Technical scientists always deal - directly or indirectly - with the increase of efficiency of complex technical "systems". The term system describes the interaction of material, machine, process and product. The starting point of every technical research usually is the determination of the state of the system, aiming at making the increase in efficiency measurable. If necessary, suitable measurement techniques have to be developed and tested.
Another goal of a technical scientist is to predict the behavior of a system "in use" under different boundary conditions. Therefore, he creates simplified models and views providing adequate reproductions of the causes/effects and simoltaneously remaining mathematically describable. With this type of examplary predictions, often called simulation, virtual trials of efficiency augmentation, which must be validated by a few diagnostic experiments, can be conducted with a minimum effort.
Research in Plastics Technology
Research in plastics technology has three facets: Material Engineering, Processing Technology and Construction/Product Engineering. Similar to engineering, research in Material Engineering is concerned with the increase of efficiency of plastics as a material. Research in Processing Technology deals with the increase of efficiency of processing machinery, tools and processes and research in Product Engineering engages itself with the increase of efficiency of plastic products. Development seeking special solutions for a certain case, research constantly strives towards the development of universally valid solutions. Hovering your mouse over each respective field of competence, you can find examples of the current research activities of the IKT.