Anniversaries of membership are usually celebrated at the beginning of the ÖTG Symposium in the respective calendar year. For scheduling reasons, no representative of the current jubilee member KLÜBER Lubrication Austria GmbH, Salzburg, was able to attend the Symposium 2019 – this time in Dornbirn (Vorarlberg). Therefore, the ceremony to hand over the certificate had to be postponed. Prof. FRANEK, member of the ÖTG board and the society president until last fall, was pleased – on behalf of the society’s management – to present the 40 years of ÖTG membership certificate at the company headquarters in Salzburg.
Prof. FRANEK presented the certificate to Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang CHRISTANDL, Managing Director of KLÜBER Salzburg, who has been representing the anniversary member in the ÖTG for 10 years on February 18th, 2020. In his address of thanks and congratulations, Prof. Franek emphasized that KLÜBER has always accompanied and actively supported the work of the ÖTG in a special way. This was particularly helpful in times of special projects, such as the organization of the Tribology World Congress WTC 2001 in Wien or the preparation for the foundation of an Austrian Centre of Competence for Tribology, and served to demonstrate the interest of the relevant industry in the clearly visible „presence of tribology“ in Austria.
Prof. FRANEK also personally thanked Dipl.-Ing. CHRISTANDL, who – in the tradition of his predecessors Ing. POKORNY and Ing. PRASCHINGER – always participated pro-actively in the discussions at the ÖTG General Assembly on current topics and, with his experience in the economy, contributed valuable, constructive suggestions.
Dipl.-Ing. CHRISTANDL emphasized KLÜBER’s clear interest as a lubricant manufacturer in the promotion of tribology and cooperation in relevant research, which is particularly taken care of by the KLÜBER headquarters in Munich. Dipl.-Ing. CHRISTANDL referred to current or foreseeable organizational or personal changes and introduced his successor as representative at the ÖTG, Dipl.-Ing. Hermann SIEVERS, as future representative at the ÖTG.