With a total of 569 registered participants over the three days of the event, the ZVO Oberflächentage 2026 came to a close on 18 September – held in Karlsruhe for the first time. A first not only for the ZVO, but also for the venue: #OTKarlsruhe26 was the first major event to take place in the completely refurbished Stadthalle in the heart of the city.
At 6 pm sharp on 16 September 2026, ZVO Executive Board member Jörg Püttbach officially opened #OTKarlsruhe26 and welcomed the numerous guests at the opening evening, including keynote speaker Torsten J. Koerting, the board members of ZVO and its member associations, honorary members, the trade press and, at the invitation of ZVO and DGO, young professionals from vocational colleges and universities.
This was followed by a welcome address from DGO Chairman Dr Martin Metzner, who then introduced the DGO awards.
In his keynote speech on the topic ‘AI in SMEs – not a pipe dream, but a competitive advantage’, Torsten J. Koerting, AI strategist, bestselling author and co-founder of the Koerting Institute, put the topic of artificial intelligence into context: With the aid of a washing line, photos and input from the audience, he first took the audience through the 80-year history of AI, then introduced various forms of AI and, through live demonstrations and an outside perspective, opened up new insights into what AI can mean for industrial SMEs. It was an inspiring talk whose impact lingered even as attendees enjoyed their first beer at the informal get-together that followed.
The following morning, the AI journey continued, featuring, amongst other things, a workshop by Koerting on the topic ‘AI Compass for SMEs: Identifying My Relevant Use Cases’, which participants could book as an add-on.
The extensive programme of presentations over the following two days also focused on the topics of digitalisation, fire safety, energy (systems) and hydrogen, raw materials and circularity, bath and surface analysis, and damage claims. In addition, there were sessions on recurring topics such as cathodic corrosion protection, functional coatings, process and product quality, new business areas, requirements and future trends for electroplating and surface technology, the well-established business forum ‘Management meets Surface’, and reports from young professionals.
On the morning of 17 September 2026, the ZVO’s Environment and Chemicals Policy Department once again hosted a consultation session on regulatory developments in European and national environmental and chemicals policy. During the session, Dr Roland Appel from the Bavarian Chemical Industry Associations gave a presentation addressing the question of what current chemicals policy means for the (chemicals) industry. Drawing on current regulatory activities (in the context of REACH and CLP) and their impact on the chemical and related industrial sectors, he outlined developments in European chemicals legislation. He concluded that the industry as a whole has now suffered a significant loss of substance.
The issue was explored in greater depth, with reference to the call made by ZVO board member Püttbach during the opening event to make their voices heard. It was demonstrated how individual statements from each person can help raise public awareness of the issue. The website madeingermanybrauchtzukunft.com is designed to assist with this. The ZVO cannot act as the voice and face of the affected companies, their employees and families in order to make an impact. However, it pledges the greatest possible support to anyone who wishes to speak out actively in public.
This session of the ZVO women’s network, Female SurFaces, focused on changes in the world of work and their specific impact on the sector. Whilst the main focus was on women’s perspectives, the discussion was deliberately broadened to include different generations, cultural backgrounds and life experiences. The aim was to provide impetus for an attractive, respectful and sustainable working culture in surface technology.
To kick things off, Katja Feige gave a concise keynote presentation providing an overview of relevant developments. She highlighted facts about the transformation of work as well as key trends such as the skills shortage, automation, AI and demographic change. She also highlighted what these developments mean in concrete terms for tasks, roles and qualification requirements. These changes have an impact on collaboration, communication, training and leadership, as well as on appreciation and psychological safety in the workplace. Surveys and insights from Female SurFaces’ activities provided an understanding of the sector and demonstrated how these changes are perceived.
This was followed by a panel discussion on the question: ‘Between expectations and everyday reality: how fair is our working culture really?’ It built on the points raised in the presentation and opened the floor for an open, critical and constructive exchange. The discussion increasingly centred on the topic of training, partly due to numerous contributions from the audience and the rotating participants taking the ‘open chair’ on the panel. This is an issue that clearly highlights the need for action among both female and male young professionals, as well as among trainers and business leaders.
Ideas and solutions were then developed during the concluding interactive ‘marketplace’ session, featuring three stands on different topics. Participants were invited to get actively involved and share their experiences on the following topics and questions: ‘The appeal of the electroplating industry as an employer: How can we raise the profile of surface treatment professions? How can we attract young talent?”, “Transformation in the world of work: What impact do digitalisation and AI have?” and “Which topics should Female SurFaces address?”. The results of these joint discussions will be analysed and incorporated into the women’s network’s future work.
Female SurFaces were also once again represented with a stand at the accompanying trade exhibition, where around 70 exhibitors presented their products and services and invited visitors to take part in technical discussions.
The presentation block ‘Research findings – reports from young colleagues’ once again provided a focused insight into current research in the field of electroplating and surface engineering in 2026. Across two consecutive sessions, the topics ranged from electrochemical energy storage and electrolysis, through alloy deposition and electroforming, to cast aluminium, battery materials and analytical methods. It was precisely this mix of fundamental research, application-oriented process development and materials science characterisation that made the lecture series so appealing. At the same time, it demonstrated just how closely surface engineering is now linked to the future-oriented fields of energy conversion and energy storage.
Marius Engler, a PhD student at the Technical University of Ilmenau, opened the first session with a presentation entitled ‘Strategies for the development of efficient electrolytes for iron redox flow batteries’. Having been awarded the Nasser-Kanani Prize in 2025, he now presented the latest developments in his work on an energy storage system that does not require critical or scarce active materials. The focus was on strategies for the targeted design and optimisation of electrolytes, which form a key component of high-performance iron redox flow batteries.
Also from the Technical University of Ilmenau was Richard Kübler, who focused on the electrochemical production of nickel-iron catalyst layers. Particularly noteworthy was the fact that he did not confine himself to purely empirical electrolyte development, but delved deeply into the fundamental mechanisms of alloy deposition. The presentation thus combined a concrete application in water electrolysis with fundamental insights into the alloy deposition of nickel and iron.
This year’s winner of the DGO’s Young Researchers’ Award, Mohamad Dodangi from Chemnitz University of Technology, presented research on the copper plating of geometrically complex, non-metallic structures and demonstrated the importance of electrolyte flow for uniform metal deposition on challenging three-dimensional geometries. The presentation highlighted how process control and component geometry must be considered together if reproducible film thicknesses and complete coverage are to be achieved. In his presentation, Mr Dodangi proved himself a worthy award winner and impressed with his expertise across several disciplines – from electrochemistry and simulation to 3D animation.
Andreas Winter from Ilmenau spoke on the ‘Influence of microstructure on the anodisability of recycled cast aluminium alloys’. The focus of his work was deliberately on the production and quality of the cast material rather than on the electrochemistry of anodising. In doing so, he drew attention to an aspect that is, unfortunately, often given too little consideration in coating practice: the quality of the resulting surface is largely determined by the base material and its manufacturing conditions. Particularly in the case of recycled aluminium alloys, a sound understanding of the microstructure is therefore an important prerequisite for robust subsequent surface treatment processes.
Max Braungardt from Aalen University opened the second session with a presentation entitled ‘Development of sustainable, high-performance sodium-sulphur batteries with an innovative synergistic polymer separator and electrode concept’. As a polymer chemist, he provided the audience – predominantly from the electroplating sector – with interesting insights into the roll-to-roll production of polymer films. The potential combination of this continuous film production with the composite electroforming technology established at Aalen University appears particularly promising. This opens up avenues for novel, functionally integrated electrode and separator concepts.
The presentation on silicon composite anodes, originally announced in the programme as being given by Christian Kiesl, was delivered by Dr Reinhard Böck from the FEM in Schwäbisch Gmünd. The presentation focused on lithium-ion batteries and the electrochemical production of silicon-composite anodes. It clearly demonstrated how electroforming production methods can be utilised for the development of future battery materials.
In her presentation entitled ‘MnO₂-graphene composite cathodes for aqueous aluminium-ion batteries’, Azadeh Abdi from the Technical University of Ilmenau reported on the production of graphene-manganese oxide composite materials using hydrothermal processes. The resulting materials were characterised using, amongst other methods, Raman spectroscopy. The results highlighted the potential of such composite cathodes, but at the same time made it clear that the relationships between synthesis conditions, structure and electrochemical properties need to be better understood.
Burkhard Hübner from Mittweida University of Applied Sciences concluded the session with an overview of the applications of Raman spectroscopy in electroplating. Thanks to its clear focus on practical issues and the immediately apparent benefits for materials analysis, the presentation met with great interest from the audience. At the same time, its content tied in well with the previously presented Raman characterisation of MnO₂-graphene composites.