Under the motto “Bioeconomy Austria goes to Bavaria”, Innovation Salzburg and Holzcluster Steiermark attended the 11th Landshut Lightweight Construction Colloquium in order to present the Bioeconomy Austria network beyond Austria’s borders and to build another bridge to Bavaria after an event in Rosenheim. Our network partner Department for Green Engineering and Circular Design from the FH Salzburg was also on board.
Insights
The lectures and topics of the colloquium were mainly dedicated to classic lightweight materials such as metals, plastics and composites. At our exhibitor stand we presented concrete application potentials of wood and wood composites in lightweight construction. A side impact beam made of wood and an aircraft flap were presented, as well as prototypes made of different biogenic materials (e.g. wood, brewer’s grains) by means of additive manufacturing and first samples of tannin foams.
The possibility of using wood as a raw material in traditional lightweight construction and thus obtaining additional new, innovative options was met with interested looks and brought about constructive discussions. As Bioeconomy Austria, we were able to have an initial exchange on site with a number of conference participants, such as the Lightweight Construction Cluster (LC) and the Lightweight Construction Competence Centre (LLK) at Landshut University of Applied Sciences, the Fraunhofer Institutes IWU and IFAM in Chemnitz and Dresden respectively, the Technical University of Deggendorf, the FORWISS Institute at the University of Passau, the New Materials and Automotive Clusters of Bayern Innovativ, as well as local players such as JKU Linz and KTM.
International project work
We are particularly excited about the invitation from the two LC leaders, Prof. Otto Huber and Dipl.-Kfm. Marc Bicker, to help shape the content of the next event in two years’ time. This would enable a broader discussion of the potentials, risks and challenges of the bioeconomy, lightweight timber construction, the use of other biogenic materials, etc. in comparison to classic application content. With regard to cooperation, we also heard the wish for further supra-regional funding programmes.
We will continue to work on these ideas!