VDMA, the Foundation of the German Textile Machinery Industry, has honoured six successful young engineers on the occasion of the VDMA Textile Machinery Forum held at the Albstadt headquarters of Mayer & Cie., a leading circular knitting machine manufacturer.

Peter D. Dornier, chairman of the Lindauer Dornier Board of Management and chairman of the Walter Reiners-Stiftung (Foundation), honoured the laureates in the presence of more than 50 industry representatives.

In his celebratory speech, Mr Dornier underlined the high importance of practical orientation in research and teaching for German textile machine manufacturers with respect to the implementation of the Bologna Process, the support of which is a particular focus of the Foundation’s work.

Lightweight construction and energy efficiency

This year, the promotion prizes in the dissertation category were awarded to Dr Daniel Denninger, TU Chemnitz, and to Dr Adil Mountasir, ITM Dresden. With his work, Mr Denninger creates the basis for the wider application of the braiding technology in the field of fibre composites. The subject of Mr Mountasir’s dissertation was development of a flexible weaving technology for the manufacturing of fibre reinforced components.

With their works, the award winners demonstrated practical relevance. The economical production of fibre composites is required for their comprehensive application, for example, in car body construction, for lighter vehicles and hence for lower fuel consumption.

The approach of Mr Mario Gollasch, who was awarded the promotion prize in the category master thesis, was also to minimize consumption. In his work, which was written at ITA Aachen, Mr Gollasch developed a weft insertion system for weaving looms, which is said to allow up to 60% of energy savings, unlike conventional systems.

Demanded creativity

Development of innovative technologies cannot be achieved without creativity, VDMA explains. Therefore, the Foundation of the German VDMA Textile Machinery rewards clever inventions or creative engineer achievements in the form of seminar or semester papers with creativity prizes.

The winners of the creativity prizes 2016 were Denis Gholami Bajestani, ITA Aachen, as well as Erik Dahrmann and Martin von Zuben, both from ITM Dresden. The creativity prize is endowed with a scholarship for two semesters; students who are about to finish their studies received an equivalent financial award.

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