Obituary for Peter Ehrler

Peter Ehrler

On February 23rd of this year, our good colleague and friend, the German textile researcher Peter Ehrler - has passed away forever from us.

Peter Ehrler was born in 1935 in Plauen, Vogtland. He studied in Dresden at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, specializing in Textile Technology, later at RTWH Aachen, where he was awarded his doctorate in 1963 with a thesis on "System Analysis of Fiber Count and Mass Distribution of Fiber Composites".

We met in 1985 on the occasion of the founding of the VDI – Guidelines Committee for Surface Cleanliness. In this committee, Dr. Ehrler represented the area of cleanroom clothing on behalf of the ITV Institute for Textile and Process Engineering in Denkendorf, to which he dedicated many years of research together with Gabriele Schmeer-Lioe. As part of this collaboration, the two scientists produced a series of pioneering works (a selection is listed below).

Peter Ehrler was an eloquent researcher and colleague with comprehensive professional and cultural education, who was actively engaged in several areas of textile technology. One of these was cleanroom technology. Over the decades after 1985, a continually renewed collegial relationship developed between us. This was characterized by tireless and critical scientific spirit, mutual respect, and occasionally high-level dispute culture. I affectionately called him my "Arch-Friend," perhaps also because he was rarely swayed once he had set his course.

Over the years, we corresponded extensively on a number of technical topics related to cleanroom technology. In this context, the topics of oligomer migration from the filaments of polyethylene terephthalate and particle release from cleanroom textiles were particularly important to him. Our last correspondence dates from December 18, 2019, when he sent me one last good piece of advice on reducing oligomers in microfilament knitted fabrics.

Even at the age of 83 and after suffering three strokes, he continued to correspond with our young technologists in the research laboratory. I was happy to have dedicated my article "Triboelectric Effects in the Use of Cleanroom Tissues and Paper" (ReinRaumTechnik 9-1998) to him at the time. He repaid this during his laudatory speech on the occasion of my 60th birthday with the words: "It is no question that Win Labuda's achievement is that, over the years, the rag of old has become a high-tech product described in all parameters." As a gift, he then presented me—probably in wise anticipation that the future of textile fiber applications would have to be more than ever in the area of renewable raw materials—a valuable lithograph titled "Cannabis Sativa".

Peter Ehrler's death is a painful loss for his wife Ingeborg Lepenies, for his family, and for many of us. After he has left us, a never-ending light burns in our hearts for him.

Yuko and Win Labuda
Clear & Clean - Research Laboratory

Below are some of the most important Ehrler/Schmeer publications from the 1980s:

Characteristics for assessing cleanroom clothing, Lecture, VDI Conference "Perspectives of Cleanroom Technology" VDI Report 654 9-1987, Ehrler, P. Schmeer-Lioe, G.

Usage-related aging of cleanroom clothing. Lecture. Concept Symposium "Personnel in Cleanroom" 2-1988, Frankfurt, Ehrler, P. Schmeer-Lioe, G.

Testing procedures for assessing functional properties of cleanroom clothing. Lecture. VDI Conference: Problem Solutions in Cleanroom Technology. 11-1988, Munich, Ehrler, P. Schmeer-Lioe, G.

Experimental investigations on particle emission from cleanroom clothing, VDI Reports No. 783, VDI Conference Report 9-1989 "Development Trends in Cleanroom Technology".

Cleanroom garments as a barrier against particles and fibers, Lecture, Kaufbeuren, 11th Digital International Cleanroom Conference, 5-1991, Ehrler, P., Hottner, M., Schmeer-Lioe, G.