The Schaeffler FAG Foundation honored six young scientists with the Innovation Award 2021

Outstanding work in the field of storage technology awarded

Sustainability aspects come into focus

Foundation has been promoting science, research and teaching in the field of storage technology for over 35 years

The Schaeffler FAG Foundation honored six young scientists with the Innovation Award 2021. Your doctoral and master's theses related to storage technology had previously been selected by a specialist jury from all submissions.

"We were again impressed by the quality of the work submitted," said Andreas Hamann, Chairman of the Foundation Board and Head of Human Resources Europe at automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler. The speakers from the company at the celebration in Schweinfurt's "Kugelmühle" restaurant were impressed by the quality of the excellent work.

Thomas Fußhöller, Head of Sustainability, Environment, Occupational Medicine and Safety, made it clear in his speech that innovation and sustainability go hand in hand. The foundation forms an important bridge between business and science. "Your findings help to ensure that our products and processes in particular can be made more sustainable," said Thomas Fußhöller, addressing the young researchers.

The concepts and methods developed showed that the award winners had dealt intensively with the challenges in industrial companies. Thomas Fußhöller added: "The electrification of drives, the extension of product life cycles or the reduction of energy consumption through reduced friction are just a few examples." The corporate strategy Roadmap 2025 also emphasizes the importance of sustainable action for Schaeffler.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tim Hosenfeldt, Head of Central Research and Innovation at Schaeffler, said: "We not only optimize our products in terms of performance, availability and costs, but also in terms of sustainability over the entire life cycle." Innovations played a role here - such as the solutions shown in the works – an important role.

Awards in the categories doctorate and master thesis

Dr.-Ing. Dani Bechev for his work entitled “Test methodology for characterizing the electrical properties of rolling bearing lubricants.” Up until now, there have been no standards or test methods for examining the electrical properties of lubricants under operating conditions similar to those of rolling bearings – Dani Bechev has developed corresponding methods.

To Dr.-Ing. Florian König received second prize for his doctorate entitled "Prognosis of the wear behavior of oil-lubricated plain bearings in mixed-friction operation." The core issue here was the innovative combination of numerical calculations with the aim of detecting wear at an early stage. Both award winners then presented their work to the invited guests.

Another second prize went to Dr.-Ing. Max Marian ("Numerical interpretation of surface microtextures for lubricated tribological contacts"). The Foundation honored Joshua Weber, Laura Zieher and Christoph Zobel for their master’s theses.

Submission for Future Technology Award runs until July 31st

"The purpose of our foundation is to support science, research and teaching in schools, colleges and universities in the field of storage technology," said Andreas Hamann and added: "So far, more than one million euros in funding have been distributed."

In addition to the Innovation Awards, there are two other funding lines in the foundation. In order to get young people excited about technology and the corresponding professional fields at an early age, school support in the Mainfranken region supports interdisciplinary projects. In addition, the foundation has been presenting the "Future Technology Award" every two years since 2020. Here, highly innovative research projects from universities, colleges or individual faculties and chairs are supported. The call for applications is currently open until July 31, 2022.