Lightweight Design

At Montanuniversität Leoben, the Department Polymer Engineering and Science established a research focus on lightweight components beginning with the founding of the study program 1970. Since that time, research activities have focussed on the huge variety of properties of polymer materials as well as aspects of processing and design.

Over the decades, research aspects have always been oriented on current requirements from the industry as well as economic, ecological and legal boundary conditions. In this context, exemplarily chosen current research activities cover:

• the development of Carbon fiber based laminates with nano-particle modification, flexible composites with 100 % bio-based carbon content or composites for ballistic protection,
• optimization of the automated fiber placement (AFP) process for steering aligned discontinuous fiber reinforced polymer tapes as well as
• automated crack detection in fiber-reinforced polymer composites by optical or acoustic means and the evaluation of fatigue for short fiber reinforced polymers.

With a number of project examples, the following pages of this biannual report provide an overview of the wide variety of research activities on lightweight components in the Department Polymer Engineering and Science.