How can cross wedge rolled preforms for component parts be optimized to keep material waste during forging as low as possible? Daniel Kampen already focused on this question during his internship at IPH. The 22-year old student developed a software programme which handles the normally very time-consuming process done by design engineers in less than one minute.
Kampen received the first IPH Future Award, endowed with €500, for his bachelor thesis entitled “Analyse und Bewertung eines evolutionären Algorithmus zur Vorformoptimierung von Schmiedebauteilen“ (literally translated as “Analysis and evaluation of an evolutionary algorithm for preform optimization of forging parts”).
In his work, Kampen compared the results of his algorithm with manually designed preforms. The result: The software programme is much faster and more precise than humans. In preforms designed with the algorithm, burr formation is reduced which in turn reduces the amount of steel required during forging.
