The field of activity should bridge the research gap in the area of fiber technology between textiles, nonwovens and paper.
Fiber technology in this context offers numerous opportunities of applications and interdisciplinary research topics which are often related to environmental protection and new sound technologies.

Fiber recycling represents a main topic of the research group. Several project have been carried out together with partner fro the industry. Various sources for deriving fibers from waste have been tested such as tires, shredder light fraction or damaged apparel. It is also in the focus of the group to derive glass fibers from end-of-life fiber reinforced composites (e.g. rotor blades for wind power plants). The aim is to convert waste to a marketable recycling product and thus an economic as well as an ecologic benefit is possible.

Recycling

  • Mechanical processing, in particular grinding and sifting, of secondary raw materials
  • Recycling of glass fiber reinforced plastics
  • Morphological characterization of treated secondary raw materials with a focus on fibrous materials
  • Waste prevention from the point of view of process engineering

Fiber Characterization

  • Automated image analysis for determination of fiber length, fiber width or fiber content
  • Dispersion of fibrous materials for subsequent image generation in the dry (e.g. vacuum dispersion system) as well as in the wet state
  • Determination of fiber titer, fiber strength, fiber elongation and E-Modulus
Equipment
Milling / Separation
  • Universal mill Alpine 100 UPZ
  • Cutting mill Alpine 20/12 Ro
  • Cutting mill Dreher 41/26
  • SF Air jet mill Alpine 200
  • AFG Deflector Wheel Classifier Alpine 100 APT/GS
Characterization / Analyzing Systems
  • MORFI fiber analyzer
  • Air jet sieve Alpine
  • Vibration sieve Retsch
  • Optical microscopy
  • Laser diffraction Cilas 920
  • Lenzing Vibroscop 400
  • Lenzing Vibrodyn 400
  • Water Retention acc. to DIN 53814
  • Rotational Viscosimeter RM 180