AACHEN, Germany — May 23, 2025 — Combining sustainability and individual personal protective equipment – ITA PhD student Roxana Ley achieved this with her demonstrator surgical goggles. In her master’s thesis at Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University, she presented a method that combines Tailor Fibre Placement (TFP) with fused deposition modelling 3D printing.
At the same time, she developed a system that customizes personal protective equipment (PPE) and demonstrated this with a pair of surgical goggles. The combination of the two processes enables fast and flexible customization in terms of size and shape.
Roxana Ley was awarded the Wilhelm Lorch Award 2025 in the field of technology for this development on 15 May. The prize was awarded on the occasion of “TextilWirtschaftforum” (Textile Industry Forum) at the “Palmengarten” in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
“Our graduates are regular winners of the Wilhelm Lorch Foundation Awards, “ says ITA Director Prof Dr Thomas Gries enthusiastically. “We are very pleased about their potential and that the Wilhelm Lorch Foundation supports creative minds.“
The Wilhelm Lorch Foundation has been supporting talented young people for 37 years and awarded ten sponsorship prizes of €5,000 each to a total of twelve young people in 2025 (two award-winning works were produced by teams of two).
Posted: May 23, 2025
Source: Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University
