Materials Chain at Hannover Messe 2017

Successful presentation at fair makes Materials Chain visible beyond national borders


Dr. Martin Grünewald, Secretary of State NRW and
Dr. Marion Franke, Materials Chain at Hannover
Messe 2017. © punktgenau GmbH

The Hannover Messe is one of the largest and internationally most renowned annual industrial fairs in the world where companies and research institutes present the newest industrial trends. Approximately 6.500 exhibitors from more than 70 countries presented themselves in Hannover this year, among them the Materials Chain, which participated for the second time.

The expert audience marveled at the numerous exhibits from the manifold engineering research areas covered at the three UA Ruhr universities. Especially the ferrofluid well amazed many fair visitors with its distinctive shape and initiated numerous discussions. Other exhibits such as a fuel cell vehicle, structured thin film elements, as well as an interactive NiTi-shape-memory alloy actor model generated great interest and reflected the expertise of the institutes involved in the Materials Chain. This was further true for prototypes made of vulcanized fiber, a novel lightweight structural material made from recycling products, which can be used as an alternative to plastics and aroused a lot of interest with industrial visitors.

Interesting networking conversations with other scientific institutes as well as with representatives from the industry speak for the overall successful appearance of the Materials Chain at the Hannover Messe 2017 and helped to make the program more visible beyond the borders of North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany.