JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #79 - March 2013 - 4

point of view: research & industry

AZL – The one-stop shop
for the composite industry
Dr.-Ing. MIchael eMonts, CEO
Aachen Center for Integrative
Lightweight Production - AZL,
Dr.-Ing. KaI FIscher,
Divisional Director: Production
Technology Composites
Aachen Center for Integrative
Lightweight Production - AZL,
Dr. -Ing. MIchael eFFIng, Founder and
CEOAdvanced Materials Advisory
& Consultancy - AMAC

JEC Composites Magazine:
What is the new institute’s objective? And what is the difference
to the other light-weight research
centers in Germany?

Michael Emonts: The
Aachen Center for Integrative
Lightweight Production (AZL)
focuses on integrative production
technologies for light-weight applications destined exclusively for
high-wage countries. Together
with its partners at RWTH
Aachen University, it offers all expertise all along the value chain.
This expertise is pooled to realize
full-scale process chains with
highly innovative technologies
within the AZL. The aim is to
develop the automated production of load- and cost-optimized
lightweight components suitable
for mass production, and versatile process chains in composite
and multi-material design. The
development of new markets and
applications will be set up for the
first time in a truly interactive

Research and industry are cooperating closely and developing new
market trends on the new campus of Germany’s RWTH Aachen
University. New technology clusters will be
established as part of the German government’s excellence initiative. RWTH Aachen will set up a new technology campus on
800,000 m2, for a total investment of 2 billion euros over the next
10 years. One of the first new institutes will be AZL, the Aachen
Center for Integrative Lightweight Production.

way between research and industry: academic staff, researchers
and students will work side by
side with the industry within an
exclusive network of competence.
JCM: Why and how do you think
composite technology can stay in
high-wage countries like Germany
and other European countries ?

Kai Fischer: The background
is that this is in general a very complex
technology which needs a lot of
engineering and material know-how.
If we are successful in developing new
processes that are integrated and/or
automated, we will be less dependent on labour costs. A further aspect
that future technologies have to fulfil
is the need to increase product variability by the development of flexible
manufacturing systems and intelligent
planning and control methods. Then,
manufacturing and added value
can stay in high-wage countries like
Germany.
JCM: There are currently a lot of
activities to establish research
centers in Europe and especially in Germany. Why did RWTH

4 jec composites magazine / No79 March 2013

“

interview

Concerning composite production technologies,
Concerning composite production technologies,
there is a core team of seven institutes, which
there is a core team of seven institutes, which
has been collaborating for more than 25 years in
has been collaborating for more than 25 years in
large-scale interdisciplinary research projects.
large-scale interdisciplinary research projects.

Aachen University decide to create an additional center?

Michael Emonts: The AZL
is no “green-field” foundation,
because lightweight production technologies have been
developed in recent decades at
RWTH. As one of the biggest
technical universities in Europe,
RWTH offers a unique density
of institutes, which are related
to production technologies in
general. Concerning composite
production technologies, there
is a core team of seven institutes,

“

which has been collaborating for
more than 25 years in large-scale
interdisciplinary research projects. To give you an idea of the
intellectual and infrastructural
capabilities, these seven institutes
employ more than 700 full-time
scientists and more than 1,000
student workers. More than
ten thousand square metres of
laboratories with state-of-the-art
equipment are already available.
And the unique selling point is
that these institutes are located
within walking distance at the

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #79 - March 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #79 - March 2013