Project partners

A+ Composites GmbH

A+ Composites GmbH is a start-up company founded in 2015, which specializes in the production and processing of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic tapes. The tapes are tailored to the customer’s application such that they reinforce the product load-specifically.

The company has received several start-up and innovation awards. It holds patents for the production and processing of thermoplastic tapes. The company also has expertise and infrastructure for design of tape-reinforced plastic components and thermoplastic tape laying processes. There is experience in the execution of BMBF projects.

Role in the project: Project coordinator, tape development, support of process integration, development of in-line and batch welding process
Contact person: Dr.-Ing. Markus Brzeski (Project Manager)
Website: https://aplus-composites.de/

Hahn Kunststoffe

Hahn Kunststoffe GmbH (Hahn-Airport, RLP, 270 employees) is Europe’s largest manufacturer of plastic profiles producing exclusively with secondary plastics and has been active as a processor and material recycler of post-consumer plastic waste since 1993.

Different products (profiles, finished parts and systems) for a wide range of applications (municipal/public areas, agriculture and forestry, industry, trade and crafts, landscaping) are manufactured from mixed plastic waste by means of injection molding, intrusion and compression processes. The products of Hahn Kunststoffe have been awarded the Blue Angel for their contribution to sustainable environmental and resource protection.

Role in the Project: Development of intrusion process, batch-wise reinforcement of profiles, investigation of different consumer attack qualities
Contact person: Florian Görgen
Website: https://www.hahnkunststoffe.de/

Infinex

The “Infinex Group” is a group of international companies that are exclusively engaged in the processing of plastics. The films and sheets specially produced by extrusion are mainly used in the construction industry, packaging industry, logistics and also in exhibition stand construction.

Role in the project: Development of the extrusion process, integration of different PP types, in-line tape reinforcement of structural chamber plates
Contact person: Christian Engelhardt
Website: https://www.infinex-group.de/

Technical University of Kaiserslautern

Since 2013, Katharina Spraul as Professor of Business Administration, in particular Sustainability Management in the Department of Business Studies and Economics, has developed with her team solutions for sustainable consumption and sustainable production.

Within the research, sustainable management of actors in market, civil society, and public sector is examined. Due to the multidimensional nature of sustainability issues, not only the actors themselves are considered, but also their socio-cultural, ecological and political-economic environment as well as inter-organisational and intersectoral networks. In this context, current research areas include the success factors of sustainability networks as well as the participating role of universities, sustainability and digital transformation and innovations for a circular economy.

Role in the project: Sustainability assessment, investigation of ecological implications, development of business models, transfer to other products and government incentive systems
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Katharina Spraul
Website: https://sustain.wiwi.uni-kl.de/

University of Koblenz • Landau

Since 2011, Professor Rathgeber is head of the Department of Materials Physics with a focus on plastics science, integrated within the Institute of Integrated Natural Sciences of Department 3. Her work focuses on the development and characterization of functional thermoplastics.

The infrastructure and competencies enable an integrative approach, which starts with the modification of the polymers, including material design and processing of the material as well as the physical characterization of the starting material to the component part.

Role in the project: Additives, recycled plastic and tape, material and tape characterisation, testing of the welding process
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Silke Rathgeber
Website: https://www.uni-koblenz-landau.de/