Expert Group: Neutral Lightweight Engineering
The Neutral Lightweight Engineering group conducts research on interdisciplinary
sustainability-oriented issues in the context of lightweightdesign. Guided by the ILK concept of neutral lightweight engineering, we explicitly include in our research and development not only the technical and economic criterial but also the ecological and social aspects along the entire product or material life cycle. The positive vision of neutral lightweight engineering is a resource-neutral circular economy.
In particular, we address sustainability-oriented development processes for lightweight systems, the recycling of lightweight materials, resource-saving production technologies, lightweight design with materials from renewable resources, and life cycle analyses of lightweight products and technologies.
A current focus is the recycling of large-scale FRP structures from the wind power and aerospace industries and the reuse of the recycled fibers obtained in the process in lightweight components. Above that we are investigating the waste-free production of hybrid thermoplastic lightweight structures and researching how material properties change as a result of recycling and can still be reliably predicted.
It is crucial for us that, in addition to recycling, other R-strategies like repair, reuse, refurbish or remanufacture and the resulting value chains are also considered in the future product development.
© Tanja Kirsten
Dr.-Ing. Robert Kupfer
Head of Neutral Lightweigt Engineering
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Institute of Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology
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DÜR, Floor 2, Room 260b Holbeinstr. 3
01307 Dresden
Deutschland