- Email: [email protected]
Professor Dr-Ing. H. Rankers (1925–1988)
Mech. Mach. Theory Vol. 25, No. 1. pp. v-vi, 1990 Printed in Great Britain
0094-114X/90 $3.00 + 0.00 Pergamon Press plc
OBITUARY
PROFESSOR D R - I N G . H . RANKERS
(1925-1988)
It is with great sorrow that we have learned of the death on 21 October 1988 of Professor Dr-Ing. H. Rankers in Delft, The Netherlands. Born in 1925 in Karlsruhe he grew up in Krefeld (F.R.G.) where he studied Mechanical Engineering at the Aachen University of Technology. He conferred his doctor's degree also in Aachen in 1959 on the subject of mechanism synthesis by harmonic analysis of a given periodic goal function. He started his industrial career in Braunschweig as the head of the R&D department of the firm Schmalbach AG. After having occupied leading positions in several companies in the F.R.G. in 1970 he became Director of the Packing-machine Department at the firm Industriewerke Karlsruhe AG in Karlsruhe. In 1972 he went to the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands as a professor in Mechanical Engineering, particularly in Mechanisms and Mechanization of Production. In more than a hundred publications and lectures he presented the results of his scientific research on the synthesis and analysis of mechanisms, mainly in the German language. Particularly he was interested in the computer aided design of mechanisms. Under his leadership a program package named CADOM (Computer Aided Design Of Mechanisms) has been developed at the Delft University of Technology for use in industry in order to design "well working" mechanisms in production machines. As a result of his stimulating activities three theses can be mentioned of which Professor Rankers was the (co-)promotor: Kinematic and dynamic analysis of mechanisms, a finite element approach (Van der Werff, 1977); Kinematic optimization of mechanisms, a finite element approach (Klein Breteler, 1987); Implementation of a flexible link model in a designed robot system, using the finite element method (Drent, 1988).
vi
OBITUARY
For his scientific contributions in the VD1 (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure) he was distinguished with the "Ehrenring" in 1966. He was still a member of several work committees of the VDI. For two periods (1976-1984) he was Treasurer on the Executive Council of the I F T o M M and Chairman of the permanent I F T o M M commission "Cooperation with Industry ''. Amid many marks of respect and with deepest sympathy Professor Rankers has been buried in Krefeld.
0094-114X/90 $3.00 + 0.00 Pergamon Press plc
OBITUARY
PROFESSOR D R - I N G . H . RANKERS
(1925-1988)
It is with great sorrow that we have learned of the death on 21 October 1988 of Professor Dr-Ing. H. Rankers in Delft, The Netherlands. Born in 1925 in Karlsruhe he grew up in Krefeld (F.R.G.) where he studied Mechanical Engineering at the Aachen University of Technology. He conferred his doctor's degree also in Aachen in 1959 on the subject of mechanism synthesis by harmonic analysis of a given periodic goal function. He started his industrial career in Braunschweig as the head of the R&D department of the firm Schmalbach AG. After having occupied leading positions in several companies in the F.R.G. in 1970 he became Director of the Packing-machine Department at the firm Industriewerke Karlsruhe AG in Karlsruhe. In 1972 he went to the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands as a professor in Mechanical Engineering, particularly in Mechanisms and Mechanization of Production. In more than a hundred publications and lectures he presented the results of his scientific research on the synthesis and analysis of mechanisms, mainly in the German language. Particularly he was interested in the computer aided design of mechanisms. Under his leadership a program package named CADOM (Computer Aided Design Of Mechanisms) has been developed at the Delft University of Technology for use in industry in order to design "well working" mechanisms in production machines. As a result of his stimulating activities three theses can be mentioned of which Professor Rankers was the (co-)promotor: Kinematic and dynamic analysis of mechanisms, a finite element approach (Van der Werff, 1977); Kinematic optimization of mechanisms, a finite element approach (Klein Breteler, 1987); Implementation of a flexible link model in a designed robot system, using the finite element method (Drent, 1988).
vi
OBITUARY
For his scientific contributions in the VD1 (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure) he was distinguished with the "Ehrenring" in 1966. He was still a member of several work committees of the VDI. For two periods (1976-1984) he was Treasurer on the Executive Council of the I F T o M M and Chairman of the permanent I F T o M M commission "Cooperation with Industry ''. Amid many marks of respect and with deepest sympathy Professor Rankers has been buried in Krefeld.