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Friday, March 29, 2024

Award winning ceremony of the first DNFI Award to ITA and Fraunhofer-Institute LBF

Marie-Isabel Popzyk from the Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University and Dr Roland Klein from Fraunhofer-Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF in Darmstadt, Germany, were awarded with the first Natural Fibres Award of the Discover Natural Fibers Initiative (DNFI) on 6 December 2017 at the Biocomposites Conference Cologne (BCC) in Cologne, Germany. They won the prize for their project “Reduction of moisture absorption of natural fibres and production of untwisted yarns in structural components”.

In their project, Marie-Isabel Popzyk and Dr Roland Klein demon-strated that up to 100 % biobased, natural fibre reinforced plastics (NFRP) with low moisture absorption can be developed and used for structural components. Natural fibres such as bast fibres are becoming increasingly important in technical applications such as compo-sites. Natural fibres are inexpensive, environmentally friendly and are characterized by low density and high mechanical properties. Compared to the production of glass-fibre reinforced plastics (GRP), the use of NFK reduces CO2 emissions by about 30 % and energy consumption by about 40 %.

Terry Townsend, Chairman of the DNFI, stated that the research of Popzyk and Klein characterizes the dynamics of natural fibre technology. From high-performance clothing fabrics to innovative bio-composites, natural fibres provide solutions to the challenges of the 21st century.

The two winners were selected among participants from more than 100 countries in an online process. The voting for the DNFI Innovation Award began in July 2017, when a subcommittee of DNFI members selected five finalists from the list of many excellent nominations. In August and September, worldwide voting took place. Further information on the conference can be found here.

About the Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University
The Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) belongs to the excellence university RWTH Aachen. Its core expertise consists of textile related production technologies and high performance materials. With the Centre for High Performance Materials ITA offers small and medium sized companies direct access to scientific research especially in the fields of high modulus fibres and composites. ITA provides research and development services and advanced training and creative workshops in cooperation with its partner company ITA Technologietransfer GmbH. Furthermore, ITA graduates students in various textile related courses. Please find further information here.

Started in winter semester 2015/2016, ITA is offering the new international Master degree ‘M.Sc. in Textile Engineering’ in cooperation with RWTH International Academy. Please find related information here.

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