ZwickRoell is a partner of OHLF - Open Hybrid LabFactory in Wolfsburg
As a competence and research center for economical lightweight design and innovative materials and manufacturing technologies, OHLF is a public-private partnership. As a support initiative, OHLF serves as an instrument of Germany's "high-tech strategy for the federal government". The members of OHLF include worldwide leading technology companies as well as advanced research organizations. ZwickRoell participates as a provider of the latest testing technology and related expertise.
New materials and production technologies are key to sustainable mobility since they enable the efficient use of resources for manufacturing vehicle bodies or drive systems. Open Hybrid LabFactory's (OHLF) research campus in Wolfsburg, Germany develops such key technologies for vehicle design of the future. This public-private partnership was initiated under the auspices of the Automotive Research Centre Niedersachsen (NFF) of the Technical University of Braunschweig and Volkswagen AG. The research facility's goal is to develop weight-optimized components that can be mass-produced affordably from the automotive industry. The word "hybrid“ in the name OHLF emphasizes its specific focus: The innovative combination of various materials such as metals, plastics and glass and carbon fibers is the primary objective of OHLF.
OHLF's technical center houses various manufacturing technologies along the process chain for manufacturing hybrid components and assemblies, as well as multiple laboratories in which experts analyze the developed materials or test the quality of hybrid connections. ZwickRoell's modern testing technology fully meets the requirements for static, as well as dynamic materials and component testing.
Static materials testing machines: Having several AllroundLine testing machines (Fmax 50 kN - 250 kN), equipped with various extensometers, test tools, and a temperature chamber from -70 °C to +250 °C , enables any standard test for characterizing metals, plastics, and composites to be performed. One AllroundLine testing machine (Fmax 250 kN) is equipped with an additional torsion drive (2000 Nm). This allows tensile/compression tests with superimposed torsion, such as on CFRP pipes, glued pipe specimens or entire components to be performed.
Dynamic testing machines: The core element of the dynamic laboratory is a large gripping field (4000 x 3000mm) with two portals and three hydrostatic-bearing servohydraulic actuators (2x100 kN, 1x50 kN) for testing complex components, which can be freely configured, even for superimposed loads. The loads and load application frequencies can be controlled freely. Combining them with optical deformation measurement enables the operator to inspect the strain behavior in the micrometer range. For classical fatigue testing on fiber composite and hybrid materials, an HA100 servohydraulic testing machine (Fmax 100 kN) is available. A modernized high-speed testing machine from ZwickRoell is used for performing measurements at extremely high strain rates.
