Making process chains in additive manufacturing more resource-efficient - that is the goal of the new CZS Center for Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency using Additive Manufacturing Technologies(Center KRAFt). Aalen University of Applied Sciences, the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld of Trier University of Applied Sciences and the Karlsruhe Department, Institute of Technology (KIT) are involved in this project. The Carl Zeiss Foundation (CZS) is supporting the scheme, enterprise, aim, goal with twelve million euros.
The opening ceremony and symbolic handover of the cheque took place last Thursday at the Birkenfeld Environmental Campus of Trier University of Applied Sciences. The newly founded research network addresses the careful use of limited resources such as raw materials and Energy, one of the most pressing challenges of our time. The researchers are using the potential of additive manufacturing for this purpose. It makes it possible to develop new types of components with high functionality and to use recycled secondary materials in additive plastic and metal processes for resource-efficient production. This allows resources to be saved during product manufacture, but also during the production process.
Within the Center, ten interdisciplinary working groups cover the entire additive manufacturing process chain for plastics, metals and technical ceramics - from precise material characterization and the analysis of material and energy data to the development of improved manufacturing processes and optimized products. The Center's aim is to obtain high-quality primary materials and to make the entire process chain in additive manufacturing more resource-efficient. In addition to optimizing ecological and economic parameters, the participants also carry out comprehensive life cycle analyses. In this way, they want to demonstrate and visualize the extent to which the integrated use of secondary materials contributes to reducing the use of primary raw materials. The Center is also pursuing the goal of recording and optimizing energy chains in detail in order to make a sustainable contribution to conserving resources. Cooperation, cooperative venture, partnership, collaboration with 24 external cooperation partners, mainly from industry, is also intended to ensure the transferability of the newly developed solutions to a wide range of application fields.
Under the motto "With innovative additive manufacturing, we are creating the basis for a sustainable and resource-conserving future", the project managers (Prof. Dr. Michael Wahl, overall project manager at the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld; Prof. Dr. Iman Taha, site manager at Aalen University of Applied Sciences and Prof. Dr. Frederik Zanger, site manager at KIT) officially launched the new Center. Dr. Felix Streiter, Managing Director of the Carl Zeiss Foundation, emphasized the importance of the new Center and explained: "A more efficient use of resources is essential for the sustainable growth of the economy, business and society. As an interdisciplinary research network, the CZS Center KRAFt pools skills across locations and looks at the entire process from different perspectives in the field (of) additive manufacturing. We hope this will lead to new solutions for the circular economy."
About the Carl Zeiss Foundation
The Carl Zeiss Foundation has set itself the goal of creating scope for 1. academic ( allg.) breakthroughs. As a partner of excellent science, it supports basic research as well as applied research and teaching in the STEM departments (Mathematics, Computer and Information Science, Natural Sciences and Technology). Founded in 1889 by the physicist and mathematician Ernst Abbe, the Carl Zeiss Foundation is one of the oldest and largest home-based science-promoting foundations in Germany. It is the sole owner of Carl Zeiss AG and SCHOTT AG. Its projects are financed from the dividends distributed by the two foundation companies.
