PIAE 2024 congress

The program of the PIAE 2024 was rewritten right from the start. After the connection to the first keynote could ne established and the second keynote was not yet present it was up to Mike Herbig from Audi AG, originally third in line, to start off the keynotes with his talk on circular design in the automotive industry.

Once the connection was established, this was followed by a very fascinating and interdisciplinary presentation on artificial intelligence by Prof. Dumitrescu from the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechatronic Design.

At 12.15 it was time for Managing Director Kai Zies to give his presentation with the title: “The Post-Consumer-Dilemma – The ELV-Regulation from the perspective of a SME Recycling Company for Engineering and High-Performance Plastics!”

The title aroused great interest, judging by the number of participants, despite two equally exciting presentations that were offered in parallel. The Q&A session would have been even longer if the next presentation had not been scheduled.

The conversations and discussions that followed were very good. Many new contacts and opportunities for exchange arose.

Shortly after his presentation, Managing Director Kai Zies moved on to the next item on the agenda, the PIAE press conference. Jochen Hardt from Covestro, Dr. Thomas Taddigs and Timo Achtelik, both from Volkswagen, were also present.

Dipl. Ing. Thomas Drescher also from Volkswagen moderated the event.

Here too, despite many other events, such as the PRSE or EKKT, which took place parallel to the PIAE and between which the journalists had to choose, the press conference was well attended.

There was keen interest in the topic of "Circular economy for plastics in automotive engineering - new solutions for sustainable use of materials", so that including the Q&A session, the press conference lasted half an hour longer than intended.

In addition to the professional exchange, there was also an opportunity to get together outside of plastics. This was particularly possible on the evening of the first day at the football match between Germany and Hungary with cold drinks and stadium sausages.

On the second day, however, everything revolved around plastics again.

Organized by the VDI Conference, PIAE 2024 was a very successful event.