ConnectING 19 juni 2022

opportunities. More than 250 experts from
academia and industry were present or
followed online. Targeted application areas
included manufacturing, electronics,
energy systems, transport and mobility
and health care systems. The audience
enjoyed innovative case studies and
practices, visionary papers on paradigm
change as well as contributions covering
theoretical and experimental research.
During the workshops, the introduction of
a digital product passport and industrial
symbiosis to promote the (re)use of material
resources between different industrial
players were discussed. A third workshop
dealt with sustainable engineering
education. The student teams CORE,
Formula Electric Belgium and the Solar
Team were invited to explain how their
sustainable projects are integrated into
engineering education.
Assembly and disassembly
The central theme of the 9th Conference
on Assembling Technologies & Systems
was 'Flexible Assembly and Disassembly
Systems'. More than 100 participants
followed or presented the latest
developments and trends in the wide field
from manual towards fully automated
(dis)assembly technologies. In 7 keynotes
and 73 technical sessions, topics such as
flexible and reconfigurable (dis)assembly
concepts and systems, human-robot
interaction and collaboration, handling
technologies, mobile and multi-robot
systems, operator support and ergonomics
were discussed.
The joint sessions with LCE2022 covered
topics such as design for assembling and
disassembling, disassembling technologies,
Prof. Wim Dewulf
© Kobe Michiels
re- and de-manufacturing, and auto -
mation solutions for lightweight structure
manufacturing.
Industrial Forum
On Wednesday 6 April, an animated panel
discussion on the sustainable factory of
the future took place with Martin Röhrig
(Airbus), Prof. Jef Peeters (KU Leuven),
Prof. Christoph Herrmann (TU Braunschweig)
and Dirk Torfs (Flanders Make).
As mentioned earlier, the participants in
both conferences included many engineers
and specialists from the manufacturing
industry. The close relationship between
academia and industry was also made
visible during an industrial forum on 7 April.
About ten companies showed off their
innovative assembly and disassembly
technologies.
Prof. Karel Kellens, Chair of the CATS
Conference, looks back with satisfaction.
“Both in format and in content the
conference was a success. Thanks to
the hybrid format, many researchers
were able to participate and even give
presentations. In terms of content,
the joint day with the LCE Conference
provided significant added value. It was a
first but one that is worth repeating.
Perhaps CATS and LCE will meet again in
Karlsruhe (Germany) in 2024”.
Yves Persoons
cats2022.eu
lce2022.eu
CONNECTING
37