On 29 January 2019, the first FoodPackLab Innovation Workshop took place in Hannover. The Event was hosted by the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) and adressed challenges in the field of food processing, foodsafty & packaging. Along with the consortium members of FoodPackLab, additional companies operating in the photonics-, research- and packaging-industry from Spain, France and Germany attended the workshop.

After the registration, the participants were welcomed by one of the consortium members, Norbert Reichl, Managing Director of Food-Processing Initiative e.V.. Afterwards the project leader Gawel Walczak from secpho presented FoodPackLap briefly and showed an introduction video to explain how photonics technologies revolutionize the food industry by addressing food processing and packaging challenges of companies.

In order to face the challenges of food security, the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) presented their solutions. Julian Kuklik, CFK-Valley Composites Group, LZH talked about plastic welding with laser radiation, various processes and applications. Moreover M.Sc. Arndt Hohnholz, Head of Glass Group, LZH, offered innovative solutions in the field of glass processing with laser radiation, marking, shaping and joining. Finally Dr.-Ing. Heiko Meyer, Head of Imaging and Metrology Group, LZH talked about laser-based measurement methods for quality assessment of weld seams.

Afterwards the participating companies CEIT (Spain), TEKNIKER (Spain), WAVELABS (Germany), ANÉOLIA (France), AIMEN (Spain), VISIONA Control Industrial (Spain) discussed their photonic approaches for the food industry.

Before the lunch break, the first round of B2B meetings started. The participants had the opportunity to talk about possible collaborations to address food processing, food safety and packaging challenges.

After the lunch break, the participants were invited to a lab tour within the Laser Zentrum. Followed by the second round of B2B meetings. At the end of the innovation workshop, consortium member Norbert Reichl started the last discussion round and the participants dealt with the question how to collaborate in the internationalization of technologies to non-EU countries.

If you are interested in detailed information about the event in Hannover or would like to receive the presentations of  the participants, please contact Sabine Runge: sabine.runge@secpho.org.