At the IKV, a fully digitised research centre for the plastic production of the future has been established. During the opening, NRW Minister Mona Neubauer also joined via video.
Aachen, April 2024 – The Plastics Innovation Center 4.0 (PIC 4.0) at the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) at RWTH Aachen University was officially inaugurated with an opening ceremony. The new center marks a milestone in research and development in the field of plastics production and its digitalization.
© IKVPIC 4.0, which is located on the Melaten Campus, presents itself as a state-of-the-art research center equipped with a fully digitised infrastructure. This infrastructure enables comprehensive and practical research into the challenges of digitalisation in plastics production. The construction of PIC 4.0 was supported by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) with a total financial volume of 19.5 million euros.
The PIC 4.0 serves as an important point of contact for medium-sized companies in the plastics industry to receive support with technical and organisational issues in connection with digitalised processes. At the same time, innovative technologies and approaches to digitalisation are tested here in order to make abstract concepts tangible for industrial application and their benefits transparent.
Mauritius Schmitz, Scientific Director for Digitalisation at IKV, presented PIC 4.0 and its objectives. He emphasised the importance of digital methods to overcome the complexity of the challenges in plastics production. The PIC 4.0 is closely linked to the Internet of Production Cluster of Excellence at RWTH Aachen University and acts as one of the hubs for pioneering research in the field of digital engineering on the Melaten campus.
The opening of the PIC 4.0 was attended by personalities from politics, science and business, including NRW Minister Mona Neubaur, who praised the center in a video message and emphasised its strategic importance for the transformation to a circular plastics economy, which must also be a digitalised economy. The Rector of RWTH Aachen University, Professor Ulrich Rüdiger, also emphasised the central importance of PIC 4.0 for the entire RWTH Aachen University and the Internet of Production Cluster of Excellence. He welcomed the opening and emphasised the university’s and IKV’s passion for research. He expressed his firm belief that pioneering technologies will be researched at PIC 4.0 that can be successfully transferred into industrial practice. He also paid tribute to the creation of the center, which was realized as a courageous project despite challenging circumstances during the construction phase. While supply chains had been disrupted since 2020 during the construction phase and building materials were subject to extreme price increases, a deadline that had to be met for the planned financing hovered over everything. In view of this, he is all the more pleased about the successful cooperation between IKV and RWTH Aachen University, in which very good and consensual decisions were made at key points, which contributed to the success of the project.
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© IKVBernd Reifenhäuser, CEO of the Reifenhäuser Group and Deputy Chairman of the IKV Sponsors’ Association, highlighted the business challenges and opportunities of digitalization. He emphasized the crucial role of PIC 4.0 as a test laboratory for innovative ideas before they are transferred into industrial practice. As the managing director of a medium-sized company, he knows from experience that digitalisation requires a comprehensive rethink. “Digitalization not only means introducing new technologies, but also adapting and expanding knowledge, procedures and qualifications. The opportunity to test ideas on a laboratory scale before they are transferred to industrial practice on a large scale can save companies a lot of time and money. PIC 4.0 offers all possible starting points for this.”
Reifenhäuser and IKV Institute Director Professor Christian Hopmann concluded by expressing their delight at the start-up and entrepreneurial spirit of the Institute’s two latest spin-offs, OSPHIM and Layer Performance, which have already successfully turned ideas from research into digitalization at PIC 4.0 into marketable products and solutions. The short presentation by Louisa Desel, co-founder of the start-up OSPHIM, showed how intelligent process optimisation in injection moulding can work with the help of data-based methods and expert knowledge. Layer Performance is also focusing on the possibilities of digitalisation and developing software that enables the creation of three-dimensional machine paths for additive manufacturing. Both companies represent the courage and innovative spirit that the plastics industry now needs, emphasized Bernd Reifenhäuser in conclusion, before all visitors to the opening ceremony were invited to take a live tour of the PIC 4.0.
The PIC 4.0 at IKV represents a pioneering initiative to strengthen the plastics industry through digitalisation and make it fit for the future. It is expected that the facility will make a significant contribution to the further development of the industry.