Production in the Micro Range Germany: The Machine Comes to the Workpiece

A fundamentally new approach in the development of machine tools for micro-production reverses the previously customary principles.

Among the information supplied by the laboratory for production technology at the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg are the results achieved as part of a focus programme for the development of new machine tool types for micro-production.

Eighteen production technology institutes of German universities collaborated in this programme, supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It was coordinated by the laboratory for production technology.

The basic idea of the research programme is to make machine tools so small, light and flexible that they can be modified and reconfigured for changed requirements in the shortest of times. In this scheme, the machines are brought up to the workpiece in question – no longer the other way round, as previously customary. As a result, several machines can work simultaneously on one workpiece.

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