49th MPA Conference
October 6th – 8th 2025
Stuttgart, Germany
This years seminar was a huge success with great speakers, guests, our carefully picked program committee and all the helping hands.
However, next year is going to be even bigger.
For the first time since it’s start in 1975, the 49th MPA Seminar will be called MPA Conference!
So save the date and check back for more information soon.
a GREAT SEMINAR LIES BEHIND US!
The 48th MPA Seminar 2024 is over. Let us remember some Special moments.
Carl von Bach Medal 2024
Dr. Silke Sommer from the Fraunhofer Institute IWM is awarded the Carl von Bach Medal at the MPA Seminar at the University of Stuttgart
Stuttgart, October 8th 2024. Image: Jochen Kubik, MPA.
Dr. Silke Sommer, Business Unit Manager for Component Safety and Lightweight Design at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials (IWM) in Freiburg, is the first woman to be honored with the prestigious Carl von Bach Medal. This award recognizes her pioneering contributions to research in materials mechanics, particularly in the fields of crash simulation and lightweight construction technology.
The Carl von Bach Medal, named after the founder of the Materials Testing Institute (MPA) in 1884, is awarded to outstanding scientists who have created a decisive link between theory and practice in materials science. Carl von Bach worked personally and closely with important personalities such as Rudolf Diesel, Count von Zeppelin and Gottlieb Daimler. He was also a co-founder of predecessor organizations of the VDI (formerly Württembergischer Ingenieurverein) and the TÜV (formerly Dampfkesselrevisionsverein). His research into operational safety and material resilience has shaped the thematic focus of the MPA to this day, particularly in the fields of renewable energies and vehicle safety.
The award was presented by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Weihe and Dr.-Ing Martin Werz.
The award is also an expression of the close, decades-long collaboration between the Fraunhofer IWM in Freiburg and the MPA at the University of Stuttgart. The two institutes work together on topics such as the energy transition, the operational safety of hydrogen components, the development of material and failure models as well as crash and process simulation. Since it was founded in 1884, the MPA has developed into the largest university research institution of its kind in the world.
In close cooperation with the MPA, Dr. Silke Sommer initiated and researched numerous projects on resource efficiency and CO2 reduction. Since 2020, she has headed the Component Safety and Lightweight Design business unit at Fraunhofer IWM and has dedicated her scientific life to the development of mathematical models for the evaluation of joints.
Her research feeds into commercial crash simulation programs and supports the digital development of sustainable electric drive architectures as well as the crash evaluation and durability analysis of lightweight structures. Her work has led to these models now being used in commercial finite element programs and playing a central role in the safety assessment of modern vehicles – a field that has long been dominated by men.
Rosswag Best Poster Award 2024
Stefan Keuler wins the Rosswag Best Poster Award 2024
Stefan Keuler, MPA Stuttgart, is awarded the Rosswag Best Poster Award for outstanding research and its presentation in poster form.
This was MPA Seminar 2024
Here are some impressions of the seminar. We are already looking forward to the MPA Conference in 2025.
MATERIALS
PROCESSES
APPLICATIONS
MPA Conference 2025
Materials Testing Institute (MPA)
The intricate interaction between materials, processes, and applications is the backbone of innovation and performance optimization. Materials must be carefully selected and designed to meet the specific demands of various applications, considering factors like strength, durability, and thermal resistance. In contrast to their continuum mechanical models, real materials have a real microstructure with imperfections, anisotropy, segregations, discontinuities, pores and residual stresses.
These result from the respective manufacturing process of the material or component and have a significant influence on the material behavior and structural integrity in safety-critical applications.
This dynamic relationship among materials, processes, and applications is a key focal point in advancing several sub-fields in mechanical engineering, with each element influencing the overall success of mechanical engineering endeavors.
Materials for future applications
At the core of the MPA conferences attention lies the pivotal role of materials, where they confront a host of complex challenges. While steel in various forms as austenitic or martensitic continues to play a crucial role, evolving applications necessitate the use of other materials like nickel-based alloys, titanium and high-strength aluminum.
Moreover, the introduction of innovative manufacturing processes enables the design and manufacturing of more complex structures and components and the utilization of a broader spectrum of materials. Nevertheless, the surging costs associated with increasingly precious alloying elements present formidable obstacles. Further challenges include but are not limited to highly flexible load cycles, material behaviour under harsh environments like extremely high and low temperatures as the bevhaviour under the influence of media, especially biogas and hydrogen. The performance of materials dominates the performance of the end product, emphasizing the need for efficient resource utilization in their application.
Processes that amplify industries
At the MPA seminar, processes are not only understood as manufacturing processes in the classic sense. Instead, complex load cases are also regarded as processes resulting from the application and having a decisive influence on the structural integrity and life time of components.
We will take a deeper look into a range of state-of-the-art manufacturing processes, including additive manufacturing processes such as laser powder bed fusion, wire arc additive manufacturing, direct energy deposition, additive friction stir welding, and electron beam melting. Other manufacturing processes include electron beam welding, hot isostatic pressing and cold gas spraying. Understanding not only potentials and advantages but also limitations of these manufacturing processes and how they shape the real microstructure of the processed materials including segregations, anisotropy, flaws, pores etc. is of crucial importance. Together with high and complex stresses in application processes, including factors like creep, cyclic fatigue, impact load, and thermomechanical effects micro- and macrostructure resulting from manufacturing processes determine the structural integrity and life time of components.
Applications for future materials and processes
Applications in materials and mechanical engineering vary widely, each demanding specific attributes from materials and (manufacturing) processes. These requirements include specific strength, creep resistance, and the ability to perform in high and low-temperature environments.
Whether it is energy generation with lots of pressurized components, turbine blades, and aerospace components or transportation systems, the materials used need to ensure failure safety and withstand high stresses and/or a high number of load cycles even in extreme conditions like hydrogen atmospheres. As new manufacturing processes and CAD design techniques lead to increasingly complex structures with elements like geometric compactness and function integration, the adaptability of materials becomes paramount in ensuring their suitability for diverse applications. The conference will delve into these crucial aspects, shedding light on the nexus of materials, processes, and applications in the realm of materials and mechanical engineering.
Our history
The MPA can look back on over 135 years of history.
The materials testing institute was founded in 1884 at the instigation of Karl von Bach at the then Royal Württemberg Polytechnic in Stuttgart, where Bach was Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
In 1897, the associated engineering laboratory was built at the TH Stuttgart in Stuttgart-Berg. The close connection with teaching at the TH Stuttgart gave the MPA and the university a good reputation in industry. An additional laboratory building was built in 1907.
Carl von Bach Commemorative Medal
With the Carl von Bach Commemorative Medal, the MPA honours personalities who have rendered outstanding services to the strengthening of research, development and teaching in the field of materials testing and strength calculation in the spirit of Carl von Bach. He took the holistic view that there must be no contradiction between theory and practice. Thus, the tests he designed always had a relation to the structural component and were able to substantiate the theoretically determined results in a manner relevant to the application.
The MPA University of Stuttgart still works according to this principle of linking theory and practice today. In 2023 Wolfgang Däuwel from Framatom received the Commemorative Medal for his outstanding work.
Questions?
Joining Technology and Additive Manufacturing
