The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana (UL FS) will invest almost EUR 3.73 million in research equipment in 2023 to further improve the teaching process and raise the level of research capacities. Within the framework of the public call for co-financing of research equipment purchases (Package 21), the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) will co-finance purchases totalling more than EUR 1.43 million.
In line with the Faculty Development Strategy 2025 and our mission to create and transfer knowledge that enables our students and research partners to compete in the international environment, UL FME has focused its development on a comprehensive range of research, development, innovation, and teaching activities in the field of green and digital transformation. In this way, we have fully aligned our development orientations with EU development trends (e.g., the European Green Deal) and at the same time created the foundations for an active carrier role of UL FME as one of the key carriers of the green and digital transformation of the Republic of Slovenia. In recent years, UL FS has invested significantly in state-of-the-art research equipment (EUR 1.2 million in 2019, EUR 1 million in 2020, EUR 1.87 million in 2021, and EUR 1.88 million in 2022).
The list of research equipment to be purchased by the Faculty with the help of ARRS co-funding includes: Robotic laser processing system with optodynamic control, equipment for research on the development of hybrid digital twins for the assessment of vibration damage to equipment, system for tribological and nanomechanical characterisation of lubricant film boundary surfaces in a wide range of mechanical and temperature loads, FT -I04 Femto-Indenter with accessories, a universal device for mechanical testing of materials and the load capacity of structural elements, a system for thermal characterisation of multifunctional energetic materials, a system for ultra-fast process monitoring, a high-quality instrumentation system for data acquisition, testing and control of physical phenomena of manufacturing processes for their environmentally friendly transformation and improvement of the working environment, an upgrade of the servo-hydraulic test bench for thermo-mechanical and optical evaluation of the test piece, a process system for monitoring heat and material transfer with high local and temporal resolution, an electro-optical analysis system for characterising picosecond laser pulses, an optical analysis system for surface measurements in vacuum, a new-generation multifunctional device for producing and monitoring the flow behaviour of highly concentrated multifunctional advanced materials in a small volume, an upgrade of the Step Engineering UD08 static and dynamic test rig, a thermocouple chamber for a double-sided multi-camera measurement system, an advanced fuel cell test system, an optical system for monitoring the emission of reactive currents in the IR and UV spectrum, and a plasma electro-polishing machine.