"Non-circular rotary turning is a new type of synchronized-cyclical machining process that is significantly more efficient than other turning processes," says Tassilo Arndt, project manager at wbk. The machining times are significantly shorter, the quality of the surfaces is better and the geometric freedom is much greater than with other production methods. This is because the process enables the efficient and high-quality production of components with non-circular cross-sections. A rotating non-circular tool moves along a rotating workpiece with position coupling. In this way, the non-circular shape is transferred to the component within limits. "In medical technology, we often work with complex cross-sections, for which we have long been looking for a process that goes far beyond the limits of current standard processes. During our research, we came across diamond rotational non-circular turning," says Sebastian Rehm, Managing Director at Max Hauser.
However, this new type of machining process is still a rough diamond. Outside of institutes such as the wbk, there are hardly any experts who have mastered it. For Max Hauser, the Innovation Campus Mobility of the Future (ICM) opened the door to this world. The RoTraCut project was created in spring 2023 as part of the ICM InnovationChallenge, in which small and medium-sized companies from Baden-Württemberg could submit a pre-competitive research question in order to find partner institutes with promising solutions. The companies had to raise part of the project costs themselves as part of a bidding process, but the majority was financed by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts. "The InnovationChallenge guarantees the rapid implementation of solutions for application-oriented research topics, so that both project partners gain real added value from the project," says Dr. Sandra Kaufmann-Weiß, Managing Director of the ICM at KIT.