MINT funding in Thuringia: Experience plastic technology at SensorSpace Hermsdorf

How is a pla­s­tic com­po­nent for­med? Why does pla­s­tic shrink when coo­led? And why is the injec­tion mol­ding pro­cess car­ri­ed out exact­ly the­re?

Stu­dents in the win­ter holi­day cour­se from the 5th gra­de dealt with the­se ques­ti­ons. „Recy­cling made easy to touch“ at the Sen­sor­Space Herms­dorf on the TRIDELTA cam­pus.

As part of the MINT fun­ding in Thü­rin­gen desi­gned by our col­le­ague Jonas Kehr a prac­ti­cal part around Pla­s­tic tech­no­lo­gy and pla­s­tic injec­tion mol­ding. The goal was to make indus­tri­al manu­fac­tu­ring pro­ces­ses under­stan­da­ble and tan­gi­ble.

Practical insights into plastic injection molding and 3D printing

The par­ti­ci­pan­ts not only recei­ved basic know­ledge about pla­s­tics and recy­cling; they also deve­lo­ped their own name­p­la­te, desi­gned it digi­tal­ly and then prin­ted it using a 3D prin­ter. 3D prin­ting Yes.

In this way, the jour­ney from design to the finis­hed pla­s­tic com­po­nent was made com­pre­hen­si­ble – a prac­ti­cal intro­duc­tion to design, manu­fac­tu­ring, and indus­tri­al pro­ces­ses.

The tech­ni­cal inte­rest of the stu­dents was par­ti­cu­lar­ly remar­kab­le. Ques­ti­ons about the com­po­nent geo­me­try, the ang­le of attack, or the mate­ri­al beha­vi­or during coo­ling show­ed how quick­ly a deep under­stan­ding can be achie­ved when tech­no­lo­gy is taught prac­ti­cal­ly.

Youth development in industry begins early

For us as an indus­tri­al com­pa­ny, pro­mo­ting MINT skills is not just an addi­tio­nal pro­ject; it is part of our cor­po­ra­te respon­si­bi­li­ty.

Anyo­ne who under­stands ear­ly on how pla­s­tic parts are manu­fac­tu­red deve­lo­ps a fun­da­men­tal under­stan­ding of pro­duc­tion pro­ces­ses – and over­co­mes their initi­al fear of the indus­try.

Espe­ci­al­ly in times of a shorta­ge of skil­led workers Pro­mo­ting young peo­p­le in tech­ni­cal pro­fes­si­ons a cru­cial fac­tor for the future via­bi­li­ty of com­pa­nies and regi­ons.

We thank the Sen­sor­Space at the TRIDELTA Cam­pus Herms­dorf for the col­la­bo­ra­ti­on and Jonas Kehr for his com­mit­ment to tech­ni­cal edu­ca­ti­on.

Pas­si­on for tech­no­lo­gy ari­ses whe­re it can be expe­ri­en­ced.