Blog: Training at Fraunhofer IFAM

The EU Action Plan for a Circular Economy, which describes the transition from a linear (»throw-away«) economy to a circular economy, is unfortunately often erroneously reduced to the topic of »recycling« in popular and political discourse. »The circular economy action plan takes a comprehensive, holistic approach to ecological sustainability assessment,« explains Professor Dr Andreas Groß, Head of the »Training and Technology Transfer« department at Fraunhofer IFAM (Bremen), »and does not just focus on individual elements such as recycling. The nine R strategies of the EU Commission serve as a guide for linking ecodesign and the circular economy.« In this context, adhesive bonding technology should not be reduced to the topic of »recycling« either. Adhesive bonding technology is already an ally of the circular economy and not its opponent, with its significant contributions, which must be correctly classified in technological, social and political terms.

The most important thing is to never stop asking questions - as Einstein once said. The refresher courses that the Fraunhofer IFAM offers at regular intervals also follow this credo. They are aimed at all participants from previous years of the respective DVS / EWF training courses who want to refresh their adhesive bonding knowledge and find out about the current status of the relevant qualification.

As part of the 22nd "Bremer Klebtage," we asked Dr. Matthias Popp to answer a few questions about his presentation titled "Debonding On Demand – Many Methods, One Goal." In our conversation, he explains the concepts and challenges behind the topic, discusses the technological and environmental aspects of debonding, and provides insights into future developments in this field.

The design spaces in industry and handicrafts are subject to a continuous process of change due to constantly changing technical, social and legal conditions. This change particularly affects adhesive bonding technology, as it is an essential joining technology in almost all areas and industries today. »Adhesive bonding technology has great technological, ecological and economic potential as the leading joining technology of the 21st century and is thus the basis for urgently needed innovations across all industries«, says Professor Dr. Andreas Groß, head of the »Workforce Qualification and Technology Transfer« department at Fraunhofer IFAM (Bremen). This knowledge must finally reach the political decision-making levels, because bureaucracy and regulatory dirigisme are developing into an unnecessary source of tension.

As part of the European Green Deal, the EU is planning numerous further measures for health and environmental protection with its »Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability«, published in 2020. This will have far-reaching consequences for European chemicals legislation and thus also for adhesive bonding technology. »This chemicals strategy could potentially lead to a paradigm shift, i.e. the previous risk-based assessment of chemicals and hazardous substances (hazardous substance definition according to the European CLP regulation) would be replaced in the future by a hazard-based assessment,« says Professor Dr. Andreas Groß, head of the »Workforce Qualification and Technology Transfer« department at Fraunhofer IFAM (Bremen). This also creates an essential problem for adhesive bonding technology, because a manageable tiger would become a guinea pig.

Since 1994, the Fraunhofer IFAM/Training Center for Adhesive Bonding Technology has been providing personnel-certifying training courses in adhesive bonding technology for company employees. What started out as a very small programme is now - 30 years later - a global industry standard under the umbrella of the European Federation for Welding, Cutting and Joining - EWF, which is used by participants from all five continents. The product-neutral, cross-industry and cross-hierarchy adhesive bonding technology personnel qualification is carried out worldwide in cooperation with German, European and non-European partners in accordance with the quality standards of the Fraunhofer IFAM. The awarding of the participants' final documents after successful examinations is always standardised in accordance with ISO 17024, so that these documents are also internationally comparable and have the same value, regardless of where in the world they were obtained under the umbrella of EWF and Fraunhofer IFAM.

New developments thrive on research and development, i.e. on the generation of new knowledge. New knowledge is not an end in itself. New knowledge must find its way into application in order to be economically viable. To do this, it must be transferred from research and development to the manufacturing companies in industry and handicrafts. With its further training offers, the Fraunhofer IFAM is working to simplify this process. Successful and long-term technology transfer is only possible through the qualification of company personnel and the structuring of the organization of company production processes.

What are the current developments in the internationalisation of adhesive bonding standards? Frank Stein, head of the independent certification body TBBCert, was on hand as a speaker at the 20th Bremer Klebtage on 22 and 23 June 2022. With his presentation "Adhesive bonding standards are becoming international", he gave a brief update on the current status of the internationalisation of adhesive bonding standards and also shed light on special areas such as defence technology and shipbuilding as well as, of course, the upcoming transformation of the DIN 6701 series of standards (Adhesive bonding of railway vehicles and parts) to EN 17460.

Well-founded knowledge of all those involved is becoming increasingly important for successful adhesive bonding and at the same time this seems to be the biggest challenge. This is an overarching result of this year's survey on adhesive bonding technology, in which around 90 people took part. We spoke to Holger Best, Content Manager at the topic-focused knowledge management service provider ISGATEC GmbH, about the latest survey results.

In 2020 the Bremer FaserverbundPRAXIStage will take place for the third time. As a practice-oriented counterpart to the "Bremen Composite Days", participants will have the opportunity to train and expand their practical skills in handling composites. The special feature of this course is that the graduates take home a self-manufactured longboard made of carbon fibre reinforced plastic. For this purpose, there is a short refresher of the relevant knowledge about the production and processing of FVK components. The focus, however, is on manufacturing the component using the vacuum infusion process. We talked to course instructor Claas Hoffmann about this very special composites training course at the Fraunhofer IFAM.