Annual Reports

Dear Readers,

2023 got off to a great start for us with the award of a coveted prize for our latest spin-off project “isitec composites”. The business idea, which prevailed against other top-class applications for the Leibniz Association prize worth 50,000 euros, is a novel manufacturing process that can be used to produce pipes for transporting hydrogen very efficiently. It is based on an impregnation technology developed at IVW. The founding team introduces itself on page 71.

Hydrogen was also a central topic of our work in the “WaVe” project, in which new pressure vessels in fiber composite construction were developed for a hydrogen-powered Unimog. We successfully passed the pressure test at 1600 bar (page 38). We are also looking into future storage options for liquid hydrogen. In a project funded by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, we are researching the relationship between thermo-mechanical stress, microcracks, tight-ness and strength (page 32).

Just in time for Rose Monday 2023, six of our doctoral students proved that research can also be communicated in a very humorous way. At the “Science Slam” organized by CU e.V., the task was not only to present the respective topic in a way that was generally understandable, but also as entertaining as possible in a maximum of seven minutes. We have recorded the results for you at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=503w-lrfah8.

Our international IVW colloquium took place again in September with over 20 scientific presentations of the latest work in the fields of Component Development, Materials Science, Manufacturing Science and Digitalization. This time, one session was dedicated to the retirement of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mitschang, and we welcomed Prof. Dr.-Ing. Neumeyer, who has taken over as Research Director of Manufacturing Science at our institute. As in other areas, digitalization is becoming increasingly important in the field of fiber composites. Since the beginning of the year, we have created a new department at IVW for this purpose. With ever more advanced methods, we will succeed in significantly reducing the effort involved in the development and characterization of new fiber composites, their production and component properties, while at the same time improving our understanding (page 17). To this end, we are also a member of the renowned Leibniz Research Network “Mathematical Modeling and Simulation” and are already looking forward to hosting the “MMS Days 2024” at IVW in Kaiserslautern from April 10 to 12, 2024.

We are working on a completely new topic, vitrimers, in the DFG’s Walter Benjamin Program. In the future, these materials could offer the possibility of combining the interesting advantages of thermoplastic fiber composites, such as meltability, formability and weldability, with those of thermoset systems, page 19.

The recruitment of young scientists is and remains one of our major concerns. This summer, we therefore made our fiber composites “tangible” in the truest sense of the word in the ”MI(N)Tmachwelt” at the “Gartenschau” in Kaiserslautern for students from grades 8 to 13 with bicycles, frisbees and ball tracks. We also organized another competition for our students in 2023. Using a few given materials, including glass and carbon fiber fabric with synthetic resin, they had to design, calculate, build and test a means of transport that could transport a full can of Coke undamaged over a distance of 40 m in the shortest possible time. Fiber-reinforced tubular constructions working with positive and negative pressure, 3D-printed Chassis constructions made of polylactic acid plastics with an ingenious rubber traction system, designs working according to the gondola principle and a trebuchet (page 72) were used.

We would like to thank all our partners and customers for their excellent cooperation and wish you all a successful 2024.

Yours sincerely

Ulf Breuer & Pascal Sadaune