Press Releases

During her trip to Japan, Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek visited the OCTmapp research alliance. Within the framework of OCTmapp, the Fraunhofer IPT and the Tokyo Women's Medical University (TWMU) are establishing an international network and research structure in Japan on the topic of optical coherence tomography for new medical applications. At the TWMU in Tokyo, the Minister looked at how German-Japanese research cooperation works in practice.

How is a digital twin generated from machine data? How can companies apply the new 5G mobile communications standard in their production? What software is required to power the Industrial Internet of Things? These are the questions currently being addressed by the three Aachen-based Fraunhofer Institutes in collaboration with 15 partners from industry who have joined their new research community in the International Center for Networked Adaptive Production, known as ICNAP. In the course of their first annual meeting, the ICNAP partners ranked these three subject areas as being in particularly urgent need of attention and selected them to be the focus of research and development projects in the coming year. It is anticipated that by the end of the year 2019, these will have been fully explored in three separate studies.

At the world's leading industrial exhibition, the Hannover Messe, the focus is on one subject: 5G. While many exhibitors will be showing individual applications of the technology, the Aachen-based Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT and the Swedish mobile network supplier Ericsson will be presenting German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven an integrated approach to researching the industrial use of 5G in Industry 4.0 – the concept of the ”5G-Industry Campus Europe” – on the occasion of the head of government's traditional visit.

This year, the Aachen Center for integrative Lightweight Production AZL GmbH won the JEC AWARD 2019 for the development of the new machine system “Ultra-Fast Consolidator Machine”. This innovative machine system is a result of an 18-months AZL Joint Partner Project, conducted in 2017-2018 by the research partners AZL Aachen and Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen, in cooperation with industrial partner companies including Conbility, Covestro, Engel, Evonik, Fagor Arrasate, Faurecia SE, Laserline, Mitsui Chemicals, Mubea Carbo Tech, Philips Photonics, SSDT and Toyota.

In recent years there has been a sharp increase in demand for lighter components for applications in mobility and transport in response to the need to save weight, and therefore energy and resources. Hybrid components made of steel, locally functionalized with fiber-reinforced plastics combine high mechanical performance with low weight. Demand for manufacturing processes conducive to cost-effective mass-production is burgeoning. In the EU research project “ComMUnion”, the two Aachen-based Fraunhofer Institutes for Production Technology IPT and for Laser Technology ILT, in collaboration with 14 partners from industry, research and academia, are developing industrial processes and solutions for hybrid lightweight design by combining metal and polymer-matrix composites for automotive and aerospace applications.

Over 200 experts from 18 countries converged in Aachen 6-7 February for the fifth conference of the ICTM International Center for Turbomachinery Manufacturing Aachen. Speakers from some of the leading companies in the sector reported on current developments and future-oriented technologies for the manufacture and uses of turbomachines and their components in aerospace and power generation.

The number of hip prostheses in the EU has risen steadily over the past ten years – most notably in Austria and Germany with 300 implants per 100,000 inhabitants. The frequency of aseptic inflammatory processes between bone and implant, accompanied with loosening of the prosthesis, has increased, resulting in a shortened lifetime of the hip replacement. A consortium of eleven research and industrial partners led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT has now joined forces to develop a new generation of endoprosthesis for the treatment of aseptic loosening disease. The EVPRO project started in January 2019 and is funded by the European Union within the Horizon 2020 programme with a total of 5.8 million euros.

Geothermal heat is a renewable energy source, low in emissions and capable of assuming part of the base load in the energy mix. When drilling deep into the earth's crust, the temperature rises by an average of about three degrees Celsius per 100 meters. However, in deep geothermal drilling the drill bits encounter different materials, including hard rock. Hard rock can only be drilled with low rates of penetration and the drill bit wears more quickly. The cost can be pro-hibitive, frequently preventing investors from going ahead with deep geother-mal projects. The Fraunhofer IPT has therefore developed a method for laser-assisted mechanical drilling of hard rock. Scientists from the Fraunhofer IPT have joined forces with partners in the "LaserJetDrilling" research project and successfully tested this technique in field trials.

Stem cells can offer new hope as a treatment for several serious diseases, including arthritis, diabetic complications, several cancers, liver diseases and more. Today, the production of stem cells is a complex, highly-skilled, and labour-intensive task, with a high risk of contamination or human error. Therefore, the EU funded Horizon 2020 research project “Autostem”, led by the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG), has been working on a fully automated production line for stem cells. At their final meeting at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen, Germany, the ten international project partners from four European countries presented a whole new production platform demonstrator which was built in the three-year project for the generation of therapeutic cells at the litre scale.

Industrial enterprises increasingly operate across multiple locations. That has led to growing calls for connected manufacturing environments and centralized monitoring of production processes. At the Hannover Messe Preview on January 24, 2019 and Hannover Messe from April 1 to 5, Fraunhofer researchers will be collaborating with Swedish experts to show how Industrie 4.0-style networked manufacturing can even extend across borders. One of the key components in controlling and monitoring connected machines is the fast 5G mobile communications standard.