Pagliari presented the paper “An experimental analysis of the gear tooth bending strength predictions from ISO 6336 in low and high cycle fatigue”, developed in collaboration with Isaac Hong from the GearLab at The Ohio State University and Franco Concli, professor at our Faculty of Engineering and head of the Materials Characterization Lab at unibz. 

The conference, organized every two years by VDI Wissensforum GmbH and the FZG Gear Research Center (Technical University of Munich), gathered 475 participants from 30 countries, with over 140 contributions between talks and posters. Winning an award in this setting means standing out at the very heart of European gear research. 

Pagliari’s research investigates how gears behave under low cycle fatigue conditions, a type of stress that occurs when components are subjected to extremely high loads. Unlike ordinary operation, this situation pushes the material close to its limits, making predictions much more complex. Standard design rules offer little guidance in this borderline range, which is critical in fields where safety and performance are paramount, such as aerospace, aviation and high-performance racing. 

To address this challenge, Pagliari carried out an extensive experimental campaign during his research stay at Ohio State University. Gears were tested under different load conditions until failure, allowing researchers to map how long they last under extreme stresses. “Unlike traditional tests on simple material samples, these experiments focused on actual gears, whose geometry and manufacturing processes significantly affect their performance. Our results will help develop more reliable models to predict gear behaviour in demanding scenarios: an essential step to ensure both safety and innovation in advanced engineering applications”, explains Lorenzo Pagliari. 

With this achievement, the unibz Materials Characterization Lab crowns a remarkable year: in the past twelve months, it has been awarded at all three of the world’s leading gear conferences - VDI in Europe, AGMA and STLE in the USA - a unique recognition of its cutting-edge contributions to the field.