Plastics and composites processing

In an era domi­na­ted by jet pla­nes, pro­pel­ler air­craft seem some­what nost­al­gic. Aero­ba­tics, such as Mar­tin Albrecht, mem­ber of the natio­nal aero­ba­tics team, howe­ver, give impres­si­ve pro­of with their flights that the­re is cer­tain­ly not­hing nost­al­gic to their acti­vi­ties. The blades are mil­led from woo­den blocks on our high-qua­li­ty CNC-machi­nes accor­ding to CAD/CAM specifications.

The major cli­ents of Sten­ge­le Holz- und Kunst­stoff­tech­nik GmbH, such as Hymer, Car­tha­go, Dethl­effs, Fendt and others, install its com­pon­ents in all vehic­les. Their pro­duc­tion sec­tor uses most advan­ced tech­no­lo­gies, such as the 5‑axes CNC-machi­ning cen­tres from Rei­chen­ba­cher, to ensu­re con­ti­nuous top machi­ning quality.

And when, as is the case here, a pre­mi­um manu­fac­tu­rer from the Ger­man auto­mo­ti­ve sec­tor pre­fers his com­pon­ents to be machi­ned in a par­ti­cu­lar way, Fau­re­cia will make an invest­ment in a spe­cial-pur­po­se machi­ne to ensu­re the manu­fac­tu­re of superb inte­ri­or parts. The Rei­chen­ba­cher line at Fau­re­cia has been in ope­ra­ti­on sin­ce the end of 2017 and has exclu­si­ve­ly been pro­du­cing high-gloss deco­ra­ti­ve parts for the dash­boards at the dri­ver and pas­sen­ger side, as well as for the cent­re con­so­le, of the Audi Q8.

If enter­tain­ment elec­tro­nics com­pa­nies are to be sup­pli­ed with glos­sy acrylic panels for high-end appli­ca­ti­ons, the sur­faces won’t tole­ra­te even the sligh­test flaw. In order to remain com­pe­ti­ti­ve, the two direc­tors had to ensu­re plan­ning relia­bi­li­ty for the enti­re work pro­cess. This abso­lut­e­ly neces­si­ta­ted the expan­si­on of their machi­nery by an effi­ci­ent 5‑axes CNC-mil­ling machine.

In Coburg the name says it all: ‘Uni­ver­si­ty of Appli­ed Sci­en­ces’. Tho­se respon­si­ble at the Insti­tu­te for Pro­to­ty­pes and Model Tech­no­lo­gy (IPM) have inter­na­li­sed this phi­lo­so­phy. They com­bi­ne theo­ry and prac­ti­ce and see them­sel­ves as deve­lo­p­ment ser­vice pro­vi­ders for indus­try and craft sectors.

In gene­ral, in the air­craft indus­try even the smal­lest devia­ti­on in the pre­cis­i­on of com­po­nent machi­ning is unwan­ted. This demand is made on num­e­rous com­pon­ents of mili­ta­ry and civil air­craft and machi­ning accu­ra­cy is the most important cri­ter­ion for machi­ne manufacturers.

The name Meca­plex comes up when­ever it is about trans­pa­ren­ci­es. Almost all gli­ders manu­fac­tu­red in Euro­pe, but also busi­ness and mili­ta­ry jets, are pro­vi­ded with their panes. The Swiss com­pa­ny is spe­cia­li­sed in the three-dimen­sio­nal forming of acrylic glass wit­hout opti­cal dis­tor­ti­on and their know­how is met with world-wide appreciation.

Its out­stan­ding degree of spe­cia­li­sa­ti­on when deal­ing with dif­fe­rent tech­no­lo­gies for the pro­ces­sing of orga­nic mate­ri­als makes Gaug­ler & Lutz uni­que in the mar­ket. The busi­ness sec­tor, whe­re they have achie­ved an excel­lent repu­ta­ti­on as a manu­fac­tu­rer of semi-finis­hed pro­ducts over more than three deca­des, is the pre­do­mi­nant one at a share in the sales volu­me of up to 80 percent.

If it comes to being whis­ked off into a lively world full of fasci­na­ting dis­co­veries, most pro­ba­b­ly Hüt­tin­ger will have been invol­ved. In kee­ping with the mot­to: the visi­tors should enjoy the set­tings and have the pos­si­bi­li­ty of making full use of the latest didac­tic deve­lo­p­ments to absorb the tech­ni­cal and sci­en­ti­fic facts pre­sen­ted at various inter­ac­ti­ve stations. 

Iku­form GmbH offers cus­to­mi­sed solu­ti­ons for almost any field of modern pla­s­tics engi­nee­ring. At first sight, they sup­p­ly unspec­ta­cu­lar parts, but wit­hout the­se parts an effi­ci­ent pro­duc­tion flow would often be impos­si­ble. For tho­se in char­ge, tech­no­lo­gy is a key com­po­nent of success.

They had the theo­re­ti­cal know­ledge and a bril­li­ant idea to boot: Five stu­dents from the School of Engi­nee­ring and Design at the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty of Munich foun­ded the TUfast e.V. asso­cia­ti­on in 2002 to deve­lop racing cars for For­mu­la Stu­dent in prac­ti­ce. Rei­chen­ba­cher sup­ports this pro­ject with know-how and human capital.

Many impul­ses for new methods of appli­ca­ti­on or mate­ri­als have their ori­g­ins in rese­arch labo­ra­to­ries. This also appli­es to the Labo­ra­to­ry for Digi­tal Pro­duct Deve­lo­p­ment and Manu­fac­tu­ring (LDPF) at Trier Uni­ver­si­ty of Appli­ed Sci­en­ces, which is inten­se­ly con­cer­ned with ques­ti­ons of sus­taina­bi­li­ty and mobi­li­ty of the future. A CNC machi­ning cent­re from our com­pa­ny is the core of the actu­al imple­men­ta­ti­on in pro­to­ty­pe and mould con­s­truc­tion.

Incre­asing urba­ni­sa­ti­on ever­y­whe­re around the glo­be asks for ever more effi­ci­ent and low-emis­si­on sys­tems in public trans­port and sta­tio­na­ry indus­tri­al plants. Airex Com­po­si­te Struc­tures knew at an ear­ly stage that cle­ver light­weight con­s­truc­tion is a pre­con­di­ti­on for the effi­ci­ent move­ment of weight, for effort­less acce­le­ra­ti­on and for excel­lent mecha­ni­cal performance.

When con­ven­tio­nal clam­ping tech­no­lo­gy rea­ches its limits, solu­ti­ons such as “clam­ping with ice” are nee­ded. The advan­ta­ges are obvious, becau­se this fas­tening tech­no­lo­gy makes it pos­si­ble to clamp even work­pie­ces made of dif­fi­cult mate­ri­als or geo­me­tries. And it does so very fle­xi­bly and at a much lower cost than con­ven­tio­nal techniques.