Extrusion International 6-2022

27 Extrusion International 6/2022 Georg Menges Award 2022  Ulrich Reifenhäuser, CSO of the Reifenhäuser Group, was awarded the prestigious Georg Menges Prize 2022 at the 31st International Colloquium on Plastics Technology in Aachen from September 7-8, 2022. The prize recognizes in- dividuals or groups who have rendered outstanding services to the transfer of research results into industrial practice. The sponsors of the award are the Plastics and Rubber sec- tion of Germany's Mechanical Engineering Industry Associa- tion (VDMA), together with PlasticsEurope Deutschland and the Association of Sponsors of the Institute for Plastics Pro- cessing (IKV) in Industry and Craft at RWTH University. The award is traditionally presented every two years during the colloquium organized by the IKV. Ulrich Reifenhäuser is the first businessman to receive the Georg Menges Award. The award was presented by Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Hopmann, Director of the IKV and Dr.-Ing. Herbert Müller, Chairman of the Board of the IKV Sponsors' Association. In his laudatory speech, Professor Hopmann highlighted Ulrich Reifenhäuser's great and successful commitment to the industry and his tireless search for optimal solutions that are sustainable in the best sense of the word, and praised him as a personality of integrity and integration. Ulrich Reifenhäuser has been a member of the Reifen- häuser Group management since 1992 and is responsible for international line sales. Together with his brother Bernd Reifenhäuser, he manages the company in the third gen- eration. Ulrich Reifenhäuser has been a board member of the VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association for more than 25 years and has been its chairman since 2010. During this time, he has built upan international network that is second to none. In 2020, he was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame, as was the award's namesake, and in 2022 he co-chaired the world's leading plastics trade fair in Düsseldorf for the seventh time in a row as "President of K show." "This award and the recognition by the organizations behind it mean a lot to me," said Ulrich Reifenhäuser. "My passion for plastics has always motivated me to promote the importance and benefits of this material worldwide. At the same time, I am aware of the importance of a holistic and effective circular economy for plastics. Supporting and accelerating this process is my primary goal. In this respect, the K trade show was and is the ideal platform for demon- strating new approaches to how we as an industry can pro- duce and use plastics more efficiently and, above all, more sustainably. This year we will show how circular economy can succeed and what CO 2 savings potential plastic – as an unbeatably light and high-performance material – has." Reifenhäuser Gruppe www.reifenhauser.com Presentation of the Georg Menges Award 2022. From left to right: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Hopmann, Dipl.-Kfm. Ulrich Reifenhäuser and Dr.-Ing. Herbert Müller (Photo: IKV/ Dominik Fröls) 
Course Portfolio with New Topics
  The SKZ is growing. In 2023, the so-called Modellfabrik will go into operation, allowing the most modern production processes to be mapped. Numerous new areas in the form of pilot plants and laboratories are avail- able for research. Therefore, there will also be no lack of input for the educa- tional formats. The range of topics for professional development at Europe's largest plastics institute will grow in 2023 to include topics such as thermo- sets, regulations for food packaging and blown film extrusion. "The content of our courses is con- stantly being revised. In the indus- trial environment, it is simply a basic requirement to always convey the current state of the art. That's why in- novative topics from our research are also incorporated directly. Personally, I am very much looking forward to the new courses on blown film extrusion, which we will also be able to hold with practical exercises thanks to a new fa- cility in 2023," explains Matthias Ruff, Head of Sales at SKZ. 
In addition to the basics of thermosets in material science and processing, special topics such as filled microcapsules in plastic compounds will also be covered. The SKZ is thus growing in its range of further education courses in order to update and expand the educational standard of specialists. SKZ - KFE gGmbH www.skz.de The new SKZ education catalogue (Image source: SKZ)