Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT

The effects of climate change are leading to a change of perspective not only in industry and society: Manufacturers and suppliers of engines and stationary turbomachinery have long recognized that the overriding goals of conserving resources and reducing emissions can now only be achieved if they are able to implement both evolutionary and revolutionary concepts along the entire product life cycle. How to succeed in meeting the associated challenges in the manufacture and repair of turbomachinery is the central question of the sixth ICTM Conference, which will be held on February 16 and 17, 2022, which will be held completely digitally for the first time. Discounted early bird tickets are available until January 23 and online registration is open until February 11, 2022.

During clinical research, cell cultures help test new drugs, determine the correct dosage of active substances, and better understand processes in the human body. Until now, we have mostly used cell cultures growing in a single layer on a culture medium. However, current research results show that cell cultures that grow in three-dimensional forms can, in fact, answer many questions better and more realistically than conventional cell cultures. In a new white paper, the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen describes the challenges of working with 3D cell cultures and how optical coherence tomography (OCT) can be used to reliably visualize 3D cell cultures.

Hydrogen is becoming an increasingly important energy carrier against climate change. Although hydrogen combustion does not release any carbon dioxide, what hardly anyone knows is that it produces more nitrogen oxides (NOx) than the combustion of fossil fuels. In a joint research project, FH Aachen – University of Applied Sciences and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen, together with Präwest Präzisionswerkstätten GmbH & Co KG in Bremen, have used Additive Manufacturing to produce a hydrogen combustion chamber in a new design that can significantly reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. The partners are now presenting this prototype to the public at Formnext, the trade fair for Additive Manufacturing and industrial 3D printing.

“Instead of growth, we must focus on values!” – this statement by BASF executive Saori Dubourg is what participants of the 30th Aachen Machine Tool Colloquium (AWK) took home on September 23, 2021. More than 1,400 specialists and executives from the management levels of the manufacturing industry had followed the call of the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT to the traditional network meeting: After a postponement due to the coronavirus, the AWK took place with the motto “Internet of Production – Turning Data into Sustainability” as one of the first large face-to-face events on-site in Aachen and simultaneously as an online conference.