When the Bavarian Minister of Finance, a foundation president and the president of OTH Regensburg come together for a ceremony at the Gollwitzer.family headquarters in Floß, it says a lot about the innovative strength of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Upper Palatinate.
In the ‘Weitblick’ conference room, Minister of State Albert Füracker presented a funding approval notice, marking the start of a research project that could bring about lasting change in specialised civil engineering in Germany. It is an alliance with the potential to merge research and practice into a model for success.
‘It is crucial that our companies make use of university knowledge and, conversely, that entrepreneurial spirit finds its way into universities. After all, it's no use to us if we invent something and others in the USA and China do the business,’ said Finance Minister Albert Füracker.
A milestone for the future of construction
Senior partner Harald Gollwitzer outlines the starting point for this ‘milestone for our company and for me’. Research and development, he says, are a rare species in the German construction industry. The sector's share of total volume is just 0.71 per cent. The fact that a family business from Floß is collaborating with OTH Regensburg to research a high-tech process for steel recovery using electricity is a textbook example of how technology transfer can succeed.
Gollwitzer emphasises that this university cooperation also closes a biographical circle: ‘Forty years ago, I myself was a student at OTH Regensburg.’ The fact that his alma mater has now become a partner of his company is also very much in line with the thinking of OTH professor Thomas Neidhart: ‘I am particularly pleased that we have beaten TU Graz and are now partners with the family business.’ Especially since, according to Gollwitzer, the university in Styria has outstanding expertise in this field.
How electricity dissolves concrete
What exactly is ‘WiSeS’ all about? The minister sums it up: ‘The WiSeS project is writing a new chapter in Bavarian construction and research history: it is developing an innovative method for recovering solid steel components from temporary civil engineering structures using electric currents – a significant step towards sustainable resource use.’ The innovative strength of OTH Regensburg and the family-owned company's many years of experience and expertise would complement each other perfectly.
Dr. Dr. h.c. Arndt Bode, President of the Bavarian Transformation and Research Foundation, ranks the WiSeS project among a long line of successful technology transfers and is supporting it with up to €359,500. Since 1990, the foundation has funded 1,097 research projects with a total of €665 million, which, together with the companies' own funds, has resulted in €1.4 billion in innovation volume. In his view, projects such as WiSeS show that transformation is not only taking place in urban centres, but also in regions such as the Upper Palatinate, where universities and small and medium-sized enterprises work closely together.
From excavation pit to lighthouse
Prof. Dr. Ralph Schneider, President of OTH Regensburg, describes the joint strategy: ‘Research only reveals its value when it contributes to putting results into practice.’ That is precisely the core of the project: practical relevance, resource efficiency, reuse. Schneider speaks of a ‘beacon project’ that exemplifies how steel parts from construction pits can be returned to the cycle – thereby saving CO₂. Building contractor Gollwitzer estimates that he can expect savings of up to 60 per cent.
The presentation by Professor Dr.-Ing. Thomas Neidhart, who has been researching electrokinetic processes at OTH Regensburg for years with his team led by Michael Ried and Louis Zrenner, demonstrates the technical approach: large construction sites require temporary steel structures – supports, beams, sheet piling – which, once the concrete has hardened, are often difficult or impossible to recover without causing damage. The concrete interlocks with the steel, forming an adhesive bond that is almost impossible to break, even with massive force.
How the concrete releases the steel
The idea behind the project is to use electric currents to weaken the bond between steel and concrete in a targeted manner. The test series show three electrokinetic effects:
- Electro-osmosis: Electrical charge moves water in fine capillaries. A film of water forms between the concrete and steel.
- Electrophoresis: ions migrate under voltage, structures in cement stone change.
- Electrolysis: Water breaks down into gas, and the gas pressure further loosens the bond.
The measurable results:
- Shear failure is reduced by up to 88 per cent.
- The adhesive tensile strength decreases significantly.
- The concrete-steel connection is temporarily ‘decoupled’.
In short: the concrete voluntarily releases the steel.
