15 years after the foundation of the University of Kaiserslautern (1970) the chair for Design in Mechanical Engineering (KIMA) was founded in 1985 in the former faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Wüstenberg was the first head of this chair.

In october 2004 Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Wüstenberg handed over the well-organized chair to his successor, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Schindler.

Under the leadership of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Wüstenberg and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Schindler almost 40  doctorates and over  900 student works were successfully completed.

At the beginning of the year 2016 the long-standing head of the KIMA-chair, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Schindler, changed to the RWTH Aachen, where he now is head of the IFS (Institute of Rail Vehicles and Transport Systems).

Until a successor is appointed the KIMA-chair is managed by the supervising engineer, Dr.-Ing. Nicole Stephan (operational head) and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd Sauer (provisional head).