Boosting innovative strength at the Innovation Day in Berlin

Some 300 companies, research institutes and cooperation networks from Germany came together on 9 May in Berlin-Pankow for the Innovation Day of SMEs staged by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).

MdB Rudolf Henke (left) pays a visit to the IKV presentation. | Photo: Office Rudolf Henke

The IKV showed how bottle openers are manufactured using the FDM process. | Photo: AiF Projekt GmbH

At the open-air exhibition, new products, processes and services from a wide variety of technological areas and industries were presented, the development of which is financially supported by the innovation funding of the BMWi.

IKV was represented at the Innovation Day with its own theme area. The focus was on calculating the service life of structural components made of short glass fibre-reinforced plastics, taking into account the real load profiles in the form of load spectra. In this AiF research project, a calculation methodology is developed that takes into account firstly the process-dependent fibre orientations and secondly also the changing load levels and frequencies. The aim is to improve the prediction quality of the fatigue behaviour and to provide small and medium-sized companies with easy-to-use methods for their dimensioning processes for service life calculations.

Apart from that, an AiF research project was presented for calculating the weld line strength of amorphous materials by simulation. For this purpose, models like the reptation model are used in order to be able to calculate the local material properties along the weld line created in the injection moulding process.

Apart from that, IKV presented a project idea for designing infill structures for additively manufactured parts in line with the particular load path. The aim is to optimise the interplay between material efficiency, mechanical loadability and manufacturability. For this, an FDM 3D printer was installed in the theme area and typical parts were produced before the eyes of the visitors.

The exhibition site of AiF Project GmbH, which looked after the organisation and acts as project manager of the BMWi for ZIM cooperation projects, was open to everyone and could be visited free of charge. At the same time, the one-day event gave exhibitors the possibility to establish contact with each other and also with politicians and government representatives. Guests from politics and the government like Rudolf Henke, MdB, who visited the IKV stand, took advantage of the event to exchange information with exhibitors and visitors.