topic

Circular Factory for the Perpetual Innovative Product

date

Monday, 19 January 2026 | 3:00 – 5:00 pm

abstract

New, innovative economic systems are needed to decouple resource consumption from prosperity. The traditional linear approach of “take-make-use-dispose” is not sustainable in the long term, and political conditions are also making sustainable and circular production patterns increasingly inevitable. In our Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 1574 “Circular Factory”, we are pursuing the goal of enabling integrated production that combines linear and circular processes on an industrial scale. The aim is to systematically transfer used products into current product generations, a central step on the way to the vision of the “eternally innovative product”.
To implement this transformation, far-reaching interdisciplinary issues need to be resolved, covering areas such as production engineering, product development, materials engineering, ergonomics, robotics, computer science and knowledge modelling.

In the first part of the presentation of SFB 1574 “Circular Factory”, the overarching vision is introduced by way of example. In the second part, we focus on a key aspect of our research, namely the question of how we can use data-driven methods and targeted product development to turn used products back into new products with full functionality.

This lecture is part of the AdvanceAEC partner seminar series. Please register or log-in to your account to access the event credentials.