On May 20, 2025, around 90 participants from electroplating companies from the region met for the 14th time at the South Westphalian Surface Day at the SIHK in Hagen.
As usual, the event was held jointly with the DGO Iserlohn district group to inform employees from surface treatment companies about news and trends in surface technology through specialist presentations and an exchange of experiences.
Under the moderation of Dr. Sven Hering from Metoba Metalloberflächenbearbeitung GmbH in Lüdenscheid, 5 lectures were presented on the topics of technical cleanliness, trends in surface technology, digitalization in electroplating, design trends in automotive engineering and fire protection in electroplating.
- Markus Bauer from Tec Sa Control reported on the significant increase in requirements for the technical cleanliness of components in recent years, e.g. in the automotive industry, and used case studies to demonstrate the importance of the topic.
- Dr. Klaus Wojczykowski from MacDermid-Enthone reported on the activities of the DGO Research Committee, global investments in research and megatrends, current research projects and research trends in German industry, which are being triggered by substance bans, energy and resource efficiency and increased technical requirements.
- Peter Schwanzer from Fraunhofer IPA reported on opportunities for companies through the introduction of digitalization as well as the situation in an electroplating plant and demonstrated the use of digitalization based on use cases, e.g. in the IPA learning electroplating plant.
- Jörg Friedrich from Car Men GmbH reported on the design trends of metallic surfaces in automotive exteriors and interiors in China, the USA and Europe. He spoke about the focus on new zones in the automobile that have not yet been considered for decorative surfaces.
- In the last presentation, Mark Deimel from Driesch Anlagentechnik GmbH spoke about technical fire risks in electroplating plants and organizational/human fire risks. He used examples to show proven causes of fires and gave suggestions and tips on preventive fire protection and precautions to avoid fires.
After the presentations, the participants took the opportunity to discuss what they had heard with the speakers and each other over a light snack.
