Opening of the Polymer Training Centre (PTC) at KIMW – also as a new VDWF external branch

Torsten Urban, Project and Department Manager of Training and Continuing Education at the Kunststoff-Institut Lüdenscheid, during his lecture at the opening of the new Polymer Training Centre.

The PTC in Lüdenscheid: Construction time: 2 years; Usable area: 1965 m²; Costs: 5.1 million euros.

VDWF President Professor Thomas Seul (left) hands over the KIMW Managing Director Thomas Eulenstein the association's emblem, which designates the Kunststoff-Institut as an external branch of the VDWF.

The world of plastics should get to know Lüdenscheid so that it is no longer said: «Where the hell is Lüdenscheid?», explains Managing Director Stefan Schmidt, who often hears this phrase when talking about KIMW both domestically and internationally. He and his team have quite a lot planned: At the official opening of the new Polymer Training Centre (PTC) at the end of June, they reaffirmed their claim to be one of the idea drivers in the plastics sector for the region. After all, the institute can already look back on three successful decades. Not surprisingly, the opening of the new training centre for plastics technology, the Polymer Training Centre (PTC), also coincided with the institute's 30th anniversary.

During the ceremonial event, the PTC was also officially dedicated as an inter-company educational facility, making it the first training centre in the entire region in the field of plastics technology to contribute to improving the knowledge infrastructure. «Companies can place their trainees in the profession of process mechanic for plastics and rubber, wholly or partly, under the auspices of the Plastics Institute,» explains project manager Torsten Urban proudly. This allows KIMW to significantly expand its training offerings with the PTC, which also attracts interest from universities beyond the region. In plastics technology, the PTC can offer particularly intensive and comprehensive practical training through relevant internships and exercises, especially in the chemical sector, says Schmidt. This is also emphasized by VDWF President Professor Thomas Seul, who, in his role as Prorector for Transfer and Research at Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences, looks forward to the new opportunities: «Combined with the infrastructure, I see great opportunities for us as VDWF, which we cannot fully realize at the university in this compact form.» This addition, this trio of association, institute, and higher education, is very valuable for the industry in Germany and will be very well received in tool and mold making.

Furthermore, the new building resolves the previous spatial constraints of the institute. KIMW gains an additional usable area of 1,965 m². This includes training and break rooms, 48 office workstations, laboratories for material testing, damage analysis, and generative processes, as well as training rooms equipped with a dedicated injection moulding machine depending on the material type. The direct content and spatial connection between theoretical learning and practical experience is a central idea of the new structure. The further development as a boarding school-like offering is also set to launch nationwide as a pilot project.

All of this creates optimal conditions to take training and further education in the rapidly changing plastics industry to the next level. Because, given the increasing demands on the material, there is a need for «people who enable all this,» explains Schmidt. Therefore, KIMW will also become an official external branch of VDWF on its 30th birthday. «The topic of tool and mould making is firmly rooted in the region, so it is also important for us as an association to push relevant issues forward here,» says Seul, highlighting the agility of the approximately 300 KIMW member companies: «They have been really pushing hard here for 30 years. That’s also a confirmation for me of the planned expansion of cooperation.»