Press & Media

The SpaceX Cargo Dragon space shuttle departed from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the International Space Station (ISS) at 2:30 a.m. CET on March 15, 2023. Among others, the shuttle carried an experimental setup that a team of students in the small satellite group KSat e.V. of the University of Stuttgart will use to conduct three experiments. The students were supported by a team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen, who designed and manufactured the super-light and extremely stable support structures for the experiments.

Processes for the cost-effective production of micro- and nanostructured surfaces from polymer material are in great demand for the industrial mass production of functional films and molded components. Existing injection molding and roll-to-roll processes often cannot yet achieve the required throughput and sufficiently high reproducibility for many promising product ideas. The ninth international conference "Polymer Replication on Nanoscale" (PRN), which will take place in Aachen on June 1 and 2, 2023, will therefore focus on processes for more efficient production of functional nanostructured surfaces and present possible solutions.

In early December members of the research community "International Center for Networked, Adaptive Production ICNAP" gathered in Aachen for the Annual Meeting. As a result of the two-day meeting, the participants chose five new research topics and participated in an intensive professional and personal exchange about the research work of the past year.

Speed or accuracy? As far as COVID-19 tests go, this was the choice you had to make. In the future, this dilemma could be a thing of the past. The Pathogen Analyzer combines the advantages of PCR testing and rapid antigen testing – it provides a reliable result after only 20 to 40 minutes. In not too long, this assay will be able to simultaneously detect up to 11 other pathogens. A demonstrator of the system will be exhibited at the MEDICA trade fair in Düsseldorf from November 14 to 17, 2022 (Hall 3, Booth E74/F74).