Teufelberger Master-Thesis-Award Goes this Year to DI Lukas Gahleitner for his Outstanding Master Thesis
DI Lukas Gahleitner, graduate of the master's program in lightweight construction and composite materials at the Wels Campus of FH Upper Austria, was awarded the Teufelberger Master-Thesis-Award, which is given by a jury for the best master's thesis of all four schools of the FH Upper Austria, for his work on "Inline quality inspection of thermoplastic carbon fiber-reinforced tapes utilizing active infrared thermography".
(c) Land OÖ/Margot Haag
This involves the detection of defective areas in lightweight construction (thermoplastic fiber semi-finished products) directly during production using active infrared thermography.
The Teufelberger Master-Thesis-Award has now been presented for the ninth time and is endowed with 2,500 Euros in prize money. The award was presented by Landesrat Achleitner and FH Upper Austria President Reisinger together with Dr. Michael Teufelberger, who represented the founder and initiator of the award, Mag. Florian Teufelberger.
"I was once again impressed by the extraordinarily high level of the submitted work. It is impressive how the FH students make a valuable contribution to the economy and society at the industrial location in Upper Austria. The topics are not only future-oriented, but also with a concrete application practice", says Mag. Florian Teufelberger, board member and CEO of the Teufelberger Group, about the award.
Cost-effective and resource-saving quality control of composites
In the aerospace and automotive industries, the use of composites continues to increase. In particular, composites with a thermoplastic matrix enable especially efficient manufacturing processes. However, undesirable defects can occur during the production of the semi-finished products. Therefore, the development of a non-destructive industrially suitable method for quality control is necessary.
"In my master's thesis, I developed an innovative and non-contact system for this purpose. This enables the detection and analysis of defective areas in thermoplastic fiber-reinforced semi-finished products and is based on the principle of active infrared thermography. In particular, low-cost and robust thermal detectors were used for this purpose, which is what makes it possible to use it in industrial environments in the first place," explains Gahleitner.
(c) Land OÖ/Margot Haag