In the posts for February and March, we would like to introduce you to each of the MirrorLabs partners. MirrorLabs currently consists of seven research institutions distributed over Europe which is shown in the figure below. Today's post will introduce the TU Braunschweig which is located in Germany.
The Technische Universtität Braunschweig goes back to the Collegium Carolinum, which was founded in 1745 and thus has the longest tradition among the technical universities in Germany. In 2020 there are about 20,0000 students enrolled and 3700 employees, including 2200 research assistants. As a member of the TU9, it is one of the leading technical universities in Germany.
Die Lernfabrik
Die Lernfabrik (the learning factory) is a learning-, experiencing-, and research-infrastructure of the Technische Universität Braunschweig under the supervision of the Chair of Sustainable Production and Life Cycle Engineering. It aims to support manufacturing companies in constant change due to digitalization and the pressure of global markets towards sustainable production, to gain scientific knowledge in realistic environments, and to provide students with the opportunity to enrich their theoretical knowledge with practical experience. Since spring 2012, Die Lernfabrik has successfully established itself as a platform for this. Die Lernfabrik consists of three pillars: The Research Lab focuses on the dissemination of research results and the continuous derivation of new research questions. On an area of more than 800 m² test field, the Research Lab uses an industry-oriented infrastructure for testing prototypes in real environments. Thus, tests can be carried out on machine and plant level, but also investigations on factory level, including the entire technical building equipment. The research lab, the experimental factory, and the education lab. In each pillar, the focus is more on research or teaching. What all pillars have in common, however, is their thematic orientation. Die Lernfabrik addresses the main topics of the Chair of Sustainable Production and Life Cycle Engineering in a cross-disciplinary way: Energy and Resource Efficiency, Digitization, and Urban Factories.
The Research Lab
The Research Lab focuses on the dissemination of research results and the continuous derivation of new research questions. On an area of more than 800 m² test field, the Research Lab uses an industry-oriented infrastructure for testing prototypes in real environments. Thus, tests can be carried out on machine and plant level, but also investigations on factory level, including the entire technical building equipment.
The Experience Lab
In the Experience Lab, the focus is on transferring the methods and tools researched in the key areas to the teaching of engineering students as well as to the further education of specialists. For this purpose, a factory within the factory was built. The model factory consists of a real-world, modular production process chain of autonomous logistics systems and its own technical building equipment. Students can define their research objectives in guided workshops or in free projects and conduct experiments to test and consolidate their theoretically acquired knowledge in practice.
The Education Lab
The Education Lab is a central facility of the Technische Universität Braunschweig and provides technical and commercial apprenticeship. The trainees learn the basics of metalworking as well as electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic circuit design in an energetically renovated and technologically newly equipped workshop.
People
