diff --git a/publish-custom-image.sh b/publish-custom-image.sh
index 08f7342d..b3b29cb9 100755
--- a/publish-custom-image.sh
+++ b/publish-custom-image.sh
@@ -9,11 +9,14 @@ gradle assemble
 # Get the current Git branch
 branch=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
 
+# Replace any slashes (e.g., in 'feature/' or 'release/') with a hyphen
+cleaned_branch=$(echo "$branch" | sed 's/\//_/g')
+
 # Get the short commit hash (first 5 characters)
 commit_hash=$(git rev-parse --short=5 HEAD)
 
 # Combine branch and commit hash
-buildName="${USER}-${branch}-${commit_hash}"
+buildName="${USER}-${cleaned_branch}-${commit_hash}"
 
 gradle bootBuildImage --publishImage -PbuildbootDockerHostNetwork=true -Pversion=${buildName}
 
diff --git a/redaction-service-v1/redaction-service-server-v1/build.gradle.kts b/redaction-service-v1/redaction-service-server-v1/build.gradle.kts
index 80302e7b..8896590a 100644
--- a/redaction-service-v1/redaction-service-server-v1/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/redaction-service-v1/redaction-service-server-v1/build.gradle.kts
@@ -129,6 +129,7 @@ tasks.named<BootBuildImage>("bootBuildImage") {
         "BPE_APPEND_JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS",
         "-XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=1g -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Dkie.repository.project.cache.size=50 -Dkie.repository.project.versions.cache.size=5"
     )
+    environment.put("BPE_DEFAULT_LANG", "en_US.utf8") // java.text.Normalizer does not care for file.encoding
 
     imageName.set("nexus.knecon.com:5001/red/${project.name}")// must build image with same name always, otherwise the builder will not know which image to use as cache. DO NOT CHANGE!
     if (project.hasProperty("buildbootDockerHostNetwork")) {