Fritz Studer AG has awarded its research prize, the Fritz Studer Award, for the seventh time. Applicants from several European countries submitted their work, with Dr Emil Sauter proving victorious and claiming the prize of CHF10,000 (approximately €10,500).

The Fritz Studer Award is aimed at graduates from European universities and technical colleges. Studer was looking for creative ideas and solutions that would benefit the machine tool industry.

“The objectives of the research prize are, on one hand, to boost innovation in the machine tool industry with feasible solutions, and on the other, to promote young technical and scientific talents,” says Dr Frank Fiebelkorn, head of research and technology at Fritz Studer AG.

The focus for entrants had to be on: innovative machine concepts or components for machine tools used in precision machining; alternative materials in the machine tool industry; simulation models for the dynamic and thermal behaviour of machine tools; control and sensor concepts for machine tools; or new or evolved manufacturing techniques.

The Fritz Studer Award 2023 was presented to Dr Emil Sauter from the Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Machine Tools at ETH Zurich. He impressed the entire jury with his topic ‘Detection and avoidance of thermal damage for high-performance metal grinding processes using hybrid machine learning models’.

His work focuses on the development of an innovative condition monitoring system for external cylindrical grinding with metal-bonded CBN tools. The system recognises thermal damage in situ and predicts the remaining useful life of grinding tools. Process parameters such as structure-borne noise, spindle current, force characteristics and the use of time-frequency transformations generate the process features of a grinding process to detect different stages of thermal damage to the workpiece.

For further information www.studer.com