Kleve/Kamp-Lintfort, 8 July 2014: With funding from the ‘Central Innovation Programme for SMEs’ (ZIM), Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences will once again be collaborating with Fluxana GmbH & Co. KG from Bedburg-Hau on research and development. The project is being carried out jointly by the Research Group for Analytics, Quality and Ecology, led by Prof. Dr Marie-Louise Klotz and Dr Myint Myint Sein at the Faculty of Technology and Bionics, and by Dr Rainer Schramm, Managing Director of Fluxana GmbH & Co. KG. It focuses on the development of new crucible materials, sample preparation and analytical methods for X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF), with the aim of improving or enabling the detection of specific chemical elements. The university is primarily interested in clarifying the underlying processes in order to understand and interpret the experimental results.
Together with the university, Fluxana aims to improve the sample preparation and analysis methods for X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF). To date, XRF has been able to determine which chemical elements are present in a sample; however, for certain elements in cement, minerals or steelworks slag, fusion tablets must be produced and fused into the sample material. This production process results in the loss of certain elements, meaning they can no longer be detected during the analysis. “If we can optimise this process, it would represent a significant competitive advantage for Fluxana. For us, it is a scientific challenge and an interesting field of activity,” explains the President of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Prof. Dr Marie-Louise Klotz.
The “ZIM-KOOP” project began on 1 May 2014. It will run for two years. To carry out the project, the university will receive funding of 175,000 euros over the next two years. At the same time, Fluxana is investing 160,000 euros, 40 per cent of which is subsidised. As an internationally recognised expert in the field of XRF, Fluxana enables the reproducible analysis of, for example, the elemental composition of cement, minerals or steelworks slag.
For Prof. Dr Marie-Louise Klotz, President of Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, and Dr Myint Myint Sein, the project’s lead researcher, the ZIM KOOP project with Fluxana is a fine example of how industry and academia can work together to drive the local area and the wider region forward: “We are open to many exciting projects that we wish to carry out in the region with partners from the business sector. Through such collaborations with small and medium-sized enterprises, we achieve a win-win situation in which the university carries out practice-oriented research, whilst the companies benefit not only from financial support but also from the research findings, thereby gaining sustainable competitive advantages.”
ZIM-Koop
This collaboration takes place within the framework of the ‘Central Innovation Programme for SMEs’ (ZIM) run by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology (BMWi), a nationwide funding programme open to all technologies and sectors for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and industry-linked research institutions collaborating with them: ZIM-KOOP.
Through the ZIM programme, the BMWi aims to provide long-term support for the innovative strength and competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises, including the skilled trades and the self-employed in the liberal professions, thereby contributing to the growth of these enterprises whilst creating and safeguarding jobs.
