Fritz Studer AG awarded the 2011 Fritz Studer Award to Dr. Josef Mayr from the ETH Zurich, Institute for machine tool and manufacturing for his work on determining and compensating for temperature sensitivity of machine tools. The prize was awarded at the AMB exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany on September 18.
During his dissertation, Dr. Mayr developed the Finite Difference Element Method (FDEM), a combination of the Finite Difference Method (FDM) and the Finite Element Method (FEM) that enables efficient calculation and evaluation of thermal effects on machine tools. The company reports one notable feature of this method is the possibility of evaluating shifts at the tool control point (TCP) with reduced, small models. This capability would make FDEM suitable for calculating compensation values.
Fritz Studer AG, a Thun, Switzerland-based manufacturer of cylindrical grinding machines, is represented in the United States by United Grinding Technologies (Miamisburg, Ohio). The company’s research prize is aimed at scholars and graduates from European universities, technical institutes and technical colleges working on projects that both increase innovation in the machine industry and would be feasible to implement.
