The inauguration ceremony in Zittau will strengthen the highly specialized plastics industry in the border triangle.
On November 2, the new building of the Fraunhofer Plastics Center Oberlausitz in the immediate vicinity of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences was officially opened. More than 120 guests from business, politics and research accepted the invitation from the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU. With the new technical center, the best conditions have been created to conduct even more intensive research into the development and testing of lightweight construction technologies in close cooperation with science and industry and to further intensify the transfer of knowledge and technology with the plastics industry in Saxony.
Due to its proximity to the Zittau-Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the universities in Liberec and Wroclaw, the Zittau location offers unique opportunities for close tri-national cooperation between science and industry. A Fraunhofer project group funded by the Free State of Saxony has therefore been working on the development of lightweight construction technologies there since 2011. Together with numerous companies in the region from the fields of plastics and metal processing, vehicle and energy technology as well as container and apparatus construction, application-oriented research projects for technology and product innovations are already being carried out. "With the completion of the new technical center in Zittau and the commissioning of new experimental technology and pilot plants, the best conditions exist for joint R&D activities with a bridging function to Poland and the Czech Republic," explains Prof. Welf-Guntram Drossel, Institute Director of Fraunhofer IWU.
During the celebratory event, renowned representatives from politics and research acknowledged the importance of the new pilot plant and at the same time expressed the expectations associated with it. Speakers included: Dr. Eva-Maria Stange, Saxon State Minister for Science and the Arts; Michael Kretschmer, Member of the Bundestag; Prof. Friedrich Albrecht, Rector of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences; Prof. Reimund Neugebauer, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft; Prof. Sebastian Scholz, head of the Functionally Integrated Plastics Technologies project group at Fraunhofer IWU and holder of the professorship of the same name at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences; Prof. Lothar Kroll, spokesman for the Federal Cluster of Excellence "Technology Fusion for Multifunctional Lightweight Structures - MERGE" at Chemnitz University of Technology; Dr. Martin Kausch, head of the Applied Plastics Technologies department at Fraunhofer IWU.
Dr. Eva-Maria Stange, Saxon State Minister for Science and the Arts, particularly highlighted the excellent cooperation between the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft: "Here in Zittau, I am once again delighted to see how well the respective missions, ambitions and strengths of Fraunhofer and the universities of applied sciences fit together and can be combined synergistically. This is yet another example of how the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and Saxony's universities of applied sciences are working ever more closely together to offer what is needed in the region and beyond: Namely, excellently trained people as well as research results that help companies of all sizes in the region to strengthen their innovative power."
