Research and work focus
Simon Ettmüller has been conducting research at the LRF since 2024, where he is responsible for overseeing various research projects in the field of heat transfer. The scientific focus of his work is on the development of innovative polymer-based heat exchangers. As part of the GRETE project, he is intensively engaged in the investigation and design of highly filled graphite-polymer composite heat exchangers, in which polypropylene (PP) and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) are used as matrix materials. In addition, the research encompasses the use of rapid prototyping via fused deposition modeling (FDM) for the additive manufacturing of leak-tight polymer devices. Another central aspect is the process engineering challenge of joining these specialty materials: In the FutureKomP project, the joinability of highly filled polymer composites—which typically exhibit very low surface energy—is systematically analyzed and optimized using hot-melting processes