Heinz Töpfer

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Heinz Töpfer (2004)

Heinz Töpfer (born June 5, 1930 in Neudobra ; † February 11, 2009 in Dresden ) was a German engineer and professor of regulation , control and automation technology .

Life

Youth and education

Heinz Töpfer was the son of a family of craftsmen. After attending the eight-class elementary school, he learned the trade of precision mechanic at the traditional company Herrmann Robert Reiss , Liebenwerda , a state- owned company in the GDR era . In 1948, Töpfer began studying at the Technical College in Dresden , the engineering school for precision mechanics sector , which was integrated into the TU Dresden in 1986 . After completing his first degree, he began further studies at what was then the Dresden University of Technology in the mechanical engineering faculty, specializing in precision mechanics / gear engineering; his closest college friend was Gerhard Merkel . Classified as a working-class child, Töpfer received a scholarship at the TH and all-round support during his studies. In 1955 he acquired the academic degree of Diplom-Ingenieur (Dipl.-Ing.). In addition to his studies, he worked for Kurt Koloc in the field of plastic processing and in industry together with Siegfried Hildebrand on engineering tasks.

Researchers, developers, university teachers and industry managers

In 1956 and 1957 Töpfer was a research assistant to Heinrich Kindler at the Institute for Control Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Dresden. In 1957, the German Academy of Sciences (DAW) in Berlin (later the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, AdW) founded a work center for "regulation and control technology" in Dresden (head: Heinrich Kindler ). Thus a new structure of the academy was created with the three departments "Electrical Control Systems " (Head: Karl Reinisch ), "Switching Systems" (Head: Siegfried Pilz ) and "Non-Electrical Control Systems" (Head: Heinz Töpfer ).

Heinrich Wilhelmi , Heinz Töpfer, Siegfried Rudert at the TH Magdeburg at a public scientific event in 1973 (1st row, from left)

From 1958 to 1967, Töpfer was both department head and deputy director Kindler of the academy facility, which was elevated to the status of an institute. In 1963 he did his doctorate at the Technical University of Dresden under Heinrich Kindler. From 1967 to 1978 Töpfer was appointed to the TH Magdeburg for the field of control engineering: first as a lecturer in 1961, as a lecturer in 1963 and since 1967 as a professor at the Institute for Control Engineering (Director: Heinrich Wilhelmi ), then in 1969 as a professor with a chair for control engineering. In addition to his research and teaching activities, he worked from 1968 to 1972 as the founding director of the "Technical Cybernetics and Electrical Engineering" section, then as the head of the "Control Engineering and Process Control" department and the "Technical Cybernetics and Automation Technology" department. He was a member of the Senate from 1972 until he left the TH Magdeburg in 1978 . His academic student Ulrich Korn was appointed as his successor at the chair for control engineering in September 1978, while Siegfried Rudert was also appointed head of the scientific department.

In connection with his activities in academia, industry and higher education, his worldwide contacts are to be seen as well as especially his relationships with specialist colleagues in Germany . The latter go back to the first founding institutes for control engineering in German-speaking countries: 1955 at the TH Dresden by Heinrich Kindler , 1956 at the TH Darmstadt by Winfried Oppelt and in 1957 at the RWTH Aachen by Otto Schäfer . Winfried Oppelt and Heinrich Kindler had successfully endeavored to maintain professional and personal contacts despite the growing political restrictions (also visible in the honorary doctorate for Kindler at the TH Darmstadt). These contacts were continued by their academic students in West and East, so that particularly good relationships developed between the later professorships of Manfred Thoma (Hanover), Günther Schmidt (Munich), Franz Mesch (Karlsruhe), Karl Reinisch (Ilmenau), Hans -Joachim Zander (Dresden), Heinz Töpfer (Magdeburg, Dresden) and others.

Heinz Töpfer (middle), Werner Kriesel (left), Siegfried Rudert (right) at the TH Magdeburg: Doctoral defense Eckehard Reimann, 2nd row left (1980)

In 1971, as part of the reform of the academy, the German Academy of Sciences offered him the position of director of the Dresden Institute for "Regulation and Control Technology". His request to the Minister of Higher and Technical Education of the GDR to release him from his duties at the TH Magdeburg was not granted. In 1978, Töpfer was finally reappointed as successor to Heinrich Kindler's chair and as head of the research area "Control engineering and process control" at the Technical University of Dresden and from 1982 was appointed a member of the university's senate.

In his research and teaching, he devoted himself to the computer-aided project planning of automation systems using process computers and advocated the creation of a modern device-technical basis for teaching and research. As a supplement to the existing laboratory internship control engineering , a modern automation technology device center was created , in which extended and practical laboratory internships could be carried out on the basis of a semi-industrial test facility. In addition, an internship in the control of discrete processes on the basis of VPS and PLC and a robot laboratory for teaching and research were created ( Hans-Joachim Zander ). With the modeling and automation of process engineering processes in electroplating and surface technology, he created a new field of research.

After German reunification on October 3, 1990, the working methods and structures in the universities of the new federal states were adapted to those practiced in western Germany, which led to structural and personnel changes in the professors' college. Töpfer played a key role in the restructuring measures as the founding dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and as a member of the Senate. He resigned at his own request as a member of the Science Council of the Federal Republic, to which he had been appointed.

In 1990 he founded the company ADG Automatisierung Dresden GmbH together with Albert Jugel . The main focus of this company was and is the design, planning and commissioning of automation solutions, and later the development of computer-controlled and largely automated test stands for product testing.

After leaving the university, he worked for Bürkert GmbH and Co. KG Ingelfingen and created a development-oriented branch of the Bürkert company in the Dresden area. Töpfer headed this development department until 1996 and then worked as a scientific advisor at the Bürkert company. He started funding projects and gave impulses for the development of a piezo valve , a modular concept for small valves , a low-power solenoid valve , a lamellar valve , a fieldbus-compatible positioner and a new type of positioner as well as a gas sensor . Through this work on valve and control technology for information use, he also reactivated his long-term contacts with FESTO , which has a long tradition in valve technology for pneumatics. He retired in 2006 at the age of 76.

Act

The results of his basic research were in chronological order:

  • Contributions to the scientific basis for the modeling, calculation and development of analog and binary fluidic elements of information processing, acquisition and use for control and regulation technology.
  • Basics for the modeling, calculation and development of analog and digital means of information use for control and regulation purposes in the field of influencing gas and material flows.
  • Contribution to the development of a theory for the conception and configuration of automation systems as well as for the synthesis of automation structures.

H. Töpfer was successful in working on topics and tasks that led to industrial applications. Contributions in this direction:

  • Overall concept and development of the pneumatic control system Dresden Logic Modules ( DRELOBA ) for universal use to control procedural and energy-related processes as well as to control machines, units and systems. The system was produced in the VEB Steuerungwerke Dresden from 1963 to 1987 and also sold by Sunvic Steuerung GmbH in the Federal Republic of Germany. VEB Elektroschaltgeräte Dresden (ESD) and VEB Regulatorwerk Dresden merged in 1985 to form VEB EAW Elektronik Dresden, which was subordinate to the EAW Berlin-Treptow "Friedrich Ebert" combine . The economic effect of the new solutions was that controls that initially worked with relay technology , later with more modern electronic solutions, could be replaced, especially when used in production and manufacturing facilities at risk of explosion.
  • Conceptual and development preparatory work for strategies, methods and means for the automation of experimental research as well as laboratory and test bench work. Results were used in diesel engine test stands and microclimate laboratories.
  • Participation in the creation of new generations of microcomputer controllers and universally usable design aids for the parameterization and structuring of controllers. Software and CAD design aids were transferred to the manufacturer VEB Kombinat Elektroapparate-Werke Berlin and tested by first-time users of the device technology, then sold commercially.
  • Conceptual and development-preparatory work for the creation of universal, level-graded control stations for the automation of flexible manufacturing systems in cooperation with the research center of the machine tool industry of the GDR .

Töpfer was involved in 20 patents that were registered between 1964 and 1970 and related to the "DRELOBA" system; after 1990, 12 more followed from his work at Bürkert. Töpfer's scientific publications include numerous works, including more than 30 in book form with multiple editions. He has prepared reports on many dissertations and habilitations as well as on numerous research projects in automation. The following professors emerged from his academic environment : Helmut Bischoff (Dresden), Helmut Bode (Dresden), Georg Bretthauer (Freiberg i. Sa., Karlsruhe), Christian Döschner (Magdeburg), Herbert Ehrlich (Leipzig), Hans Fuchs (Berlin) , Albert Jugel (Dresden), Michael Ketting (Bochum), Ladislaus Kollar (Berlin-Wartenberg), Ulrich Korn (Magdeburg), Werner Kriesel (Leipzig), Günther Liermann (Magdeburg), Peter Neumann (Magdeburg), Gunther Reinig (Bochum) , Peter Rieger (Dresden), Klaus-Peter Schulze (Leipzig), Wolfgang Weller (Berlin), Wolfgang Wilhelmi (Berlin), Hans-Joachim Zander (Dresden) and others.

Volunteering and honors

Töpfer was a member of advisory committees of the government, so from 1973 as chairman of the central working group (ZAK) "control and regulation technology" at the research council of the GDR , assigned to group 2 "basics of electronics and automation technology" (head: Eugen-Georg Woschni ). Töpfer has also played a leading role in scientific-technical councils dealing with research strategies and programs (main research areas cybernetics and information technology, cooperation council technical cybernetics, etc.) as well as in social organizations that were oriented towards professional work.

From 1973 to 1982 Töpfer was chairman of the Scientific and Technical Society for Measurement and Automation Technology (WGMA) in the Berlin Chamber of Technology and was then appointed honorary chairman after the measurement technician Werner Richter took over the office. The GDR was also represented in the international Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) by the WGMA. At IFAC, Töpfer became a member of the Technical Committee Components . The Federal Republic of Germany is represented by the VDI / VDE-Gesellschaft Mess- und Automatisierungstechnik (GMA) in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt / Main as a national member organization in the IFAC . From 1984 to 1987 Manfred Thoma, who was professor for control engineering in Hanover, was President of IFAC and organized the 10th IFAC World Congress in 1987 in Munich . Töpfer maintained close contacts to the specialist colleagues of the GMA and the IFAC, especially together with Karl Reinisch as the WGMA representative in the IFAC.

Awards in the GDR

Awards in the Federal Republic of Germany

Fonts (selection)

  • Pneumatic building block systems of digital technology. Volume 55 of the series automation technology, Verlag Technik, Berlin 1967, 2nd edition 1973 (with D. Schrepel and A. Schwarz).
  • Small automation through devices without auxiliary energy. Volume 173 of the series automation technology, Verlag Technik, Berlin 1976, 2nd edition 1978 (with Werner Kriesel ).
  • Introduction to automation technology. Verlag Technik, Berlin 1976 (with Siegfried Rudert ).
  • Functional units of automation technology - electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic. Verlag Technik, Berlin and VDI Verlag, Düsseldorf 1977, 5th edition 1988 (with Werner Kriesel ), ISBN 3-341-00290-1 .
  • Automation technology - present and future. Volume 200 of the series automation technology, Verlag Technik, Berlin 1982 (with Werner Kriesel ).
  • Basics of automation technology. Verlag Technik, Berlin 1987 (with P. Besch).
  • Basics of automation technology. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 1989 (with P. Besch).
  • Honorary doctorate for Manfred Thoma . In: Automation technology, Munich . Vol. 39, 1991, H. 12, pp. 303-303.
  • Automation technology from the manufacturer's point of view - review, status, trends. Edited by H. Töpfer, published by Bürkert Steuer- und Regeltechnik Ingelfingen 1996.
  • Heinz Töpfer (ed.); A. Schwarz et al. a .: Knowledge storage fluid technology. Fachbuchverlag, Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-343-00246-1 .
  • J.-J. Gevatter (ed.); Co-author H. Töpfer: Automation technology 2 - devices. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York (VDI book) 2000, ISBN 3-540-67085-8 .
  • Karl Heinz Fasol , Rudolf Lauber; Franz Mesch , Heinrich Rake , Manfred Thoma , Heinz Töpfer: Great Names and the Early Days of Control in Germany. In: Automation technology, Munich. Vol. 54, No. 9, 2006, pp. 462-472.

literature

  • Manfred Thoma : Heinz Töpfer 60 years. In: Automation technology, Munich. Vol. 38, No. 7, 1990, pp. 245-246.
  • Manfred Thoma, Dietrich Werner: Heinz Töpfer 65 years. In: Automation technology, Munich. Vol. 43, No. 6, 1995, p. 316.
  • Franz Mesch : Heinz Töpfer 70 years. In: Automation technology, Munich. Vol. 48, No. 8, 2000, p. 407.
  • Kurt Reinschke: Connections beyond the GDR. In: Dresden University Journal . 20/2009, Technische Universität Dresden, p. 4 ( online as PDF ; 4 MB).
  • Hans-Joachim Zander , Georg Bretthauer : Prof. Heinz Töpfer on his 80th birthday. In: Automation technology, Munich. Vol. 58, No. 7, 2010, pp. 413-415.
  • Günter Dörfel:  Töpfer, Heinz . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Peter Neumann : Automation technology at the Magdeburg alma mater. In: Mechanical and plant engineering in the Magdeburg region at the beginning of the 21st century. Future based on tradition. Delta-D publishing house, Axel Kühling, Magdeburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-935831-51-2 , pp. 215-219.
  • Peter Neumann (Hrsg.): Magdeburg's automation technology in transition - from industrial to research location. Authors: Christian Diedrich , Rolf Höltge, Ulrich Jumar , Achim Kienle , Reinhold Krampitz, Günter Müller, Peter Neumann, Konrad Pusch, Helga Rokosch, Barbara Schmidt, Ulrich Schmucker, Gerhard Unger, Günter Wolf. Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg ; Institute for Automation and Communication Magdeburg (ifak), Magdeburg 2018, production: Grafisches Centrum Cuno GmbH & Co. KG, Calbe (Saale), ISBN 978-3-944722-75-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Neumann (ed.): Magdeburg's automation technology in transition - from industrial to research location. Authors: Christian Diedrich , Rolf Höltge, Ulrich Jumar , Achim Kienle, Reinhold Krampitz, Günter Müller, Peter Neumann, Konrad Pusch, Helga Rokosch, Barbara Schmidt, Ulrich Schmucker, Gerhard Unger, Günter Wolf. Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg ; Institute for Automation and Communication Magdeburg (ifak), Magdeburg 2018, production: Grafisches Centrum Cuno GmbH & Co. KG, Calbe (Saale), ISBN 978-3-944722-75-7 .
  2. ↑ D. Hundorf: Freely programmable, pneumatic standard control for the automation of discontinuous processes. Sunvic Regulator GmbH, Solingen 1969.
  3. ↑ B. Wagner, A. Schwarz: Pneumatic building block systems of digital technology - with special consideration of the DRELOBA control system. Vieweg Verlag, Braunschweig 1967.
  4. ^ Eugen-Georg Woschni : Life in three German states - A Saxon reports. Tauchaer Verlag, Taucha / Leipzig 2012, pp. 60-77, ISBN 978-3-89772-215-6 .
personal data
SURNAME Potter, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German university professor, professor of automation technology
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Neudobra , Liebenwerda district
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 2009
Place of death Dresden