Chennai : The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Fraunhofer Institute IWU Germany to establish an Applied Centre for Advanced Automotive Research (CAAR).

The LoI was signed by Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi, director, IIT-M and Dr -Ing Dirk Landgrebe, Chair of Forming and Joining at TU Chemnitz and Head of Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU in Chemnitz. Achim Fabig, consul general of Germany, Anandi Iyer, director, Fraunhofer Office India and Prof Krishnan Balasubramanian, dean, ICSR, IIT Madras, were also present at the event.

CAAR is envisaged to be a ‘centre of excellence’ focusing on providing research solutions to the automotive industries through focused R&D, in association with the talent and capabilities at IIT Madras and the experience and delivery mechanisms developed at the Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany.

Some of the areas of interest for CAAR will include frontiers in light-weighting, advanced manufacturing, emission, NVH, engineering design and novel materials of interest to the automotive sector. CAAR will be developed in collaboration with Government of India organizations, such as the Department of Heavy Industries, as well as industry partners including OEMs, Tier I and Tier II companies, and associations representing the automobiles and manufacturing sectors.

Speaking about CAAR, Prof Balasubramanian said, “Through this partnership, we want CAAR to be a delivery centre that delivers R&D solutions of excellent level and that too in a timely fashion. We also intend to reach out to the industry to understand their requirements better. CAAR’s objective would be to provide solutions to the problems faced by them.”

Anandi said, “Fraunhofer has been active in India for seven years and has an impressive collaboration with Indian industry, as well as government. This collaboration of complementary strengths will further strengthen our engagement with India.”

Prof Landgrebe said, “The Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming is at the forefront of the development of cutting-edge applied research in the entire range of production technologies. We are excited about this collaboration and look forward to expanding our already extensive engagement with India.”

The LoI signing ceremony was followed by a meeting with the representatives from the industry and the government, to discuss the vision of CAAR, industry expectations and the government’s perspective.

In addition, there was a talk on “Vehicle Light-Weighting” delivered by Dr Landgrebe. The talk focused on motivation for light-weighting in car manufacturing to achieve significant weight reductions and consequently fuel savings.