Sebastian Müller earned his doctorate in 2015 at the Technical University of Braunschweig on the thermomechanical fatigue of die casting molds and accepted a position at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg in December 2020, where he is now working to establish the Chair of Casting Technology.
On July 1, 2022 (due to the pandemic), Professor Müller gave his inaugural lecture on the topic of “Casting processes on the way into the 21st century? – A look at the state of research and technology as well as future concepts” as part of the 40th Mechanical Engineering Day.
Sebastian Müller presented extensive insights into the field of foundry technology in general as well as current topics in research and development to a broad, interested audience. Starting with the economic importance of casting as part of the oldest known manufacturing process, Prof. Müller described the frequent discrepancy between the public perception of foundries, everyday life in the foundry industry, and the diverse range of topics in casting technology. Sebastian Müller then outlined the requirements for the foundry of the future in terms of casting processes, cast components, environmental properties, modeling and optimization, and casting tools, and highlighted current issues relating to topology optimization, low-energy tool temperature control, and numerical mold filling simulation.
The inaugural lecture concluded with an outlook on the vision of modernizing casting operations with the help of modular, standardized casting cells as a way to further exploit the advantages of casting despite the challenging conditions of the 21st century.