Karlsruhe Institute of Technology: New interdisciplinary DFG priority program is to develop concepts for safe production

The recently approved DFG priority program “Autonomous Processes in Particle Technology” under the leadership of KIT is intended to bring more systematics into the production of particles. 

Battery materials, medicines, solar cells, 3D-printed components, all of these products consist mainly of particles. Particulate products are of great importance in everyday life and in numerous technical applications. At the same time, the production process is still largely based on many years of experience. The priority program “Autonomous Processes in Particle Technology” recently approved by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under the leadership of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is intended to bring more systematics into production.

“The complexity of the particulate products still prevents extensive automation and autonomous process management, that is, independent setting of the product properties without external intervention,” says program coordinator Hermann Nirschl from the Institute for Mechanical Process Engineering and Mechanics at KIT. The aim of the planned priority program is therefore to research and test methods for autonomous process control in particle technology.

By combining material and information technology with process dynamics and control technology, it should be possible for the first time to set the desired properties of particulate products at the push of a button, with operation that is as energy and raw material efficient as possible. “In the end, we want a new set of scientific tools that allows safe process management and can also be transferred to new, particle technology processes,” says Nirschl.