The Technology Center for Lightweight Construction (TZL) is an institution of higher education in Aalen, the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd, the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) and the research institute Edelmetalle + Metallchemie (fem) from Schwäbisch Gmünd. As part of the RegioWIN project "School of Engineering for Sustainability (ZTN): Resource Conservation, Environment, CO2 Reduction", they are all pooling their skills to create synergy effects in acquiring and answering various research questions. This knowledge is to be made available to companies from the region and beyond, thereby contributing to value creation.
Lightweight construction itself is a construction and design philosophy that aims to maximize weight savings. The reduction of raw materials, CO2 emissions and costs are usually the main focus. The TZL takes up the idea of holistic or function-integrating lightweight construction and therefore initially focuses on molded lightweight construction in the establishment phase. One implementation tool of this lightweight construction strategy is topology optimization, which is used by means of computer-aided processes to determine the optimized component shape and aims to achieve a reduction in weighting and volume.
The key technology of lightweight construction, with its diverse fields and industries of application, is a technology of the future that generates innovative solutions for complex scientific questions. It is no coincidence that the Federal Minister of Economics, Peter Altmaier, describes lightweight construction as one of the "game changer technologies of the 21st century".
