German packaging education and scientific research

Germany is one of the countries that carried out early packaging education and research. After years of exploration and improvement, it has gradually formed its own characteristics. This article briefly introduces the status quo of several universities in Germany that have a packaging engineering specialty and Hamburg Packaging Research Institute, and compares and analyzes the actual situation of China's packaging education and research.

There are universities specializing in the field of packaging engineering in Germany, University of Dortmund (universitaet dortmund), Dresden University of Technology (technnische universitaet dresden), Stuttgart School of Print Media (hochschule fuer druck und medien stuttgart), Berlin Institute of Technology (technische fachhochschule Berlin), hochschule fuer technik, wirtschaft und knltur leipzig, etc. Universities with courses in packaging engineering include the technische universitaet muenchen, the hochschule fuer angewandte wissenschaften hamburg, and the hochschule bremerhaven. It is anchored in the prestigious Institute for Packaging and the Packaging Institute of Dresden University of Technology.

Packaging engineering is a cross-disciplinary multidisciplinary profession. Its professional foundation and professional orientation are more difficult. To discuss the professional direction of packaging engineering in China for many years, there is basically a relatively clear conclusion, but on this basis all universities have their own priorities. After many years of development, the packaging engineering profession in Germany has already established its own position, which is to highlight the packaging features on the basis of mechanical engineering and economic management. Looking at the setting up of the basic courses and specialized courses of packaging engineering in German universities, it can be said that it is basically similar to domestic. Including advanced mathematics, university physics, university chemistry, engineering mechanics, electronics, mechanical design basis, processing technology, business management, cost accounting, marketing, packaging materials, packaging design, packaging technology, packaging testing, packaging machinery, storage and transportation Packaging technology, packaging control technology, packaging quality management, packaging economics, packaging and environmental protection. In this large framework, each university has its own characteristics. For example, the Berlin Institute of Technology emphasizes some food packaging, the Leipzig Higher Technical Economics School emphasizes the packaging process, the Stuttgart School of Print Media focuses on packaging design and printing, Dresden University of Technology The professional direction is packaging machinery, Dortmund University focuses on imparting professional knowledge in logistics, and Hamburg University of Applied Sciences expertise, while Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and course orientation is storage and packaging technology.

The focus here is just the difference between individual courses or hours, such as the difference between the hours of food packaging, such as food packaging must learn microbiology, food chemistry and so on. However, the orientation of the packaging majors of various German universities is the same. In general, the direction of packaging engineering is mainly in packaging technology and technology in Germany.

Practice is known

Another characteristic of the packaging engineering major in German universities is that they attach great importance to practical teaching activities. In addition to the necessary basic experiments, the packaging engineering profession has its own dedicated laboratory. In addition, professional labs related to packaging engineering are also open to students of packaging engineering. The school arranges students to visit related companies or port terminals for many times. Every time a variety of packaging exhibitions are held in Germany, several universities and colleges will adjust teaching arrangements in a timely manner and try to allow students to go to exhibitions to master the latest packaging expertise and development trends. For German students, apart from visiting the internships, it is more important to have two longer internships during the university, each for about six months. During this period, the students themselves find a suitable company, and negotiate with the instructor to determine the main internship content. After the school accredited registration, it enters the company and officially begins the internship. Through the first internship, students can understand the entire operation of packaging companies and related professional knowledge, which is to lay a solid foundation for follow-up professional learning. The second professional internship will enable students to understand and master the professional knowledge they have learned, and to accumulate many things that cannot be learned in class or in class. In particular, focusing on the participation of a certain professional direction or topic, the professional knowledge will be raised to a higher level. The final important link is graduation design. The topics selected by the packaging engineering students are usually the actual topics of packaging companies or packaging scientific research institutions. Students personally participate in the development and research of this topic. This not only allows students to truly experience a real-time exercise, but also accumulates rich experience for future work. At the same time, it also increases the opportunities for students to work. Many students are regarded by enterprises or research institutions during graduation design and directly after graduation. Start work there.

Production, learning and research

In addition to packaging engineering and professional higher education, the German Packaging Institute has many characteristics. The Hamburg Packaging Research Institute is used as an example here. The Hamburg Packaging Research Institute was founded 50 years ago when it was located at Hamburg Freeport. The initial business was based on shipping package consulting. After approval by the municipal government, the institute merged with the packaging laboratory of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences to develop and grow into a large-scale Hamburger Packaging Research Institute (insritut fuer beratung, forschung, The systemplanung, verpack ungsentwicklung und -pruefung an derhochschule fuer angewandte wissenschaften hamburg) referred to as BFSV, the main work includes consulting, research, system design, packaging development and testing and so on. The institute is based on the name of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and is headed by a university professor. This person's teaching workload in the university can be halved so that he can have more time to invest in the work of the institute. The university’s offices and laboratories are occupied by the Institute, and water and electricity heating is provided by the school. Some of the smaller and smaller instruments in the laboratory are also configured and fixed by the university to provide some costs. However, the Institute is required to undertake lectures on university-related packaging courses, such as mechanical, economic, transportation students, and is responsible for the experimental arrangements and implementation of students. The institute will also instruct students in their professional internships and graduation designs, and cultivate graduate students and doctoral students. In addition to the director, all staff members are employed by the Institute to pay concurrent salary.

In this way, the Institute has done a lot of practical work and advertising for universities, and has also reduced the financial burden on schools.

The Hamburg Packaging Institute’s income usually has two channels. The first is to apply for vertical topics and corporate horizontal topics. Since the research funding of German countries and companies is declining year by year, it is very difficult to apply for a project. However, after all, the Hamburg Packaging Research Institute is relatively strong and has a certain influence in the European and international packaging industries. Therefore, at least one research project is guaranteed to operate normally every year. Another way to generate revenue is to serve businesses. The institute owns a large number of packaging testing instruments and equipments. Besides the students' experimental internships and research projects, they are also used for the development and testing of various transportation packages for the industrial community. It and its main businesses include the testing of packaging materials such as paper, cardboard, corrugated cardboard, and plastic film; it also includes tests for drop, impact, vibration, and pressure of packaging containers, packaging, and transportation packages; testing and analysis of anti-embroidered packaging; danger Product packaging testing and appraisal; calculation and evaluation of safe transportation are the services of Hamburg Packaging Institute. In addition, the Institute also involved in the packaging company's quality assurance system certification, international transport packaging claims assessment. All in all, the Hamburg Packaging Research Institute was able to find market opportunities on its own and found the right breakthroughs, each accounting for more than half of the company’s total revenue.

The Hamburg Packaging Research Institute has taken a new path in teaching, scientific research and management. It has actually played a role as a bridge between universities and enterprises. Students here complete experiments and tests for companies to understand what companies need. The knowledge of packaging, through contact with professional departments of enterprises, can also understand the company's requirements for packaging talents. On the other hand, through the development of research and packaging projects for enterprises, the Institute can solicit the minds of companies on the teaching content and research direction of packaging education, adjust course settings in a timely manner, update the content of lectures, and enrich experimental arrangements. Another point is that the Institute has established extensive contacts with the packaging companies. It often connects students to internship locations, introduces graduation design, and helps many students find professional counterparts through their own channels. All this shows that the Hamburg Packaging Research Institute has indeed opened up a new way for universities to establish research institutes.

After comparing and analyzing the higher education of packaging engineering in Germany and China, it is not difficult to find that China's packaging engineering higher education pays more attention to theoretical teaching and the basic knowledge is solid and firm, which is stronger than Germany's; but the students of packaging engineering major in China are able to The ability to solve practical problems is weaker than that of German students. Therefore, our students in the packaging industry must further strengthen the ability to conduct experiments to improve professional internship efficiency. In the same way, how to run the packaging scientific research institute within the university and with less input makes it not only become a university's scientific research experiment base, but also helps the university and the students to more and better go to the enterprise, go to the market, and give full play to packaging through it. The good role of engineering higher education in economic construction and international competition will improve the overall level of China's packaging industry. Regardless of this point, the experience of the Hamburg Packaging Research Institute is worthy of our reference.