Bachelor Thesis: Investigation and modeling of clamping forces during turning

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft ( is one of the world’s leading organizations for application-oriented research. 75 institutes develop pioneering technologies for our economy and society — more precisely: 32 000 people from technology, science, administration and IT.

At the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen, we are creating the production of the future with more than 450 employees – digital, sustainable and resilient. In the High-Performance Cutting department, we develop technologies and application-oriented solutions for cutting along the entire process chain – from process design and process simulation to real-time data acquisition during production, consulting, and prototype manufacturing.

You investigate how centrifugal forces affect the clamping forces during operation on our turning machines. You derive models from your data obtained in experiments, through theoretical calculations and from FEM-simulations. Using these models, we can help our industry partners to minimize clamping forces which improves the production process.

Be part of Change

• Theoretical calculations of the effect of centrifugal forces on the clamping
• Simulate clamping conditions using the Finite Element Method (FEM) with Ansys mechanical
• Planning and execution of experiments to determine clamping forces during operation

What you contribute

• You are studying mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, physics or a comparable subject
• A solid understanding of solid mechanics, machining and measurement techniques
• Initial experience in using commercial FEM solvers (e.g. Ansys Mechanical, Abaqus)
• You can write basic scripts in Python, Matlab or a similar language
• Good language skills in English are required, German proficiency is a plus but not required

What we offer

• Professional supervision and collaboration in a dedicated team
• You become part of the team from the very beginning, can contribute your ideas and take on tasks on your own responsibility
• A state-of-the-art machine park equipped with extensive measurement systems

Interested? Apply online now. We look forward to getting to know you!

For any further information on this position please contact:
Dr. Billy-Joe Bobach
Research Assistant »High Performance Cutting«
Phone: