With the CRC/TRR 402, RWTH Aachen, TU Chemnitz, and TU Dresden are jointly laying the foundation to sustainably advance plastic lightweight construction.
The German Research Foundation (DFG) approved the funding for the new Collaborative Research Center (SFB) “Intelligent Production Technologies for Plastic Lightweight Structures with Load-Dependent 3D Grading of the Reinforcement Architecture” on November 22, 2024. With this, RWTH Aachen, TU Chemnitz, and TU Dresden are jointly launching a groundbreaking research project that can secure up to twelve years of research at the highest level.
© IKVThree leading lightweight construction locations pool their expertise
With RWTH Aachen, TU Chemnitz and TU Dresden, three renowned universities and leading locations in the field of lightweight construction are working on this joint project. “This collaboration combines outstanding expertise in plastics technology, simulation and materials research,” emphasises Prof. Hopmann. “Together, we have laid the foundations to revolutionise the production of lightweight structures in the coming years.”
The new SFB is coordinated by Chemnitz University of Technology under the leadership of spokesperson Prof. Dr.-Ing Lothar Kroll. “An SFB is the Champions League of research, so to speak, and the approval is the result of an intensive and competitive application process that we mastered together with our partners,” explains Prof. Kroll. Prof. Christian Hopmann is also delighted with the decision: “The approval shows how relevant our research project is for science and industry, especially with regard to the urgently needed measures for more sustainability in mobility.”
Pioneering research for sustainable mobility
The aim of the new CRC is to develop resource-efficient lightweight plastic components that stand out thanks to load-appropriate reinforcement architectures. This offers enormous potential for the automotive and aviation industries in particular: the combination of innovative materials and processes should enable the development of components that are light, stable and recyclable.
In the first funding phase, the CRC will focus in particular on research into technologies and manufacturing processes that integrate both continuous and discontinuous fiber reinforcements. This combination allows the material to be designed to withstand stresses and makes the components suitable for mass production. At the same time, great importance is attached to sustainability: Recycling strategies are already taken into account during the development phase in order to optimise the entire life cycle of the products.
In the first funding phase, the research team will develop two demonstrators – a profile and a flat structure element – which will serve as a test environment for the new technologies. With each additional year of funding, the complexity of the components will increase in order to meet the requirements of the industry in the long term.