Institut für Verbundwerkstoffe GmbH: The future is composite – be on the fast lane with IVW

The topics energy efficiency, conservation of resources and CO2-footprint are the dominating headlines in politics and economy. Affordable lightweight design with advanced composites is a key aspect in almost all industrial sectors – especially in transport, energy generation, but also within the mechanical and plant engineering.

The Institute for Composite Materials has the expertise and laboratory equipment to act as R&D partner whenever compo­sites have to be tailored to the customer’s needs. More than 99 employees functionalise polymer based materials, optimise composite design, and develop advanced manufacturing technology. An extensive range of laboratory equipment, ready to develop, manufacture, and test composite structures in a 1:1 scale, is available for many applications.

Among others, IVW supports Canyon in Koblenz with R&D activities (optimisation of bicycle frames).

In addition to the activities for applications with carbon and glass fibres, the institute is developing both improvements of the manufacturing processes and of the structure-mechanical performance of biocomposites. Structures with multifunc­­tional, sensory, and actuatory active com­­posites are designed, realised, simulated, and tested in the competence field “Tailored and Smart Composites”.