Two universities, two laboratories and a new friendship
Welcome 2024 and welcome new friendships! We started the new year with a visit to the Westfälische Hochschule in Gelsenkirchen. Our colleagues there also have laboratories to be proud of. We visited Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ghazal Moeini in her impressive laboratory for welding technologies and additive manufacturing of metal. Her research there focuses mainly on material research and technology development.
The professors met at a joint event and decided to visit each other. We visited the laboratory in Gelsenkirchen first thing in the morning. After a cup of coffee and homemade cake, we were given a tour of the laboratory. In addition to electron beam welding (see machine in the picture) and various welding workstations, we were also able to take a look at the material analysis area.
It can weld in a vacuum with an electron beam or build up metal into 3D objects. A technology that can only be found at a few locations in Germany. In addition, there is robotic welding, laser beam welding and various materials testing technologies.
Her research focuses, for example, on the negative influence of hydrogen on weld seams.
More information about Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ghazal Moeini's work can be found here: https://www.w-hs.de/service/informationen-zur-person/person/moeini/
In the afternoon we were able to present our FabLab to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ghazal Moeini. She was impressed for example by the metal laser cutter as a simple but high-precision tool (see picture). From professor to professor they talked about the devices and exchanged ideas about what the equipment can do and what will be possible in the future with a wide variety of technology. All in all it was a successful day of networking, as both laboratories pursue the same goal of joint research and development. At the end of the visit everyone agreed that they would continue to meet regularly in the future and maintain the new friendship between these two laboratories.
Good to know: The cooperation between Fablab founder Prof. Dr. Michael Schäfer and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ghazal Moeini promises added value on various levels. For example, the HRW FabLab has high-quality equipment for laser cutting and the additive manufacturing of metal. However, the overall equipment is much more broadly based. Ms. Moeini's laboratory, on the other hand, is thematically focused on the metal sector but is much better and more extensively equipped in this area. The cooperation, joint research and complementary equipment mean that the locations complement each other.
