WAK Awards for Sebastian Kamerling and Tianchen Hong

The engineers Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Kamerling and Tianchen Hong from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern (TUK) have been awarded for their work in plastics research. For his dissertation, Kamerling has received the Wilfried-Ensinger-Prize of the Scientific Working Group of Plastics Engineering (WAK). He worked on the development of engineering plastics. His colleague Hong has been honoured with the WAK's Oechsler Prize for his Master's thesis. He did research on the development and design of components made of plastics. Both did their work under Professor Dr.-Ing. Alois K. Schlarb, Senior Research Professor at the Chair of Composite Materials at TUK and member of the OPTIMAS research centre. 

Sebastian Kamerling has worked on the research and development of plastic-based tribological materials for dry-running plain bearing applications. His dissertation entitled "Targeted use of the chemical transformation of magnesium hydroxide - a new approach to polymer tribology" was recognised by the reviewers with the following attributes: "Outstanding idea leading to a relatively low-cost material, excellent craftsmanship, methodologically and scientifically clean, very successful combination of experimental and simulative methods."  

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His colleague Tianchen Hong has been researching methods and approaches for designing and developing components made of plastics. In doing so, he has investigated the possibility of controlling friction and wear by combining different composite materials using 3D printing. His master's thesis is entitled "Study on the friction and wear behaviour of different composites fabricated via injection moulding and fused deposition modelling (FDM)".

Both award winners studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern and completed their master's thesis and doctoral dissertation, respectively, at the Chair of Composite Materials of the TUK under Professor Alois K. Schlarb 

The two Kaiserslautern engineers received the awards at K2022, the world's most important plastics trade fair, in Düsseldorf at the end of October. The prizes are awarded by the WAK. This is an association of 25 university professors of plastics engineering. The purpose of the working group is the scientific and professional promotion of plastics technology. The WAK awards four prizes annually: the Wilfried Ensinger Prize, the Oechsler Prize, the Brose Prize and the Röchling Prize. In each case, a final thesis (diploma/master's thesis) is awarded 3,500 euros and a dissertation 5,000 euros. 

Questions answered: 

Alois K. Schlarb 

Picture: Tianchen Hong (left), Sebastian Kamerling (right) with their supervisor Alois K. Schlarb (centre). Photo: Ulrik Eichentopf 

Contact person: Simon Shi, MSc 

Date: 10/31/2022 

Term: none 

Composite Materials Chair 

Technical University of Kaiserslautern