Circularity aims to promote the reuse, recycling and sustainable use of components, materials and structures. Process development plays a key role in this context, particularly with regard to composite materials and material combinations, above all to create new possibilities for combining materials and to incorporate recycled components.

Understanding the relationships between process, structure and properties – and modelling these relationships accordingly – makes it possible to generate micro- and macrostructures in a targeted manner and to achieve the desired mechanical, thermal or functional properties in a reproducible way. At the same time, this approach provides the basis for efficient material recovery and optimisation of circularity, as manufacturing, performance and recyclability are considered in conjunction with one another from the outset.