Participating Institutes
In the Research Center Carbon Fibers (RCCF) on April 18, 2016, two institutes of the Technische Universität Dresden combined their expertise in the field of carbon fibres. The centre will be made up of scientists from the Institute for Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology (ILK) and the Institute for Textile Machinery and High-Performance Textile Materials Technology (ITM), who will develop integrated development chains from the fibre raw material to the finished component.
Institute for Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology (ILK)
The Institute for Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology (ILK) is a research institute of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Transport Sciences "Friedrich List" of the Technische Universität Dresden. Around 240 employees carry out extensive research and development work in the field of resource-saving lightweight engineering with high material and energy efficiency. The work at the ILK is characterised by the Dresden model of a "functional integrative system lightweight design in multi-material design" and is based on a cross-material and cross-product approach. When developing new concepts, processes and products, the scientists at the ILK consider the entire development chain: material - design - simulation - production - prototype tests - quality assurance - costs. The ILK is headed by a four-member board of directors: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Maik Gude (Professorship for Lightweight Design and Structural Assessment), Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Hubert Jäger (Professorship for System Lightweight Construction and Mixed Construction), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Niels Modler (Professorship for Function Integrative Lightweight Construction) and Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Prof. E.h. Dr. h.c. Werner Hufenbach (Senior Professorship).
Institute for Textile Machinery and High Performance Textile Materials Technology (ITM)
The research activities at the Institute for Textile Machinery and High Performance Textile Materials Technology (ITM) at TU Dresden under the direction of Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Dipl.-Wirt. Chokri Cherif are focused on the areas of machine, technology and product development (fibre composites, construction textiles, bio- and medical textiles, textiles for sensor networks/functional textiles, ready-made products/reforming). These include the processing of fibre-based high-tech materials, in particular carbon, glass, aramid, steel and ceramic fibres, using various processing technologies, as well as the function-integrated development of textile semi-finished products and textile products. The research activities are complemented by the modelling and simulation of structures and processes along the entire textile chain.
The textile value chain was extended by the commissioning of a bicomponent melt spinning plant as part of the "Support-the-Best" excellence initiative of the TU Dresden. In addition to the already existing highly flexible solvent wet spinning plant for the spinning of e.g. PAN precursor fibres for carbon fibres with the highly modular melt spinning plant, ITM now also has the possibility to further expand the competences of fibre spinning in the field of technical thermoplastics such as polyether ether ketones (PEEK) as well as biobased materials such as lignins.
In addition, the ITM has a very well developed infrastructure with state-of-the-art machinery and equipment along the entire textile process chain.