From September 26–28, new trends and current developments in the field of natural fiber-reinforced plastics (NFK) were discussed at the Peter-Dierich Building in Zittau.
While September 28 was reserved for a closed-door partnership meeting, during which the project partners exchanged views on the current status of their work, the first two days were organized as a scientific symposium.
The event kicked off with two evening presentations that focused not on NFK as a material, but on the path toward its development from an IT perspective. Dr. Klimant (Chemnitz University of Technology) spoke about the possibilities ofaugmented and virtual reality in mechanical and plant engineering, while Prof. Lässig (HSZG) focused on the security of IT infrastructures, which are also gaining importance in Industry 4.0 approaches.
On September 27, the focus finally shifted entirely to NFK. Various speakers highlighted current developments. Topics ranged from hybrid construction methods (Dr. Rinberg, Chemnitz University of Technology) and their applications in automotive engineering (Dr. Becker, Yanfeng Automotive Interiors), bio-inspired approaches to NFK modeled after the coconut (Dr. Graupner, Bremen University of Applied Sciences), to seagrass-based oil absorbers (Diplom-Ing. Siegel & Diplom-Ing. Unbehaun, Dresden University of Technology). Not only these, but also many other presentations and poster presentations sparked discussion. The program can be viewed again here. To conclude the day, Prof. Kreisel gave a presentation titled “How Green Is Green, Really?” on life cycle assessments, prompting both smiles and reflection on this complex topic.
“The breadth of the program, which combined topics from both basic and applied research, was impressive and demonstrated the potential—which still exists and is far from exhausted—for further research on NFK. I am convinced that NFK has significant advantages over other fiber-reinforced materials—for example, in recycling—but these advantages still need to be put into practice.”
This is the assessment of Prof. Dr. Weber, the partnership spokesperson for the LaNDER³ project, regarding the symposium.
During the closed-door partnership meeting, project staff presented the status of their subprojects, which led to valuable discussions. Mr. Prescher from Strucnamics GmbH, in a sense, bridged the gap back to the first day of the symposium—which focused on data and IT in the production process—by presenting an SME project planned within the initiative on the topic of process data analysis and networking.
We would like to extend our special thanks to the industry partners in attendance (kluge GmbH, SWR metalfloat, and Scholz Recycling GmbH, RTT Steinert GmbH, and ULT AG), including the chair of the LaNDER³ advisory board, Dr. Socher (BASF Schwarzheide GmbH), for their insights and participation. Further thanks go to the staff of the Technical Administration & Facility Services division for their active support.
Contact:
Dr. Matthias Kinne
Project Manager
matthias.kinne@hszg.de
www.hszg.de/LaNDER3