Dr. Michael Emonts, CEO of the Aachen Center for Integrative Lightweight Production (AZL) at RWTH Aachen University explains: "We and our partners see joining as an important enabling technology for the successful and sustainable realisation of cost-efficient and high-quality multi-material systems based on fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP) to achieve the full use of their outstanding lightweight properties".
The university has founded the joining technology department, headed by Professor Dr Uwe Reisgen and Alexander Schiebahn as chief engineer.
Joining different materials with deferring properties or requirements is a well-known challenge. There is potential for advanced material properties at decreased costs, and the aim of the new department is the development of joining technologies which will fit to the material-specific properties of e.g. FRP-Metal combinations, and the integration of these technologies in the process chain.
AZL has 54 industrial partners, from the raw material producer, over moulders, manufacturing equipment suppliers, Tier 1 and Tier 2 to OEMs, from SMEs to large multi-national corporations, from Germany to Mexico, China or Japan.
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