#134 DLR Systemleichtbau EmpowerAX Demopart, EmpowerAX Days Interview with Xenia Köneke during JEC 2024 (English)

Have you ever considered how the aerospace industry manages to
reduce the weight of their planes? Of course the carbon nacelle
and the vertical tail comes into the mind, but what about
systems, like the breaks of the aircraft?

How do you stop a fully loaded Airbus A350 with 200 tons on the
runway safely? Breaking systems are extremely heavy therefore new
technologies need to be developed and applied on future
generation of planes. The task however is extremely challenging,
because you cannot just replace material A by B, but need to
apply sytemthinking in engineering.

Today Composites Lounge introduces you with Xenia Sophia Köneke
of DLR - Institut für Systemleichtbau a demonstrator part that
displays systemthinking in components manufacture.

And here is the catch: how do you combine lightweight processes
like additive manufacturing and injection molding that need to
follow a path without start and stops? This is were sophisticated
software comes into play.

The approach demonstrated by the DLR Institute for Lightweight
Systems, more precisely the DLR Innovation Lab EmpowerAX with
their partners 9T Labs, WEBER additive and SWMS is proof that
combining conventional composite manufacturing with the high
design freedom and agility of the fiber reinforced 3D printing
ensures the material is put only where it is really needed.

That is the USP of this systemthought, which brings the
functionality into the part that it needs for its application and
that makes it cost efficient and resource saving. That's also why
the JEC Group's independent jury has awarded it with their elite
innovation price.

Xenia and the whole DLR Team are welcoming you to a two day event
in Braunschweig Sept. 25/26 in 2024. You will experience high
calibre networking, first hand insights into their CFRP (CFK)
wing lab and up-to-date know-how co-ordinated by Germany's No 1
aerospace centre.

I will be present on both days, too and encourage you to join our
Composites Lounge mission of CREATING SUSTAINABLE VALUE with
their partners in Braunschweig.

Once again, I thank the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt
e.V. team for organising a public event of this scale, to better
our world with sustainable aviation and for opening their doors
to the expert public through LinkedIn.

YouTube Podcast: https://youtu.be/YiKUPooJTL4