JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #92 - October/November 2014 - 12

spin-off

mary, our system detects deviations and
faulty parts during the processing step,
which gives the chance to act directly
and thus results in reduced production
costs. Every sensor we have mounted
on the arm of a robot or within textile
processing machines is doing more than
just counting defects - it supplies control
variables derived from the measurements. For most of our customers it is
currently enough to directly sort out the
non-conforming parts but the innovation
potential lies within using the gained information for automating the production.
In future production systems for example
deviations in the fibre orientation will
be directly corrected by the handling or
positioning system. Besides handling we
proofed this already for the automated
braiding of next generation structural
parts for the automotive industry.
JCM: What is the added
value of your solution?

A.L.: The lack of industrialization in
able to coordinate the production and
distribution of the product, it became
necessary to establish the company in the
winter of 2012: Apodius and the careers
of Alexander Leutner and Jonathan Roberz as entrepreneurs were launched.

RWTH's entrepreneurship strategy
Apodius is just one example of the high
degree of innovation and successful support of aspiring entrepreneurs at RWTH
Aachen. In addition to technological ex-

composites production causes the high
production costs. The manual process
steps and first derivative automation
approaches in the early stages of production are the most critical ones, which
are passed through without an objective
quality assurance and without having reached the required process capability. As a
solution, our optical inspection system is
designed to measure quality features such
as fibre orientation. Thus, information
about every process step of the generative reinforcement structure build-up is
provided.
The Apodius Vision System facilitates
the required basis for feasible automation. Textile quality characteristics are
measured during the production process
and are used for closing process control
loops. So far, quality control managers
take random samples and manually inspect the individual finished components.
Using our sensor technology, components can be measured more objectively,
in a much more precise way.
pertise, the university offers professional
support for those who want to set up a
company. It has developed an integrative strategy to encourage and support
potential entrepreneurs. Part of this strategy is the Entrepreneurship Centre as a
central point of contact. Here, interested
students and researchers receive support,
e.g. with creating a business plan or dealing with financial or marketing aspects.
The university's support strategy also
convinced the jury of the EXIST

12 jec composites magazine / No92 October - November 2014

JCM: How did the development phase go?

A.L.: The machine vision system was
developed at the Laboratory for Machine
Tools and Production Engineering
WZL at RWTH Aachen University. The
Apodius company was then founded by
the members of the research group to
focus the results on customized industrial applications in order to automate
the production of carbon composites.
The research group was initiated by Prof.
Robert Schmitt, chair of production
metrology and quality management at
WZL, who actively supported the formation of Apodius.
JCM: What is your market potential?

A.L.: In the growing market for carbon
composites, Apodius targets the European automotive sector with about 5%
market volume. We expect an annual
growth of 34% until 2020 and that
textile-based parts will dominate the
series production for premium cars with
structural composite parts. n
Gründerkultur - Die Gründerhochschule competition organized by the
Federal Ministry of Economics and
Technology: RWTH Aachen is one of
the 12 German universities that will
receive up to 3.5 million euros within the
next five years for the implementation of
their entrepreneurship concept. n
More information:
www.apodius.de
http://www.apodius.de http://www.glotechgf.com
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #92 - October/November 2014

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