210 participants, 42 booked stands at the trade exhibition: The Leipzig Technical Seminar, the most important one-day event in electroplating and surface technology, took place for the 30th time on March 13, 2025 with a slightly lower turnout than in the past two years. The event, which was launched in 1994 for regional electroplating companies, has since established itself as a successful supra-regional industry event. While around 100 participants attended in 1997, more than twice as many industry members now regularly attend the presentations in Leipzig.
On the occasion of the anniversary, more association representatives than usual were in Leipzig. In addition to the new Managing Director of the German Society for Electroplating and Surface Technology (DGO), Dr. Daniel Meyer, the Managing Director of the Central Association for Surface Technology (ZVO), Christoph Matheis, was also present.
Christoph Matheis awarded the co-founder of the Leipzig specialist seminar, Marion Regal, honorary membership of the DGO
His speech followed the welcoming addresses by Prof. Thomas Lampke, TU Chemnitz, Anja Hähle-Posselt, City of Leipzig, and Messe Leipzig Managing Director Markus Geisenberger. The tenor of their speeches: The situation is better than the mood. Prof. Lampke countered the currently prevailing anxious view of the future with a quote from the poet and playwright Robert Frost: "In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life - it goes on!" In his speech, Matheis recalled, among other things, the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, which coincided with the Leipzig seminar. "A bizarre event," he looked back. The industry was confronted with mandatory face masks, elbow greetings and social distancing rules for the first time. Matheis, who handed over the management of the DGO to Dr Daniel Meyer at the beginning of the year, awarded honorary membership of the DGO to DGO Saxony district group leader Marion Regal, who founded the Leipzig seminar together with Karlheinz Spielvogel and Ulrich Viehweger in 1994 and has organized it ever since. The award came as a surprise to Marion Regal. She is still "flashed", she told Galvanotechnik.
The comeback of the vinyl record
Gunnar Heuschkel from R.A.N.D. Muzik GbR in Leipzig kicked off the technical presentations. R.A.N.D. produces records whose manufacturing process relies on electroplating technology. He began by describing the development of the record, which goes back to Edison's "speaking machine" of 1877. This involved speaking into a tube, with the machine then engraving the sounds onto a layer of wax. The recording was played using a crank. Initially, the so-called shellac record prevailed, coated with a varnish excreted by the scale insect, which produced a very smooth surface with grooves. The first vinyl record - vinyl is PVC (polyvinyl chloride) - was introduced in 1939 and was considered "unbreakable", an important property in those days, as the shellac record broke quickly if it fell. The vinyl record initially offered 30 minutes of playback time per side. The so-called stereo groove record appeared in 1960. It was developed by Mercury Records. The vinyl record reached its peak in the 1980s, when one billion records were pressed each year. Michael Jackson's record "Thriller" alone was produced 120 million times. Subsequently, the record almost completely disappeared with the advent of the CD. The last record press was delivered in 1989. There were originally hundreds of these presses, the size of a closet, in the production facilities of Bertelsmann and Warner. The rebirth of the vinyl record began in the 2010s with records by Adele and Kraftwerk, among others. Recovering the know-how was difficult at first, but today many start-ups are once again shaping the picture and production volumes have risen again to 160 million a year. Production comprises three stages: master production, electroplating and pressing. Negative copies (sons) made from the first positive copy (master) serve as press dies. One such die, produced using electroplating technology, is sufficient for pressing around 1000 records. Die production takes place in nickel sulphate electrolytes and is energy-intensive, as is electroplating production in general. Anyone interested in the electroplating production of records is recommended to watch the episode "The Record" of the children's TV program "Sendung mit der Maus".
Sustainability in sealing
Robert Lassak, Sales Manager at MacDermid Enthone, trained electroplater and metal grinder, was the next speaker to take the podium. He stood in for Dr. Michael Schem, who was unable to come to Leipzig due to the flu. The lecture was entitled "Sustainability aspects of sealing" and was introduced by Lassak with a quote from Hans Carl von Carlowitz, the father of sustainable forestry. He wrote in the 17th century that no more wood should be taken from the forest than can grow back. Sustainable wood is an important topic today, and furniture manufacturers such as IKEA advertise it. Plastics are a different matter when it comes to sustainability, as they come from petrochemical processes - if plastics were to be produced from plants, this would take up 5% of agricultural land, Lassak calculated. However, 100% sustainability is not possible, he emphasized, and a mixed solution of petrochemical and sustainable production is being sought. With regard to sealants, he referred to passivation, which enables the corrosion protection to develop its full protective effect. He presented a possible new sealant with up to 60 % organic content, good appearance, a coefficient of friction µ of 0.1-0.15, cost comparability with fossil-based products and a batch concentration of 20-30 % with good corrosion protection.
Gunnar Heuschkel from R.A.N.D. Muzik GbR during his presentation on the history and manufacture of vinyl records, which are once again gaining popularity as a sound carrier today
Robert Lassak, Sales Manager at MacDermid Enthone, stood in for Dr. Michael Schem and spoke about sustainability in sealants
Optimization of busbar connections
Dennis Stritter from Atotech then spoke about the "Electrical and mechanical optimization of bolted busbar joints". In the past, tin-zinc coatings were used for contact surfaces such as these. He presented considerations that are necessary in the run-up to optimization, such as the question of which components in the vehicle will change after the drivetrain has been converted to electromobility and which surfaces the respective busbars actually have. In principle, he noted that electrification will result in more electrical components and then focused his presentation on the question of what influence surfaces have on conductivity. The factors electrolyte, passivation, sealing/topcoat, hardness and cleanliness must be taken into account here.
Jörg Zimmermann from Gazima Galvanische Veredelung Zimmermann GmbH in Grünhein-Beierfeld used many examples to address the topic of fire protection
Dennis Stritter from Atotech focused on current rail connections and their optimization
The last speaker was Johannes Flore from Calorplast, whose topic was efficiency measures using heat recovery
Electronic pills for better medical treatment
The last lecture of the morning was given by Dr. Andreas Ostmann from the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM). He spoke about "Electronic pills for diagnosis and therapy", which could significantly improve medical treatment. Such pills contain semi-flex printed circuit boards. With the help of a robotic arm, the pills are detectable and visible to doctors, and the precise dosage of active ingredients in an electronic pill can improve the patient's health and reduce the amount of medication. Dr. Ostmann pointed out that a mechanical object is much easier to handle from an environmental point of view than chemical substances that end up in the sewage system. However, a great deal of development work is still required for use in medicine. There is also a high risk that the project will prove uneconomical. Dr. Ostmann explained that the main reason for this is the immense bureaucratic hurdles involved.
Dr. Andreas Ostmann from Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin presented an electric pill with an integrated circuit board
Leipzig Electroplating Prize
The break was followed by the presentation of the Leipzig Electroplating Prize, which this year was not awarded for an innovation, but went to the team around Thilo von Vopelius for founding and establishing the Museum of Electroplating Technology. The museum in Leipzig - because of the founding of the Langbein-Pfannhauser-Werke in 1881, the city is known as the cradle of electroplating, as von Vopelius emphasized - is the only one in Germany to date. The association Deutsches Museum für Galvanotechnik e. V. has been in existence since 2010. In addition to the numerous exhibits that trace the history of the technology, schoolchildren are also given the opportunity to gild coins on site. Von Vopelius thanked the company Max Schlötter, which provides the gold electrolyte, and revealed that there are requests to virtualize the gilding of coins, which is currently only possible in Leipzig, i.e. to reproduce it digitally as realistically as possible. Gilding could thus be demonstrated to school classes throughout Germany, regardless of location. He also informed the conference participants that a new chairman had been elected at the association's general meeting the previous day: the new first chairman is Dr. Thomas Krümmling, Managing Director of Technologiezentrum für Oberflächentechnik und Umweltschutz Leipzig GmbH (TZO), and the second chairman is Michael Stoffers from Vopelius Chemie, also in Leipzig.
Stefan Kaßner from the award committee, Leipzig Electroplating Award winner Thilo von Vopelius and DGO Managing Director Dr. Daniel Meyer (from left to right)
Titration and analytics
The topic of titration was "Easy to handle and applicable for everyone - routine analysis in electroplating and surface treatment companies?". The speakers were Dr. Elke Spahn from Gravitech GmbH and Dr. Markus Guttmann from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Both scientists are chemists. Markus Guttmann studied and completed his doctorate in Leipzig, Elke Spahn completed her doctorate in Mainz. She described the development of her company, which has six employees and was founded in 2021. Titration is a defined reaction and a defined end point, she explained, but lamented that analytics is a dirty word in electroplating. If analytics is lost, important expertise is lost. Sustainability and digitalization are also only possible with analytics. A successful integration of titration processes into lessons can be observed at the vocational college in Zwickau. There, the vocational students determined the components zinc and nickel in the electolyte in the traditional way. She called for gravimetric analysis to be included as standard in vocational training.
Dr. Elke Spahn and Dr. Markus Guttmann shared the presentation on titration and analysis
Fire protection and insurability of electroplating plants
Fire protection is a key issue in electroplating, as electroplating plants in Germany regularly burn down. Jörg Zimmermann from Gazima Galvanische Veredelung Zimmermann GmbH in Grünhain-Beierfeld therefore gave the presentation "Effective fire protection in electroplating and cooperation with the fire department". He began by mentioning fires at Saxonia Galvanik in Halsbrücke and the fire at Diehl in Berlin in May 2024. In addition to the destruction caused by fire, the consequences of the fires were foams, fish kills due to contaminated extinguishing water and subsequent court cases. In some cases, it is advisable to let the fire burn out in order to prevent the contamination of rivers. He warned against not informing the media accurately, as this would result in false reports. Zimmermann also asked whether electric bathroom heating is still in keeping with the times, as bathroom heating systems repeatedly overheat or bathtubs melt through. Although polypropylene tubs do not catch fire quickly, if this does happen, their calorific value is "incredibly high", said Zimmermann. He recommended automatic extinguishing systems and smoke detectors, including in switch cabinets. In the meantime, electroplating systems have become the plaything of insurance companies. If you consider, for example, that solar systems on the roof are "undesirable" for some insurance companies, there is no clear understanding of what the insurance companies actually require from electroplating plants. The presentation was followed by a lively discussion on how the insurability of electroplating plants could be ensured and what the DGO could do in this regard. A committee with political involvement was proposed, which would address the insurers. The example of a company with a 25 million euro deductible illustrated the absurdity of some insurance contracts.
Energy efficiency law and heat recovery
Johannes Flore from Calorplast Wärmetechnik in Krefeld took to the lectern for the last topic of the conference. His article, based on the presentation, was published in the March issue at the same time as the Leipzig seminar. He spoke about maximizing energy efficiency through heat recovery. It was about the Energy Efficiency Act and the requirements it contains for companies to implement measures to reduce their energy consumption. Calorplast offers the opportunity to meet these requirements with heat recovery. Flore mentioned exhaust air heat recovery and heat pump integration as technical solutions and discussed, among other things, the investment costs and the need to train and sensitize employees.
More on this in Galvanotechnik 3/2025, p. 318 ff.
