Fibers are one of the most important reinforcement materials for polymers. Combining fibers with polymer resins significantly increases the mechanical properties of the polymer material. Due to their relatively low weight, fiber-reinforced polymers are often used in the design of lightweight parts typically found in the automotive or airspace industry.

In the research area "Composite Component Production" we deal with the production of continuous fibre reinforced thermoplastic composite components. As a basis for these components, we use so-called unidirectional (UD) fibre-reinforced tapes. With these tapes, the components are reinforced in a tailor-made way in order to achieve the required mechanical properties for the component with a minimum use of fibres.

In the research area “plastics recycling” we deal with the circular economy for plastics. While in chemical recycling and dissolution we only cover specific topics, the focus in mechanical recycling is on the entire process chain. Here we conduct research regarding pre-treatment of plastics waste, converting of plastics waste into recyclate granules, quality control of process steps and material states, and post-treatment of recyclate granules. Furthermore, our research includes the digitalization and digital transformation of all process steps and the linking of offline and inline data.

In the research area "Digitization" we are dealing with the challenges, possibilities, and requirements of digitization for plastics production/recycling. Here, the possibilities of acquiring data from machines and analyzing them for improving the production process as well as product quality are considered. However, these approaches must not be developed and applied without the people in production. Therefore an important focus is the integration of humans to support them in their tasks. In the research area "Digitization" we are dealing with the challenges, possibilities, and requirements of digitization for plastics production/recycling. Here, the possibilities of acquiring data from machines and analyzing them for improving the production process as well as product quality are considered. However, these approaches must not be developed and applied without the people in production. Therefore an important focus is the integration of humans to support them in their tasks.

In the Locomotion Lab we study motion analysis and personalized technologies. In the fields of health, medicine, sports, industry and entertainment, solutions are sought that are personalized, mobile, lightweight and can interact seamlessly with our movements. We are researching new product development methods, exoskeletons, mobile robotics applications (e.g. with drones), and new manufacturing processes that enable these applications.

The main activity of the smart system engineering lab (SSEL) is the adaptation and implementation of various modules of the methodology “Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME)”.

These modules involve both physical model based and data science based modeling and simulations tools for descriptive, predictive and perspective simulation models.