Research and Development Activities at Werner Schmid

Since October 2023, Werner Schmid GmbH has been serving as the consortium leader for the first time in a collaborative project funded by the State of Hesse, the “Multi-Cool” project. In collaboration with the Institute for Production Engineering and Forming Machinery (PtU) at TU Darmstadt and FKM Sintertechnik GmbH, the project is working to locate and quantify temperature changes occurring within complex, multi-stage forming operations inside the die in order to counteract the resulting effects through innovative cooling concepts. The additional degrees of freedom offered by additive manufacturing open up new possibilities for efficient, contour-following cooling; however, the reliability of this approach in industrial mass production still needs to be verified. Research will therefore be conducted through September 2025 to enhance the robustness of multistage forming processes through active cooling. This project (HA Project No.: 1482/23-35) is funded as part of the Hesse Innovation Promotion Program using funds from the State Initiative for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence (LOEWE), Funding Line 3: SME Consortium Projects.

The consortium consists of three university institutes and five industry partners. The goal of the project is to develop a digital product passport for the metalworking industry. For this product passport, it is essential, for example, to understand how the power consumption of machines behaves and how factors such as material usage influence this power consumption. As an associated partner, we provide project members with the opportunity to determine the power consumption of our equipment, ranging from batch size one in toolmaking to mass production in our manufacturing areas. The data provided is intended to help the consortium design digital product passports as accurately as possible using machine learning algorithms. The “Cli-CE-DiPP” project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as part of the GreenTech Innovation Competition, based on a resolution of the German Bundestag.

The consortium consists of a wide variety of partners — universities, industrial companies, software developers, and local governments. The goal of the project is to create a software platform designed to make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to prepare sustainability reports. Whether these reports are required by law or by customer demands is secondary. Although WS is not currently subject to reporting requirements, we have nevertheless decided to participate as an associated partner, as building this expertise can provide a competitive advantage, especially compared to international competitors. Furthermore, this reporting includes both CO2 accounting and a large database of sustainability metrics, which assist us in both energy and environmental management. CO₂ accounting is also becoming increasingly important for us. The “Ready4ESG” project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as part of the “Industrial Collaborative Research (IGF)” program, based on a resolution of the German Bundestag.

The consortium consists of a university institute and three industry partners who are primarily responsible for developing measurement technology and the associated software algorithms. Associated partners include both Werner Schmid GmbH and one of our press manufacturers, ANDRITZ Kaiser. The goal of the project is the digitization and AI-supported creation of a set of specifications for a punching press. To achieve this goal, as much measurement data as possible will be collected during press operation and then used to design the press as precisely as possible to meet the customer’s requirements. Together with the consortium leader, ConSenses, and ANDRITZ Kaiser, we have equipped one of our existing machines with sensors for the project, which now record the characteristics of every single stroke. Our benefit as an associate partner is gaining a more detailed understanding of our presses and tools during the production process. The project is funded by the Hessian Ministry of Digitalization and Innovation through the funding agency Distr@l until the end of 2026.