Engineering

Product and application development

We support companies along the entire value chain in developing and implementing competitive lightweight technologies. With our broad range of material and production technologies, we provide a comprehensive solution for the development and evaluation of products and identify the most suitable paths to implementation.

• We develop composite-based multi-material components and related production concepts (systems and processes).
• We evaluate the concepts, especially considering costs and production relevant KPIs.
• We support you during the implementation until marketability by integrating relevant partners from our industry network.

Take a look at a few exemplary topics we can support you with: 

EV Battery Casing Consultancy

Product Cost Benchmarking

Virtual Process & Part Design for Thermoplastic Composites

Lightweight Design for Profitability and Sustainability

Meet the AZL senior engineers for composite and lightweight engineering:

Philipp Fröhlig | Head of Industrial Services Phone: +49 241 475735-14 Mail: philipp.froehlig@azl-aachen-gmbh.de

Expertise/ background in:

• Production and development of composite parts
• Materials: thermoset and thermoplastic resins, continuous fiber composites, metals and plastic-metal hybrids
• Process: prepreg, autoclave, resin infusion, RTM, milling, tooling, joining, quality assurance
• Design: CAD design and design to process
• Networking: Matchmaking with academic and industrial partners

I will support you in:

• Process selection, evaluation and implementation
• Evaluation and benchmarking of solutions
• Identification of applications
• Benchmarking with market companions state of the art solutions
• Identification and elimination of pain points
• Connect with the right partners for industrial implementation

Warden Schijve | Design Leader Phone: +49 241 475735-17 Mail: warden.schijve@azl-aachen-gmbh.de

Expertise/ background in:

• Materials: short, long, and continuous fiber composites, metal-plastic hybrids; material testing
• Process: injection molding, overmolding, compression molding, draping, impregnation, laminating, joining.
• Design: Optimizing design to minimum weight, taking into account fiber orientations and potential process influences. Warpage prediction. Testing and verification.
• Cost: Design to minimum cost and value of weight saving, cost of composite processes.

I will support you in:

• Generating and evaluating alternative concepts designs and production routes to find the best competitive options for you. And in case you don’t know them, I’ll also find the most relevant requirements and design drivers for you in new application fields.

• Optimizing your designs to minimum weight, while maintaining easy producibility and minimize risk.

• Material testing or process evaluations to make sure that you get the best result at minimum effort.

Ravi Bhairi | Development Engineer Phone: +49 241 475735-15 Mail: ravichaitanya.bhairi@azl-aachen-gmbh.de

Expertise/ background in:

• Mechanical CAE simulations: Abaqus, Hyperworks, static and dynamic simulations
• CAD design: Solidworks, 3D designs
• Composite, metal, and process simulations

I will support you in:

• Finding new design options and the lowest weight solutions for your current or new applications.
• Helping to understand whether your solutions or materials will fail under what load cases, and what can be done to solve any issues.
• Identifying potential applications for your materials

Fabian Becker | Senior Design Engineer Phone: +49 241 475735-22 Mail: fabian.becker@azl-aachen-gmbh.de

Expertise/ background in:

• Modeling of FRP material behavior under static and fatigue loadings
• Experimental determination of flexural fatigue in FRP
• Verification and development of novel testing methods based on Rainflow counting and nonlinear damage accumulation hypotheses

I will support you in:

• Stress analysis and optimization of lightweight parts with FEA in Optistruct, RADIOSS, and Abaqus Standard/Explicit
• Identification of possible failure locations of parts under quasi-static, fatigue loading and impact loading
• Validation of the mechanical performance of different part designs
• Parametrized FEA model definition
• Analysis and post processing of testing data
• Injection moulding and draping simulation for feasible manufacturing solutions

Our core competencies

Across all industries, we take responsibility for the design, development and implementation of all the specific aspects and holistic solutions for lightweight large-scale production. We offer you our expertise and comprehensive services, from material selection and material development to component requirements and design, and from tooling and machine development to integrated production systems and quality assurance.

Our connection with RWTH Aachen means our expertise has a rich tradition and enjoys an international reputation, especially in the development of mechanical engineering and production technology. Our specialists have highly detailed knowledge of all areas of lightweight production while retaining a useful overview of new materials, applications and markets thanks to the excellent networking with other disciplines on site.

Our approach is holistic and integrated. We not only consider individual aspects of material and product development, but also take into account all possible factors, influences and interactions along the entire production chain in order to achieve the ideal result for you – one that is cost-optimal, efficient and fast.

We work with you and for you to develop, design and optimise:

Send us your specific inquiry and we will be happy to find an individual solution for you.