Festschrift ILK

PAUL STEIN
ROLLS-ROYCE PLC
I am pleased to see that ILK is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2019.
When Rolls-Royce reached agreement in 2006 that TU Dresden would
become host to one of the Company’s flagship University Technology
Centres (UTCs), the second UTC established in Germany, ILK was already
an important partner through close collaboration and strong
support to the company since the late 1990s. The head of the ILK institute
was nominated as director of the UTC in “Lightweight Structures,
Paul Stein
Chief Technology Officer Materials and Robust Design”, with the UTC now incorporating four
of Rolls-Royce plc more institutes since inception.
ILK is a key academic partner for Rolls-Royce, particularly in the field of
composite materials, and is active in critical areas of advanced design
& fabrication technologies, modelling & simulation methods, and develops test facilities and
testing methods. ILK has supported the development of scaled composite fan blade designs,
for example assessing the response of blades to impact and deformation, providing test results
and design conclusions that have significantly assisted the composite fan blade development
by Rolls-Royce. ILK was also a key partner for the development of a composite radial drive shaft
which was introduced into the new ‘Pearl 15’ business jet engine. Another outstanding example
is the development, build and operation of unique rotating rigs for fan blade-off tests, validating
lightweight composite casings and allowing assessment of blade tip clearance and associated
sealing of air gaps. This was acknowledged by an award provided to UTC Dresden at the annual
UTC Directors’ seminar in 2017.
The single piece composite nose cone, developed as retrofit for the BR715 engine, became
baseline design for all newly developed Rolls-Royce engines up to the recent Trent XWB. This
development started with a diploma thesis at ILK, was continued as an R&T project 2004-2007
and is today an important product line of the company EAST-4D® Carbon Technology GmbH in
Dresden, a spin-off from ILK. Another spin-off is the Leichtbauzentrum Sachsen GmbH (LZS), focusing
on manufacturing methods and testing, especially regarding composite materials, which
became a certified test house for Rolls-Royce Deutschland in 2017 and is still closely collaborating
with ILK.
On an international scale, ILK is collaborating intensively with the UTC for Composite Materials
in Bristol, UK, including an exchange of PhD researchers. This successful collaboration has motivated
Rolls-Royce recently to cluster both UTC’s into the research theme ‘Lightweight Structures’
to foster an even more fruitful partnership in the future.
Many of the ILK students and PhD graduates completed their theses on Rolls-Royce projects,
and have subsequently started their career with Rolls-Royce companies. In addition, the close
collaboration has resulted in multiple patents being granted in cooperation with Rolls-Royce.
I look forward to continuing the successful collaboration between Rolls-Royce and TU Dresden
ILK, and the ongoing contribution to our global competitiveness.
15