New Josef Ressel Center complements our research portfolio

For more than 30 years, we have been working with the Christian Doppler Research Association (CDG) on innovative product and process optimization. The Christian Doppler Laboratories and Josef Ressel Centers have proven many times that close cooperation and application-oriented basic research can achieve more together. We have always used collaboration as a valuable way to enhance corporate research and to enable and accelerate the development of new processes and products. After two new Christian Doppler Laboratories at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) and the Montanuniversität Leoben have expanded our activities in the last year and a half, we can now count on further reinforcement in Styria.

At the new Josef Ressel Center at FH JOANNEUM Kapfenberg, a data-based model is being developed to predict and subsequently prevent malfunctions and failures of machines and test equipment. The research center, which is supported by the Christian Doppler Research Association and the Federal Ministry of Labor and Economics (BMAW), was officially opened on 31 January 2024. As part of our corporate partnership, voestalpine Tubulars will support the center with both expertise and data from the complex process of manufacturing seamless steel tubes.

The Josef Ressel Center develops methods and models that predict future failures in production processes on the basis of time series data. A particular challenge for the team at the Josef Ressel Center is that the time series data measured in the past is not linked to past failures and their technical causes. Nevertheless, a three-phase research plan was designed to gain the best possible insights. voestalpine Tubulars is providing the project team with more than 500,000 high-resolution production processes for analysis. The aim of the Josef Ressel Center is to have developed a generalized model for fault prediction and avoidance that is ready for use and application by the end of the project in 2028.

In the Christian Doppler Laboratories, which are each set up for seven years, research groups develop application-oriented basic knowledge based on a specific question posed by the company partner. This involves a lively exchange of knowledge and experience. The aim is to create a fundamental understanding of the subject matter, which is essential for rapid product and process development. The scientific staff in the CD Laboratory go into more depth on the fundamentals than the company could do alone. The findings are then incorporated into the development of new products and processes at the company partner.

In the past we have successfully partnered with Christian Doppler Laboratories, including the Johannes Kepler University Linz, the Technical Universities of Vienna and Graz, and the Hagenberg University of Applied Sciences. Sophisticated modeling approaches were used to describe the interaction of water droplets, dust particles, and gas so reliably that the results could be used to implement efficiency-enhancing modifications to the blast furnace. Characterizing and modeling the physical processes involved in the production of materials allowed us to optimize the production of high-performance alloys for lightweight construction and high-temperature applications. Thanks to this successful collaboration, we were also able to enhance and optimize how slabs are stored and transported.

The list of pioneering research fields is far from exhausted. We are currently involved in ten active Christian Doppler Laboratories and in a Josef-Ressel-Centre. Selective recovery of specialty metals using innovative process concepts, nanoscale phase transformations, inclusion metallurgy in modern steel production, and designing high-performance alloys using thermo-mechanical process technology are just a few of the current focus topics. In the future, together with the CD Laboratories, we want to continue to pursue key topics such as sustainability, energy savings, recycling, among other things with the help of the digitalization.