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Adaptive metal powder coating system for 3D printing, lightweight winding cutter or cooling system for machine tools - selected examples of the seven new patents obtained in 2023 by experts from the RTI Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The imaginary record holders of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen last year were the husband and wife team of Ivana and Miroslav Zetek, who together registered 5 projects. 

One of them is a lightweight milling machine, which they call kraken. "The milling machine has a very lightweight construction, which is made using 3D printing from tool steel. This has reduced material consumption by more than 50 percent compared to conventional production with minimal waste," explains Miroslav Zetek of RTI FME.

Patents obtained by engineering faculties not only recognize long-term work, but also contribute to the advancement of the engineering industry. Another such example is the unique metal powder deposition system for 3D printing using selective laser sintering technology. "By changing from a rigid coating element to one with higher pliability, it is possible to respond to unpredictable collisions when sintering parts, thus bridging problematic areas without interrupting the printing process, while maintaining the mechanical properties of the printed components," adds Ivana Zetková.

Their colleague Luboš Kroft then contributed to the total number of patents with the ECHO cooling system, which is highly precise and designed for machine tools. "This system combines the advantages of 3D printing with economically acceptable conventional production, ensuring maximum cooling effect at a reasonable cost. ECHO incorporates 3D printed elements that are added to the tool body, allowing efficient and precise fluid supply directly to the cutting point," explains Luboš Kroft of RTI. Thanks to his patent, tool life is increased by up to tens of percent.

Three patents in 2023 were also obtained by the New Technologies Research Centre. Milan Honner and his team patented a device for thermographic temperature measurement, Tomasz Bońkowski and Luděk Hynčík patented a helmet with a multi-directional suspension system.

Researchers at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering's RICE research centre have also been successful, working, for example, on encapsulating electronic components in smart fabric. Roman Čečil from the NTIS Faculty of Applied Sciences worked on a setup for transmitting measured data from a probe placed in the rumen of cattle.

In the previous year, 2022, UWB obtained 15 patents, a year earlier it was three more. However, absolute numbers of patents granted cannot automatically be considered a success or failure. According to the university's knowledge transfer specialist Martin Jambura, it is important whether a given patent is used by an application partner or a spin-off company that will transfer the technology into practice.

"The number of patents obtained in a particular year can also be misleading because in some cases it takes several years for a patent to be granted. Thus, a patent granted in 2022 may relate to technology that was actually developed two or more years ago," Jambura explains. Thus, the measure of success is the use of the technology in the real world, as this then proves its usefulness and utility.