Corona rules forced mechanics-lecturer Cees Besteman and his colleagues to make laminates out of glass-fiber composite for their minor-students.

Cees Besteman mechatronics lecturer at the academy LED. With his colleagues Jos ter Laak and Peter Wichers Schreur, he takes care of the minor AMPE.

The Advanced Materials and Production Engineering (AMPE) minor, originated from the minor Lightweight Structures co-developed by TPAC, includes a composite lecture. For this lecture TPAC makes her lab available for the practical parts.

The minor AMPE is very popular, since there are more than forty mechanical engineering students participating. Besteman: “For such a large group there is not enough room in the laboratory of TPAC because of the rules. The only possibility to get things done, was to do it ourselves as lecturers. So we make the laminates and cut the test samples, this also cannot be done by the students.” Apart from Cees Besteman his fellow-colleagues Jos ter Laak and Peter Wichers Schreur help to get this work done.

The minor-students must use the test samples to do several measurements to analyze how stiff the material is in what direction, depending of the positioning of the fibers. “With the results the students must draw conclusions, so they get understanding of the behavior of the material fiber composite. Working like this we can reach our learning objectives but of course it is a pity that the student miss the hands-on experience this year.”