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The automotive industry and its suppliers are leading drivers of technology and growth at both an international and national level. Important factors for this sector include improving safety and saving weight and energy. Materials, and efficient ways of joining them, provide the raw material for innovative solutions to these challenges. An international conference with eminent speakers will be exploring these topics on October 1st and 2nd 2008 at the new production plant of Fronius International in Sattledt, Upper Austria. For the first international conference on "Automotive engineering – Trends in joining technology and materials science", the organisers have lined up some highly experienced representatives from industry and science.
 
Speaking on the subject of "Disparate joins – opportunities for lightweight construction" is Prof. Dr. Ing. Anke Rita Pyzalla from the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research, while her colleague, Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Helmut Antrekowitsch, from the Mining University of Leoben will talk about "Titanium and magnesium – materials in a modern society".

Numerous representatives of the automotive industry will be giving us the benefit of their experience. The speakers and the titles of their papers are as follows: Dipl.-Ing. Steffen Müller (Audi) - "Joining technologies for bodywork", Dipl.-Ing. Alois Lang (BMW) - "Quality assurance in the MIG welding of aluminium alloys", Dipl.-Ing. Heiko Steinmetz (Daimler) - "Laser hybrid welding of safety-related chassis structures", Dipl.-Ing. Guido Müller (Ford) - "Lessons learned from initial use of CMT at Ford", Yongjoon Cho Ph. D. (Hyundai) - "New joining processes and the benefits they offer to the automotive industry", Dr. Ing. Sven Jüttner (Volkswagen) - "Technical requirements for joining techniques in automotive production of the future".

The results from the point of view of suppliers/integrators will be presented by Professor Dr.-Ing. W. Rostek and Dr. Ing. Tim Michael Wibbeke (Benteler Automobiltechnik) in a paper entitled "Joining techniques for hot-formed components and aluminium materials", by Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Gerhard Posch (Böhler Schweißtechnik Austria) and Dipl.-Ing. K. Sierlinger (voestalpine Stahl) - "Weldability of modern, ultra-high strength cold strip grades". Two further papers will be presented by Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Volprecht (Lewa Attendorn) - "Substituting a welded structure for a fine-cast component when using the CMT process", and Dipl.-Ing. Karl Lammer (Magna Cosma), whose paper is entitled "Process-related quality assurance". The conference languages of German and English with simultaneous interpreting underline the international nature of the event.

Despite the ambitious technical agenda, ample time for discussions has also been built into the schedule. The conference will be chaired by Dr. Klaus Koglin from Audi and Dipl.-Ing. Hans Hornig from BMW. Mag. Stefan Halvax will moderate the discussion and the schedule. The role of Fronius International will be limited to that of host. However, we will offer delegates the opportunity to take a look round our new, modern production plant in Sattledt. For more information please contact Doris Lohberger at Fronius International or any other Fronius representative. Anyone interested in attending the conference should register soon, as numbers are limited. Information is also available at http://www.fronius.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-0AFF0106-2CA7EAC4/fronius_international/hs.xsl/79_13996_ENG_HTML.htm?redirected=true&eventID=253

Fronius International GmbH

Fronius develops, produces and distributes battery chargers, welding technology and inverters for photovoltaic systems worldwide. The group has four production sites in Austria, the Czech Republic and Ukraine plus more than twelve sales subsidiaries in Europe and America. The company employs 2,221 employees worldwide, 1,661 of whom are based in Austria.

Fronius's key figures for 2007 are as follows: sales of 298.5 million Euro, 88.2 % of products exported and twelve international sales organisations around the world - including three new ones in Mexico, Canada and Italy, plus more than 130 international representatives. 16.8% of turnover is re-invested with a further 6.8% going to R&D. Fronius owns 469 patents. One third of all products sold are less than three years old.

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