Process technology

The Process Technology service group is divided into two areas: Rheology & Mechanical Analysis and Polymer Processing. We offer a wide range of equipment, methods, techniques and services in both areas and are happy to advise you on your project: from compounding and extruding new polymers or polymer blends to rheological investigations of gels or curable resins for 3D printing to subsequent material analysis in tensile-elongation tests, determination of thermal expansion coefficients or gas permeation.

Rheology

Rheological investigations of a wide variety of:

Materials
Influences (temperature, UV light, magnetic and electric fields, etc.)
Messmethoden

Mechanical analyses on polymers

Mechanical testing of polymer samples by:

Tensile elongation & impact strength
Dynamic mechanical analyses
Thermo-mechanical analyses

Polymer analysis for process optimisation

Investigation of polymers to optimise process parameters through

Combined rheological methods
High-pressure capillary rheology
Thermal conductivity measurement
and much more

Polymer processing

Processing of polymers and blends by:

Compounding & Extrusion
Injection Moulding & Melt Pressing
Film Blowing & Extrusion

Highlight

Film production line goes into operation

With the Advanced Foil Processing Centre (AFPC), the University of Freiburg, in cooperation with the Freiburg Materials Research Centre (FMF), the Freiburg Centre for Interactive Materials and Bio-inspired Technologies (FIT) and the Cluster of Excellence Living, Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS), the University of Freiburg has established one of the most modern flexible processing centres for films in roll-to-roll format. At the AFPC, films can be extruded, structured and coated directly from granulates – in a continuous roll-to-roll format.

The materials available include the entire range of modern thermoplastics, as well as biogenic and compostable materials and, as an in-house development at the University of Freiburg, glass using Glassomer technology. The AFPC closes an important technological gap between materials-oriented basic science and industrial application, enabling material innovations to be scaled up and the material systems developed in basic research to be optimised in industrial production processes. This makes the industrial exploitation of material innovations easier and more cost-effective.

The AFPC was funded by the EU REACT/EFRE programme (European Regional Development Fund as part of the Union’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic).