‘An excellent environment for education and research’

The renovation of our faculty’s 150 square meter lab hall in Building G was finished in the middle of April 2020. For this occasion, we had a review of the investments of the last few years. About the lab renovation, we interviewed Márton Takács, associate professor, deputy head of the Department of Manufacturing Science and Engineering. 

What is the role of the lab hall of building G, within the facility of the faculty? 

Márton Takács: The building G was built at the beginning of the 1950s, as the Product Technology Lab of BME. Recently, the hall is split between two departments, the Department of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, and the Department of Material Science and Technology. This hall is indispensable for fulfilling our study and laboratory practices, experiments, and also industrial projects. There were multiple investments made in the recent years; thus, doors and windows were changed, we renewed the heating system and some smaller rooms, like rooms for lecturers, sanitary facilities, and the kitchenette.

  But on the whole, still, if someone enters the hall, it looked like almost seventy years ago.

What did the department carry out in the renovation?

MT: The renovation was done in the 150 square meter part of the hall. The whole building covers smaller rooms and a study workshop hall of 1000 sqm. The renovated area is the one-seventh of the latter hall. Still, it is a notable improvement and provides a better environment for future education and research activities.

Though, Building G is not a registered as a protected monument, but lies at a UNESCO World Heritage site, with a monument-like significance. Therefore, the renovation involved neither the basic load-bearing reinforced concrete structure, nor the clinker facade. The renovated area in the hall with 8 m clear height was limited by a 2,50 m high drywall, reinforced with steel frame, leaving a 2 m wide entrance on each end of the area. The electric network, the floor, the rainwater collection system of the area was also renewed, internet network was also established, while walls were repaired and painted.

What kind of circumstances made the renovation of the area necessary? 

MT: The renovation aimed infrastructural background of a new cyber-physical manufacturing system, and it was carried out by the financial support of the project ’Research on prime exploitation of the potentials offered by industrial digitalization’ (ED_18-2-2018-0006). To this area, machines and tools are soon to be purchased, and we also place there some already existing ones.

 The system will include robots, a coordinate measuring machine, a turning centre, a five-axle machining centre, and a conveyor. The area is going to have a particular unit, a driverless transport system (AGV, Automated Guided Vehicle). This small-sized vehicle is unique in Hungary, it is equipped with an accumulator, and it is charged by a wireless IPT (inductive power transfer) system. The charging will be realized by  a 22 m long power supply cable inserted into the concrete floor..

How much time did the renovation take?

MT: The preparation and design tasks, and the procurement, took approximately one year. Our colleagues at the partner departments executed the design, electrical and mechanical tasks. The chief engineer in charge of the whole project was György Stocker, associate professor of Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Construction Materials and Technologies, while the general construction contractor was Prím Építő Kft. The construction started at the morning of 22 January 2020, with the demolition processes. The technical handover was on 9 April 2020. 

Did you face, for example, technical or technological challenges in the project?

MT: Yes, we faced one. The floor of the area was covered with asphalt. It fulfils current requirements neither by look nor by function. Below the asphalt layer, there is an 18 cm long reinforced concrete floor, which is appropriate for load-bearing. The asphalt layer was demolished, then a new, on average 8 cm thick load-bearing cement screed layer was put there. The screed layer needed reinforcement, but implementing reinforcing steel bars was not possible, because the immediate environment of the induction wire has to lack ferromagnetic materials. Thus, the screed, to ensure the proper mechanical features, was made with plastic fibres, overlaid with an industrial artificial resin cover.

How did the epidemical situation involve construction?

MT: The construction went on, despite the epidemic. The contractor took attention to the implementation of the security regulations.

As a summary, we can say that as a result of the construction, we could develop such an area within building G, which both the department and the faculty can be proud of. Moreover, in the near future, students and professionals from the industry can also get to know the latest trends in modern manufacturing technology.

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Let's have a look at the notable investments of other faculties! 

The Department of Material Science and Technology, cooperating with the Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering, Department of Automotive Technologies, started 3D printing within the NVKP project, recieved in 2016. Thanks to this tender, in 2018, the department purchased a new Zeiss EVO MA10 electron microscope. The equipment helps the researches, moreover, during study labs, students can also use the machine.

In 2019, professor János Péter Szabó, head of department, purchased an ion polishing equipment due to his OTKA project. The equipment polishes small samples with argon, aiming to prepare the samples for a further analysis. Then, the samples can be used for EBSD, or transmisson electron microscopy. On the samples, we can also make incisions, to examine coatings and thin films.

In December 2019 a new welding robot cell was set up in the Welding Robot Applied Technology Lab of the department. This robot is the first of its kind in Europe, therefore the department actually set up the latest technology. The setup was also a naming ceremony: the lab was named after Dr. Ferenc Bauer, the late lecturer of the faculty.

At the Department of Fluid Mechanics, 8 high performace computers were procured for simulation calculations. A synchronized, high sampling frequency pressure-measuring system was also set up, enabling synchronous measurement of surface pressure fluctuations in some hundred points.

A dynamometer, donated in 2004 by AUDI Hungária Zrt., was modernised, and a high-performance server cluster was installed at the Department of Energy Engineering. The dynamometer modernisation is a critical step in acquiring new industrial contracts in the fields of the evaluation of carbon-dioxide emission reduction techniques and renewable/alternative fuels. The other dynamometers used at the department until now are passive ones, which means that only engine loading is possible with specific dynamical parameters.

The aim of the project ending in 2020 is improving the dynamical loading properties, and enabling active operation, i.e., the internal combustion engines can also be driven besides loading.

In cooperation with industrial partners, a so-called compound drive system was developed, in which the main unit is a frequency-controlled 50 kW asynchronous motor. It enables better dynamical loading characteristics besides allowing the driving. This new system can be introduced to education besides extending the experimental facilities in the department.

The department has also acquired up 5 HP servers for high-performance computing. The source of this investment is the MVM sub-programme of the 1st FIEK project, in which the department performs research in the field of applicability of organic thermal cycles over classical steam cycles. Their advantage is that they can also exploit low-temperature heat sources, allowing further electricity generation from waste heat. Furthermore, this thermal cycle facilitates the re-consideration of the utilization of heat sources, which were unfavourable for previous technologies.

Solving the related problems require high computational power; however, it does not utilize 100 per cent of the computational capacity: the department successfully used it for solving certain industrial and research problems. One of the servers is currently hosting the Moodle system of the Faculty from 1 May due to the emergent situation. In recent years, labs, classroms and offices have been renovated in the Department of Polymer Engineering, which cost more than 150 million HUF (cca. 423 000 EUR).

 On the second floor of building T, offices were created, we moved the Simulation Lab there, and a lecture room was also renovated. The lab in building MT was expanded with a gallery. The floor, and the electrical wiring were renovated. The department has acquired more, than 20 processing tools and test rigs, for approximately 300 million HUF (cca. 846 600 EUR). Among these are injection moulding machines, an autoclave, a kneading chamber, a rheometer, a vulcameter, a deflectometer, and microscopes, including an atomic force microscope.

László Benesóczky

Photos: DMANUF, DMATSCI, DEE, DFM, DPE