The international trade fair "Ideas - Inventions - Innovations" iENA celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2023. Over 500 inventions from around 30 countries were presented over three days in Nuremberg. For many inventors, the next steps for the further development of their innovations already emerged at the trade fair. The most promising inventions were awarded the coveted iENA medal. Colleagues from our institute received a gold and a silver medal.
The gold medal went to Prof. Fröhlich, Junior Prof. Kissinger, Maximilian Hoffmann, Prof. Manske, Dr. Ortlepp and Dr. Mastylo for their invention "Method and device for the active stabilization of the refractive index, respectively of the air, in a closed measuring chamber".
The aim of the invention is to stabilize the refractive index of air or the gas density in a precision measuring chamber. This is achieved by continuously determining the environmental parameters in the chamber. Their deviations are compensated by active correction of the chamber pressure. This allows sensitive measurement setups (optics, weighing technology) to be operated under highly stable ambient conditions.
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The silver medal went to Prof. Fröhlich, Prof. Theska, Maximilian Darnieder, Markus Pabst and Dr. Hilbrunner for their invention "Device for the adjustment of the metrological characteristics of mechanisms for force measurement and weighing technology", in particular electromagnetically compensating load cells.
The task of the invention is to overcome the disadvantages of load cells. It allows constant astasing of a mechanism for force measurement and weighing technology for different loads and at the same time counteracts negative effects such as increased sensitivity to inclination or increased corner load sensitivity. The metrological properties of the mechanism can be adjusted during operation. The invention utilizes unavoidable deformations of the links to improve the metrological properties.
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Another silver medal was awarded to the invention "TenSens platform for force measurement/localisation using pre-stressed optical fibres" by Dr. Lukas Merker, Prof. Lena Zentner, Jun. Prof. Thomas Kissinger (all TU Ilmenau) and David Herrmann and Prof. Valter Böhm (both OTH Regensburg).
The invention relates to a self-supporting device with pre-stressed, fibre-optic sensors and an associated method for calculating an external force acting on the device from the detected strains of the fibres. Depending on the design of the device, the unknown amount of the force, its direction and its point of application can be determined so that the device can be used, for example, as a sensor for force measurement and localisation in robotics or for determining mass and centre of gravity in weighing technology.
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