MTU was convinced that Zwick was the right partner for its project and says it was impressed by the detailed planning, experience, and professionalism of the Zwick personnel during the upgrade process
MTU Friedrichshafen supplies diesel engines and complete drive systems for ships, heavy land and rail vehicles, industrial applications, and decentralised power generation plants.
The product range, stated to be the most modern and comprehensive in the industry, covers diesel engines from 20kW to 9000 kW and gas turbines.
Increasing requirements such as lower exhaust emissions and reduced life-cycle costs are placing increasing demands on the capability of engine components to cope with their mechanical and thermal loads.
To ensure component durability extensive mechanical tests are necessary which require precise and reliable testing systems.
MTU decided to upgrade four of its existing testing machines originally purchased from different manufacturers.
One reason was that the control electronics were no longer state of the art, and the other was that the service support and supply of spare parts for the testing machines could no longer be guaranteed.
Zwick was able to offer an affordable upgrade solution which also met the high quality requirements of MTU.
A decisive factor in Zwick's favour was that all testing machines, regardless of whether static or dynamic in operation, utilised the same software platform and this reduced the training and operating costs to a minimum.
In addition, Zwick's market leading Testxpert software could be used for all testing applications.
The upgraded static and dynamic machines are now used by MTU for all materials and component testing to further develop their diesel engine components.
Material specimens and highly-stressed diesel engine components such as piston rods, cylinder heads, and crankshafts are tested.
Static tests mainly consist of tensile, compression and bending tests while the dynamic tests also include torsion tests.
Using an upgraded Vibrophore fatigue tests can be performed on parts, such as valve bridges, rocker arms and gear wheels, with a frequency between 80 and 90Hz.
An upgraded internal pressure system is used to carry out the dynamic testing of the cylinder heads.
In addition, an upgraded pendulum impact tester and converted universal testing machine gives the department the capability to perform routine quality control tests with much better reliability than before.
"The Vibrophore runs more stably now, we have a better documentation capability, and the long-term service for our machines is guaranteed."
