Partner of the plastics industry

Austria is among the world’s leading regions on a per capita basis for plastics processing and machinery. Seventy-five percent of Austria’s plastics industry is located within a 150-kilomter (km) radius of the city of Linz, making it an ideal location to study plastics engineering and technology at Johannes Kepler University Linz (JKU). Since 2009, four plastics technology institutes that cover the entire value chain of synthetic products have become part of the university. These four cover everything from polymer material development and testing to plastic product development and continuous manufacturing technologies, such as extrusion or discontinuous production methods and injection molding and automation.

Industry-oriented product development

In close cooperation with industry, the Institute of Polymer Product Engineering (IPPE) performs design and verification of plastic components. Whether they are particularly large products with high rigidity, or especially small and soft parts, design and manufacture of the parts as well as the injection molds and complete assemblies are often taken care of by students as part of their bachelor’s degree or master’s degree thesis. To facilitate this process, a comprehensive design chain utilizing software tools from product lifecycle management (PLM) specialist Siemens Digital Industries Software is at their disposal.

The initial step is to perform the 3D design of parts and assemblies using NX™ software for computer-aided design (CAD). If composites are used, this process is followed by preproduction preparation of fiber orientation using the Fibersim™ portfolio of software for composites engineering. Then the students verify that they have achieved the correct material properties and product behavior. They use Teamcenter® software as their working environment in all phases of a project, not only for the comprehensive administration of all product data, but also to facilitate direct collaboration with people in cooperating companies.

“Comprehensive use of PLM software helps us support our commercial partners with transparent data exchange during the development of high-efficiency products and production processes,” says Professor Dr. Zoltán Major, director of the institute. “The use of Teamcenter facilitates both collaboration and compliance with reporting obligations.”

Companies equipped with Teamcenter PLM software draw extra benefit from its use as they gain direct access to the exper – tise of the education and research institution. Verification of their ideas for new products or processes at an academic level enhances their chances in the market and helps secure the company’s know-how in times of frequently changing student teams.