Institut für Kunststoffverarbeitung
The Institut für Kunststoffverarbeitung in Industrie und Handwerk (IKV), the Institute for Plastics Processing in Industry and Trade at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany, is a teaching and research institute for the study of plastics technology. It stands for practice-oriented research, innovation and technology transfer. The focus of the IKV is the integrative view of product development in the material, construction and processing sectors, in particular in plastics and rubber. The sponsor is a non-profit association that currently includes around 300 companies from the plastics industry worldwide (as of December 2018) and through which the institute maintains a close connection between industry and science. In addition, the IKV is a member of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft industrieller Forschungsvereinigungen "Otto von Guericke" (AiF).The institute was founded in 1950 and, with around 350 employees, has become Europe's largest research and training institute in the field of plastics technology.