-oriented studies. The projects are financially supported by different organizations. The majority of projects is initiated, financed and supervised by the ‘Forschungsvereinigung Antriebstechnik’ (FVA) often in collaboration with the ‘Arbeitsgemeinschaft industrieller Forschungsvereinigungen’ (AiF). Other partners and supporters of the FZG are the German Research Foundation ((German: ‚Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft‘, abbreviated: DFG), the ‘de:Bayerische Forschungsstiftung’, the DGMK German Society for Petroleum and Coal Science and Technology (German: ‚DGMK Deutsche Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Erdöl, Erdgas und Kohle‘, abbreviated: DGMK), die ‘Forschungsvereinigung Verbrennungskraftmaschinen’ (FVV) and the ‘Stahlforschung’. In addition, application-oriented projects are directly commissioned by clients in the industrial sector.

Every two years the VDI International Conference on Gears, the VDI International Conference on Gear Production as well as the VDI International Conference on High Performance Plastic Gears take place at the FZG.

Research
Core research topics at the FZG include experimental and theoretical investigations on transmission components and propulsion systems.

Components
An essential part of the research work at the FZG examines the components of Transmissions. These include in particular
 * Gears (Spur gear, Bevel gear, Spiral bevel gear and Worm gear),
 * Synchronization,
 * Clutchs and
 * Rolling-element bearing.

Drive Systems / Electromechanical Drives
Research includes investigation of the components but is also focused on the conception, simulation and experimental investigation of different drive systems and their realization in automotive prototypes.

Main Points
The components of Drive Systems / Electromechanical Drives are investigated on basis of the following criteria:
 * Load-Carrying Capacity
 * Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication (EHL- / Tribological Contact)
 * Efficiency
 * Dynamics / NVH
 * Alternative Materials, Composites and Coating
 * Fatigue Life Analysis

Simulation and Computer programs
For many decades, computer programs have been developed at FZG for many research topics. Computer programs allow a comfortable application of the developed methods and research results by the experts in practice. Some exemplary programs are listed below.

Moreover, numerical simulations are conducted using simulation with Finite element method (FEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Within the FVA-external funding the FZG appointed a “Software Manager” who is responsible for the comprehensive supervision of the transmission software. This position ensures the maintenance, future reliability and modularization of existing software as well as the assurance of a future-proof software development strategy. Concerning existing software, the FZG is the principal contact for FVA-member firms in the area of usage of computers in automotive propulsion science. Additionally, there is a strong collaboration between the FZG and FVA GmbH with the goal of further developing the FVA-Workbench. This workbench includes the majority of the FZG – calculation software listed above. Some of the most-used and well-renown programs for gear calculation were and are being developed at the FZG.

Projects und Dissertationen
The 227 dissertations, which were written at the FZG, come from miscellaneous research projects (Stand: 31. Januar 2019).

Participation in projects (excerpt)

 * MUTE


 * Visio.M


 * Speed2E


 * Speed4E


 * Rolls-Royce UltraFan®-Triebwerk


 * HiPerComp


 * Massiver Leichtbau

Publications
Since its foundation in the year of 1951, FZG research was numerously published in different journals, conferences and through the research platform of FZG itself. Most of these publications can be found in scientific data bases like Scopus (312 publications, sate: 2/20/2019).

Weblinks

 * Homepage the FZG