The Upper Austrian Research GmbH is a non profit research institution located in Austria. The UAR services Technology Management and Technology Transfer built on four research departments. Two research departments, the “Transfercenter for Polymer Technologies” and the department of “Contactless Sensorics” are involved in the BIOCOMP Project.

The Transfercenter for Polymer Technology (TCKT) is a department of the Upper Austrian Research GmbH. Since 2001 the TCKT is acting as a non-university research institute in the fields of technology transfer and application oriented research and development in polymer technology. The focuses of the research activities are in the areas of:

• Material characterisation - thermal, mechanical and rheological testing
• Raw material and compound development - as well as production of small series
• Computer Aided Design, CAx - simulation and modelling of injection moulding processes or thermal design of injection moulding tools and structure analysis with FE-methods
• Composites - development and optimization of resin systems as well as technologies
• Natural fibre reinforced polymers - in several polymer matrices for injection moulding and extrusion

Thus the TCKT comprises the complete development from simulating the component and the design of the necessary tools, the material development and selection to the characterisation of the materials and testing the compounds.
 
Current activities in the field of natural fibre reinforced polymers are the extrusion and injection moulding of wood plastic composites WPC. Mainly direct processing of several natural and modified wood fibres in the extrusion line and the compound development. Moreover the reinforcement with natural short fibres like hemp, flax, sisal, palm, coconut and several cellulosic fibres mainly for new applications by injection moulding.
New fields in fibre reinforcement are the development of a feeding system for continuous filaments in the compounding process, the simulation of WPC’s in the injection moulding process and natural fibre mats in a resin transfer moulding (RTM) pilot plant.

More information (only in German): www.tckt.info