A lot is already happening at IPH in the field of additive manufacturing processes. Among other things, the project engineers are researching quality assurance in 3D printing and the possibility of recycling plastic waste for 3D printing. To coordinate all the projects and ideas and improve communication between the departments, IPH has created a new group leader position.
Dipl.-Ing. Jens Kruse had already been employed as a project engineer at IPH since August 2017. Among other things, he worked on the Collaborative Research Center 1153. In subproject B1, he researched the forming of hybrid semi-finished products using cross-wedge rolling. Before that, he had already been working on the preforming of steel in the semi-hot temperature range.
After Kruse was on leave of absence for several months to work on his dissertation, he returned to IPH in December 2021. Now his task is to coordinate research on 3D printing at IPH and create synergies. “In the future, we want to collaborate even better across disciplines to uncover needs in research and industry – especially in the area of additive manufacturing,” says Kruse. To achieve this, he has founded the working group innovative manufacturing processes. In the first step, he wants to gain an overview in order to further improve communication among each other and to further network the colleagues. In the second step, he will work on various projects, develop proposal ideas and further expand the FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) focus at IPH, both on the research side and on the industry side. The new position also makes Kruse the contact person for the relatively new research area of additive plastics recycling at IPH, and at the same time serves to test previously less well-known technologies for industrial feasibility.
