Expert Group: Novel Materials and Special Processes

FG Sonderwerkstoffe und Sonderverfahren.

"Lightweight engineering using multi-material design" – this is the philosophy that guides all work carried out at the Institute of Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology (ILK). Scientists at the ILK achieve the highest possible level of functionality by exploiting a material’s characteristic properties in a targeted way. What is more, they understand that modern lightweight engineering solutions need to go far beyond material substitution alone.

The conscious amalgamation of the outstanding controllability of additive methods with conventional technologies, high-performance fibre-reinforced materials, the adaptability of bionic structures, the predictable failure behaviour of metallic materials and the thermal resistance of ceramics makes it possible to tap into unimagined potential and develop components for an increasingly diverse range of applications. The ILK’s Expert Group on Special Materials and Special Processes has all the expertise required in order to blend technologies and material characteristics to create both generic and tailored solutions.

The Expert Group on Special Materials and Special Processes’ main areas of research focus are application-specific fibre functionalization and additive manufacturing techniques such as the 3D printing of components with continuous fibre reinforcement, electron beam technology for energy-efficient curing of plastics as well as metal matrix composites (MMC), ceramic matrix composites (CMC) and magnetic hybrid materials (MHM).

Our goal is to use the targeted development and refinement of novel hybrid manufacturing processes and highly loadable composites to establish our vision of “additive multi-material lightweight engineering” as one of the leading international manufacturing technologies for multi-layered composite structures with load-specific 3D fibre reinforcement.