Graduate Nils Braake was awarded the prize by the Friends of Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences e.V. for his exceptionally good and innovative Bachelor’s thesis in the field of mechanical engineering. The prize was presented by Managing Director Julia Nepicks at the graduation ceremony for the Faculties of Technology and Bionics and Life Sciences. Each semester, the Friends’ Association recognises outstanding theses that are characterised by a high degree of innovation or regional relevance. Julia Nepicks explained the Association’s choice by noting that Nils Braake’s thesis combined both of these aspects particularly well.
In his Bachelor’s thesis, supervised by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stephane Danjou, Nils Braake focused on redesigning a hot-melt glue applicator for an existing machine used to package PET bottles and cans in the drinks industry. This process does away with conventional packaging methods such as shrink film or cardboard and instead uses a number of small adhesive dots to bond products together into packs of six. The use of adhesive dots significantly reduces CO₂ emissions and the amount of waste generated. However, one problem with this method is that, due to the high temperatures in the system, the hot-melt adhesive carbonises and hardens in the channels after a certain period of time, which shortens the service life of the applicator.
In his final-year project, Nils Braake designed a redesigned hot-melt applicator that eliminates this problem through a modular design, whereby individual modules – provided they are not currently required for the process – can be switched off and thus no longer heated. In this way, he succeeded in improving the functionality and efficiency of the system, thereby contributing to a solution for sustainable secondary packaging.
The company where the graduate wrote his dissertation was so impressed by his idea and approach that it offered him a job immediately after he graduated.
