Topical Symposium 3
The concept of a circular economy is a key element towards reaching the sustainable development goals (SDG) from the United Nations (UN) and comprises incentives to reuse existing products, instead of disposal and relying on the continuous global production for replacement. ‘The goods of today are the resources of tomorrow at yesterday’s resource prices’. Thus, natural resources can be used more efficiently, and also new markets will evolve in a circular economy. In the last decades, the research and development within surface engineering has been focused mainly on the enhancement of surface properties by design of multifunctional coatings and surfaces, while the sustainability of such processes and products is usually neglected. However, the approach of a circular economy for surface engineering requires innovative rethinking along the lines of reduce, reuse, repair, and recycle. These strategies exhibit both ecologic as well as economic incentives, which means that the significant lowering of greenhouse gas emissions during production is closely connected to business models for the future. Sustainability measures have been widely implemented and exploited for immediate actions to enhance the longevity of products and materials within industrial surface engineering in the last years. On the other hand, insights and knowledge from basic academic research offer additional opportunities to enhance the sustainability of surface engineering products. Hence, this topical session provides a bridging platform for exchange on circular economy strategies for surface engineering between industry and academia. This exchange will benefit from innovative contributions on e.g., approaches for life cycle analyses, reduction of energy and material input, reusage of bi-products, as well as repair and recycling of materials.
TS3. Invited Speakers:
- Stephan Krinke, Fraunhofer IST, Germany, “Life Cycle Engineering: From Measurement to Development of Sustainable Surfaces”
- Lukas Zauner, RHP-Technology GmbH, Austria, “Rethinking Resources: Circular Strategies in Target Material Production”