Last week the Dörrenberg StudienAWARD was awarded for the 15th time. This award honors the best three student theses in the field of materials technology and engineering. Marius Weiser from the University of Bremen qualified for this year's final round, which was held in Engelskirchen-Ründeroth. He was encouraged by his supervisor Prof. Brigitte Clausen last year to submit his bachelor's thesis - with success: He achieved second place in the competition and was awarded a trophy and 3,000 euros in prize money.

In his thesis, he dealt with fatigue crack growth in rotor blade bearings made of the quenched and tempered steel 42CrMo4. To this end, the crack propagation rate was investigated on the basis of samples from a bearing ring and described mathematically. The work thus contributes to the safe as well as efficient design of existing and future wind turbines within the framework of the BMWK-funded joint project "Highly loaded slewing rings" (0324303E).

In addition to the two managing directors of Dörrenberg Edelstahl GmbH, Mr. Breidenbach and Mr. Böhner, Professor Broeckmann (RWTH Aachen), Professor Schneider (FH Oberösterreich Campus Wels), Professor Theisen (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) as well as Professor Escher (Head of Central Materials Technology at Dörrenberg Edelstahl GmbH) were part of the jury for 2023. They judged the presentations on the respective specialist topics and led the discussions with the young finalists. The sponsorship prize is awarded annually to students who have dealt with materials technology issues relating to steel, heat treatment, surface technology or process engineering in their studies and still have their material work ahead of them.

Photo source: Dörrenberg Edelstahl GmbH
From left: Mr. Böhner, Prof. Broeckmann, Prof. Escher, Mr. Sieber, Mr. Radtke, Prof. Theisen, Ms. Berghuber, Mr. Breidenbach, Mr. Weiser, Prof. Schneider, Mr. R. Böhner