Frankfurt, Germany, 14 October 2014  – At the semi-annual meeting of the photonics steering committee, the VDMA Photonics Forum appointed four more representatives of the photonics industry to its steering body. In so doing, the forum implemented the steering committee’s own resolution. The expansion is designed to even better reflect the different photonics sub-sectors – including laser material processing, image processing and measuring technology, photovoltaic production resources, electronics production and micro-engineering – and to ensure a quorum for a representative committee. The steering committee defines the work programme and the strategic direction of the forum and contributes valuable industrial expertise to the work of the forum. The aim is to bundle the interests of the various photonics sectors and to achieve a strong business and scientific-political positioning of the key technology of photonics in the public eye. The new members of the steering committee are: Bernd Lange (LPKF Laser & Electronics AG), Dr. Armin Renneisen (Rofin-Sinar Laser GmbH), Dr. Eric Rüland (ISRA Vision AG) and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schmutz (ACI AG).

“We are pleased that the successful integration of additional experts provides the steering committee with an even broader technological basis. This enables us to map out our radius of activity with an even stronger practical focus,” says Gerhard Hein, Head of the VDMA Photonics Forum.

The further members of the photonics steering committee are: Dr. Rüdiger Hack (Laser 2000 GmbH), Dr. Susanne Heun (Merck), Dr. Michael Vergöhl (Fraunhofer IST), Dr. Thomas Rettich (Trumpf GmbH & Co. KG) sowie Jürgen Valentin (NanoFocus AG).

About the VDMA Photonics Forum

The Photonics Forum serves as a subject-oriented platform for bundling and linking existing expertise and resources within the VDMA. The list of actors in the forum includes the following VDMA organisations: the German Flat Display Forum (Deutsches Flachdisplayforum, DFF), the Industrial Image Processing Sector “Machine Vision” (Fachabteilung Industrielle Bildverarbeitung), the Working Group Lasers and Laser Systems for Materials Processing (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Laser und Lasersysteme für die Materialbearbeitung), the Electronics, Micro and Nano Technologies Association, the Organic and Printed Electronics Assocation (OE-A) and the Working Group Photovoltaic Equipment (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Photovoltaik-Produktionsmittel). The forum draws on the support of a group of members comprising more than 500 companies and research institutions along the entire value creation chain – of which some 400 members are primarily active in the field of photonics.