Optical analysis and modeling of UD tape impregnation

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10.12.2025 | events
Launch of KI4KI: Artificial intelligence for the plastics industry

On 25 November 2026, nine companies launched the KI4KI consortium project at the Plastic Innovation Centre 4.0 at the IKV. At the kick-off event, the partners’ key requirements were analysed, initial AI use cases were identified and valuable insights from the

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Bachelor’s Thesis or Master’s Thesis

Implementation of an optical measurement system with digital image processing for the analysis of the impregnation process of fiber-reinforced semi-finished products

Topic of the thesis:

The thesis deals with the implementation of an optical measuring system for monitoring the impregnation progress of fibers in a melt impregnation tool for the production of UD tape. The special feature of the Mould are the viewing windows, which allow the progressive impregnation of the fibers to be observed and evaluated using camera analysis.

Stuwi-Optische Analyse und Modellierung von UD-Tape Impraegnierung — Melt impregnation for UD tapes

The work is related to this research project:

The research project is a sub-project of the DediGrad Collaborative Research Center and deals with the production of graded, fiber-reinforced semi-finished products. Various tapes, profiles and press compounds are produced with different fiber volume contents and partly recycled plastics. The grading of the fiber volume content in the semi-finished product reduces the stiffness jumps between the layers and thus contributes to a longer service life of the components produced from it. The semi-finished products we produce are then integrated into components in other sub-projects of the Collaborative Research Center.

Objective:

The aim of the work is to be able to measure the impregnation over the tool length so that this can be predicted in future on the basis of the process parameters. For this purpose, cameras are attached to the viewing windows of the mold and the light transmission of the melt and fibers is measured. This is analyzed using greyscale evaluation and correlated with the pore content of the UD tape. Various process points are controlled in order to model the quality of the tape and the impregnation speed depending on these parameters.

Your task:

For a Bachelor's thesis, you will work on the following tasks:	For a Master's thesis, you will work on the following tasks:
Installation of the camera system in the system	Installation of the camera system in the system
Experiments based on an experimental design	Experiments based on an experimental design
	Development of a model for predicting tape quality

Your profile:

Technical or scientific degree (mechanical engineering, materials science, CES, industrial engineering)
Affinity for technology, creativity and willingness to learn
Independent, conscientious and team-oriented way of working

If you are interested in writing your thesis at IKV and in this task, please get in touch with me. We agree on the exact scope of content and schedule individually.