Plastics technicians among themselves

Anyone who passed by the Fraunhofer Institute’s new technical center in Zittau on the afternoon of December 8, 2016, might have gotten the impression that a brigade of hardworking little elves was making preparations for the upcoming Christmas celebration. Of course, they weren’t little elves, but the students majoring in plastics engineering from Liberec and Zittau were certainly hard at work. As part of the joint project “GreK” (Cross-Border Teaching Consortium for Plastics Technology Zittau-Liberec), the first German-Czech plastics technology internship took place in Zittau, in which students from the universities of Zittau/Görlitz and Liberec participated in a joint demonstration internship.

The goal of such an internship is to provide students with a practical illustration of what is taught and explored theoretically in lectures and seminars. Experience has shown that students’ motivation and learning success are significantly higher when they can experience the practical significance of the course material firsthand. For example, during the internship in Zittau, various reinforcing textiles were processed with epoxy resins to gain insight into how lightweight and extremely stable fiber-reinforced composite components can be manufactured, which are used, for example, in rotor blades for wind turbines or in aircraft construction.

The students learned in the test hall at the Rucks press facility that hot-pressing fiber-reinforced plastic parts is an art in itself, the students learned in the test hall at the Rucks press facility, where, at pressures exceeding 2,000 kN, so-called “organic sheets” are formed and lightweight components suitable for large-scale production—e.g., for the automotive industry—are manufactured. Only a carefully calibrated balance between temperature, pressure, and time results in components that meet customer requirements in terms of functionality and appearance. These and other insights—such as the production of complex components using a 3D printer—were gained during the half-day internship.

Just two weeks earlier, the students from Zittau had gained a practical insight into how blow molding and injection molding processes work, during which everyday objects, as well as heavy-duty components such as car bumpers, are produced from plastics. What makes the collaboration with the Technical University of Liberec in the department of plastics engineering unique is that the Czech colleagues also have a state-of-the-art technical center, although it is equipped with different testing facilities than those in Zittau. By combining the technical facilities and subject-specific competence in Zittau and Liberec, students on both sides of the border are offered a broad field in which they can gain extensive practical insights into the world of modern plastics and lightweight construction technologies. Companies and research institutions are increasingly emphasizing the great importance of a good education in this industrial sector, as they are actively seeking young engineers and executives in this growing segment.

Following this successful start, the internship exchange will continue in earnest. Next on the agenda is a field trip to MAGNA in Liberec, which has become the market leader in the manufacture of injection-molded components for the automotive industry. In return, an excursion to RCS in Königsbrück will take place at the beginning of the new year; among other things, this company manufactures the front grilles for ICE trains from fiber-reinforced plastics and also aims to offer students the opportunity to get hands-on experience in the production of lightweight fiber-reinforced composite components. With this in mind, we wish all project participants continued lively and successful collaboration.

Further information in Czech can be found here.