FAG Foundation honors young scientists

The Schaeffler FAG Foundation has presented its 2016 Innovation Award to four young scientists to honor the outstanding results they achieved in their doctoral, master, and diploma theses. This award represents the Foundation’s recognition of both the scientists’ strong commitment and of their innovative work, with which they have succeeded in setting new standards. Since it was started in 1983, the Schaeffler FAG Foundation has supported science, research, and teaching at universities and colleges working in the fields of natural science and technology, and to date has awarded more than one million euros in subsidies.

Dietmar Heinrich, Regional CEO for Europe at Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG, Dr. Josef Scheller, manager of Schaeffler’s Schweinfurt plant, and Klaus Widmaier, Chairman of the Foundation’s governing board, presented the awards for 2016 during a ceremony in Schweinfurt: Dr.-Ing. Thorben Schiemann received the first prize of 8,000 euros for his doctoral thesis “Fold formation mechanisms during the collaring of hollow extruded parts”. The second prize of 4,000 euros in the doctoral thesis category went to Dr.-Ing. Benjámin Radnai for his dissertation on “Mechanisms of action in energized rolling bearings”.

The Schaeffler FAG Foundation also awarded two prizes for outstanding master and diploma theses, with the 6,000 euro first prize going to M.Sc. Stephan Hahn for his masters thesis “Possible applications for additive manufacturing methods in spindle bearing production”. The second prize of 3,000 euros was awarded to Dipl.-Ing. Daniel Ziegler, whose diploma thesis tackled an “Analysis of damage mechanisms in rolling bearing cages in dual mass flywheel applications”.

In his opening speech, Klaus Widmaier highlighted the objectives of the Schaeffler FAG Foundation: “The Foundation is a driver for knowledge, knowledge transfer and the development of potential. It is also an expression of the entrepreneurial and social responsibility that we will continue to exemplify in the future”, explained Widmaier. He went on to report that 2016 had again seen a large number of very high quality theses submitted, which emphasized the prestigious status of the Foundation and its awards. In addition to its scientific focus, Widmaier also spoke of the work done by the Foundation in promoting education, using cross-disciplinary projects in schools to generate enthusiasm for technology and technical professions among young people early in their lives. The award ceremony will take place on March 21, 2017 at Schaeffler’s training workshop in Schweinfurt.

During his speech at the ceremony, Dietmar Heinrich highlighted Schaeffler’s outstanding power of innovation, the main driving force of which is the work and commitment of its employees. “As part of its “Mobility for tomorrow” strategy, Schaeffler will meet the challenges of the future and play an active role in shaping them in innovative ways”, said Heinrich. He illustrated this point with examples of urban mobility concepts and projects that Schaeffler presented at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. At the 2017 Hannover Messe, solutions for Industry 4.0 will be the center of attention. In the future, electromechanical actuators (as employed in the Active Roll Control System, for example) and rolling bearings equipped with sensors will work as smart components and supply data for the Internet of Things.


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