From June 20-22, 2012, the Earth Summit 2012 (Rio+20) was held in Rio de Janeiro. The big issues were „Green Economy“ and „Sustainable Development“. Despite different valuations of the results of the summit in politics and media it has become clear: The intelligent management of available natural resources is of great importance in all parts of the world and all economic sectors. Technological progress, a better technical understanding and its practical implementation, must lead to more environment-friendly and affordable products, providing a significant contribution to the improvement of the 7 major problem areas of the world (addressing disasters of natural origin, oceans, water, food supply, urbanization, energy, employment). More than 100 employees at the Institut für Verbundwerkstoffe were successful in generating new knowledge about improved composites, more intelligent structures and optimized production methods. The potential, gained by a combination of polymers, metals, ceramic particles and particular reinforcement materials, e.g. carbon or glass textiles, is as manifold as the requirements with respect to applications in the different technical areas. Whether looking at lightweight structures for airplanes, crash optimized structures for the automotive sector, machine elements with highest reliability for astronautics and mechanical engineering, new fiber composite constructions for wind power systems, bio-composites or devices for sports and leisure: in a team consisting of material scientists, designers and manufacturing experts, our engineers and technicians can always find the best material combination. In 2012 again the technology and knowledge transfer was very important to us. To make sure it is available there, where it is of maximum benefit. We further expanded our competence network Kunststoff-Technologie „Kom-K-Tec“ (www.kom-k-tec.de). About 30 companies and more than 20 cooperation partners are working together to generate new solutions and products made of advanced composites. Further to our presence at the world’s largest composite fair JEC in Paris, the Hannover trade fair, VDI congress and exhibition „Kunststoffe im Automobilbau“ we have once again promoted the international exchange of knowledge by organizing the “Academic Summit” at the IVW from July 1-3, 2012. The meeting of the network in Kaiserslautern, including the renowned Shonan Institute of Technology, Japan, the Pennsylvania State University, USA, the University of Sydney, Australia, the Seoul National University, Korea, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and the IVW was themed “Sustainable, Energy Efficient Composites and Applications”. Another event with international participants was our IVW Composite Colloquium on November 6 and 7, 2012, with interesting contributions covering the areas of automotive, aeronautics, mechanical engineering, sports & leisure and fundamentals.

As you can see: We want you to benefit from our work!