Clausthal University of Technology

Institute of Mechanical Engineering

The Institute for Mechanical Engineering was founded in 1912 and is part of the Clausthal University of Technology. The institute conducts research in the areas of rope drives, couplings, shaft-hub connections and thrust collar. Furthermore, process engineering machines, especially for production and recycling processes and design theory, especially for the fields of acoustics and recycling management.

The Institute is involved in research projects as well as industrial projects dealing with the analytical and numerical calculation of rope winches that are wound in multiple layers with steel, fibre or hybrid ropes. The aim is a safe design of the rope drums for current as well as new and innovative rope constructions.

Various test rigs are available for determining rope characteristics that are of interest for the calculation. For example, lateral stiffnesses and deformations of the rope under transverse load can be measured. The stresses occurring in the winch drum during the winding process can be validated with the spooling test rig. With electric drives, permanent spooling between two drums is also possible.