Rainer Müller (engineer)

Rainer Müller (* 1933 in Saxony ; † around 2005 in Leipzig ) was a German engineer and professor for automation technology specializing in control technology and project planning, as well as co-founder of the training of qualified engineers for automation systems in Germany .

Live and act

Rainer Müller was born in Saxony in 1933 . From 1939 to 1947 he attended elementary school and then a high school , where he graduated from high school in 1951 . He completed his studies in thermal engineering at the Technical University of Dresden . At the same time he found close connections to the Institute for Automatic Control (Director: Heinrich Kindler ). He graduated as a qualified engineer (Dipl.-Ing.) In 1957 in the field of thermal engineering with a specialization in measurement, control and regulation technology.

His studies were followed in 1957 by starting his career with an engineering internship as a development and project planning engineer for control and actuation technology in the device and controller factories (GRW) in Teltow near Berlin . In 1961 he switched to the energy project planning company in Berlin , where he worked practically as a project planning engineer.

From 1965 Müller took up a scientific position at the Technical University of Ilmenau in the Institute for Control Engineering (Director: Karl Reinisch ). During this time he developed his thesis on the subject of positioning technology with which he in 1970 Doctor of Engineering (Dr.-Ing.) Doctorate . At the same time, he completed an additional course in engineering pedagogy .

He was then appointed as a university lecturer (equivalent to C3 professor ) at the engineering college in Jena , where he continued his work in the field of automation technology. In particular, during this time he worked on his habilitation thesis on the planning of the automation of process engineering systems. In 1974 he obtained his doctorate in science (Doctor scientiae technicarum, Dr. sc. Techn.) At the TH Magdeburg; 1990 Conversion of the “Dr. sc. techn. "in" Dr.-Ing. habil. ". Here in Magdeburg, he also acquired his teaching qualification ( facultas docendi ) for the field of automation technology.

Leipzig, Wächterstrasse 13, former building of the TH Leipzig for the two sections of automation systems and electrical energy systems, today Wiener-Bau : Faculty building of the HTWK

In 1975 Rainer Müller was appointed full professor for the planning of automation systems at the engineering college in Leipzig, which was given the status of Technical University Leipzig (THL) in 1977 . Here in the Automation Systems section (Director: Werner Richter ) he continued the lectures and seminars he had begun in Ilmenau and Jena in the subjects of project planning , control technology and process engineering for students of electrical engineering.

Further research and development work by Müller related to new positioning technology (patents pending). Fundamental research and applications for the planning of automation systems were also carried out.

As head of the scientific project planning department in the automation systems section , Müller played a key role in developing and actively shaping the training of qualified engineers in the specialization for automation systems, which is unique in the German-speaking region . At the TH Leipzig, in close cooperation with the Electrical Power Systems section (Director: Siegfried Altmann ), the technological profile line Systems of electrical engineering in training and research developed.

A novelty and a specialty in the GDR was in the automation systems section of the industrial-university complex system automation (IHK) founded in 1980 . The three industrial companies or combines device and control works Leipzig, chemical plant construction Leipzig-Grimma and Starkstromanlagenbau Leipzig-Halle as well as the TH Leipzig jointly financed the personnel positions and material costs of the IHK, so that the engineers employed here at short notice problems in terms of project planning ( Müller chair) and technology transfer ( Richter , Balzer , Ehrlich , Kriesel chairs ). This Chamber of Industry and Commerce was headed by the associate professor and former plant manager Werner Bennewitz , supported by the Vice Rector for Natural and Technical Sciences Dietrich Balzer and most recently had 60 permanent employees; it was dissolved in the course of German reunification in 1990. The IHK concept at that time was similar in its function and structure to today's third-party funded research in an affiliated institute with transfer tasks from research to application.

Müller coped with a considerable range of tasks, including scientific and social functions, which he performed. He worked in particular in the Scientific and Technical Society of Measurement and Automation Technology (WGMA) in the Berlin Chamber of Technology (President: Dagmar Hülsenberg ). With the reunification, these contacts were transferred to the VDI / VDE Society for Measurement and Automation Technology (GMA) in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt am Main.

These collaborations made it possible for him, together with the other scientific areas of his section, to undertake extensive research projects in collaboration with the automation industry, in particular with a focus on "pre-run for future automation systems" (device and controller works in Teltow).

Overall, Müller has achieved high recognition at home and abroad for the project planning research area he heads in the automation systems section of the TH Leipzig thanks to its special application orientation. He and his employees have thus created one of the largest university institutions exclusively specializing in the planning of automation systems in German-speaking countries. In his specialty project planning , he maintained particularly close working contacts with the TH Magdeburg and the TU Dresden ( Heinz Töpfer ) as well as the TH Merseburg ( Georg Brack ).

Müller prepared over 50 reports on dissertations, over 10 reports on post-doctoral qualifications and reports for the economy.

He is the author and co-author of more than 10 textbooks and specialist books with multiple editions as well as around 150 articles in specialist journals and proceedings. He has given over 50 specialist lectures at scientific conferences in Germany and abroad. As a co-owner, he was involved in more than 20 patents.

In cooperation with Manfred Engshuber from the Bergakademie Freiberg , he also dealt specifically with process engineering for automation technology; the results have been compiled in a book by both authors.

When the gradual closure of the TH Leipzig was decided after the German reunification within a time window from 1992 to 1996 and after the establishment of a university for technology, economy and culture (HTWK) for 1992 (founding rector was his former colleague Klaus Steinbock ), Müller changed to the state government of Brandenburg in Potsdam . Here he took on tasks in the field of environmental protection.

Rainer Müller was married to Eva Müller; The two sons Karsten Müller (doctor) and Ingo Müller (Dipl.-Ing.) emerged from the marriage.

Publications (selection)

• More than 20 patents, mainly in the field of positioning technology, registered in Germany and abroad and used by industry.
• Johannes Müller, Rainer Müller: Control devices for material flows. Verlag Technik, Berlin 1966.
• Automation systems - accessories, maintenance, economy and planning. Automation technology series, Volume 72. Verlag Technik, Berlin 1968, Vieweg Verlag, Braunschweig 1969.
• Process engineering and automation. Automation technology series, Volume 114. Verlag Technik, Berlin 1971.
• Johannes Müller, Rainer Müller: Advances in control technology for material flows. Automation technology series, Volume 139. Verlag Technik, Berlin 1973.
• Project planning of automation systems. Automation technology series, Volume 170. Verlag Technik, Berlin 1975.
• Rainer Müller (eds.), Horst Birnstiel, Werner Kriesel , Hans Podszuweit, Heinz Wolf: Project planning for automation systems. Verlag Technik, Berlin 1979, 2nd edition 1982.
• Manfred Engshuber, Rainer Müller: Basics of process engineering for automation engineers. German publishing house for basic industry, Leipzig 1979.
• Manfred Engshuber, Rainer Müller, Dieter Schilk, Werner Stölzel: Basics of process engineering for automation engineers. 2nd Edition. German publishing house for basic industry, Leipzig 1993, ISBN 978-3-342-00484-4 .
• Rainer Müller, Werner Bettenhäuser: Control technology for system automation (textbook). Oldenbourg Industrieverlag, Munich; Vienna 1995, ISBN 978-3-8356-2115-2 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Rainer Müller in the catalog of the German National Library

literature

• Dietrich Werner, D. Herrmann: msr introduces: Technical University of Leipzig - Automation Systems Section. In: measure, control, regulate, Berlin. Vol. 26, No. 9, 1983, pp. 527-531.
• Werner Kriesel , Hans Rohr, Andreas Koch: History and future of measurement and automation technology. VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, ISBN 3-18-150047-X .
• Jürgen Bergmann: Text and exercise book automation and process control technology. An introduction for engineers and business economists. Specialized book publisher in Carl Hanser Verlag, Leipzig / Munich 1999.
• 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, 2006, No. 9, pp. 462-472.
• Eugen-Georg Woschni : Life in three German states - A Saxon reports. Tauchaer Verlag, Taucha / Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-89772-215-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kurt J. Reinschke: memory of Heinrich Kindler , first Professor of Control Engineering at the Technical University Dresden. In: Automation technology, Munich. Vol. 58, No. 06, 2010, pp. 345-347.
2. ↑ Lothar Starke: From hydraulic regulators to process control systems. The success story of the Askania works in Berlin and the device and controller works in Teltow. 140 years of industrial history, tradition and future. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8305-1715-3 .
3. ^ Karl Reinisch : Cybernetic basics and description of continuous systems . Verlag Technik, Berlin 1974 as well as analysis and synthesis of continuous control systems. Verlag Technik, Berlin 1979.
4. ^ Rainer Müller: Dimensioning of throttle actuators. Dissertation, TU Dresden, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Dresden 1967.
5. ^ Rainer Müller: Investigations into the planning and production processing of the automation of process engineering systems and the necessary facilities. Habilitation thesis (dissertation B), Otto von Guericke University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Magdeburg 1974.