Projects at a glance

The aim of the BMWi-funded consortium project "value chAIn" is to develop a cross-value chain error management based on intelligent data-based decision support systems. The system is intended to enable manufacturing companies, in the project group focused on the commercial vehicle industry, to improve development and production processes and to optimize the performance and availability of their products.

The goal in the project is to enable enterprises to use high-performance services operating at the network edge. The technologies around network edges can be used in applications for smart cities, robotics, public safety, sensors and manufacturing. The research project "AI-NET-ANIARA" focuses on application areas around sensors and manufacturing technologies.

In order to further develop production technologies for PEM electrolyzers, the Fraunhofer IPT, together with other Fraunhofer institutes, is designing a decentralized reference factory as a flexible, multidirectional, technology-open solution for large-scale production in the "FRHY" project.

In close cooperation with the machining industry, the project team of the EXIST – Transfer of research project "Quantify" is developing a software platform that can predict the quality of complex components based on machine data and indicate quality defects at an early stage. In this way, inspection times and production costs can be reduced significantly.

The goal of the "CAMWear 2.0" project is to develop an AI-based "operator empowerment" system. This decision support system is intended to relieve users by automatically recording and evaluating the wear condition of cutting tools. As a result, the use of tools can be optimized, the economic efficiency of metal-cutting production can be increased, and resource consumption can be reduced.

Patients who have lost their breasts due to breast cancer or another serious illness can have them permanently and cosmetically inconspicuously reconstructed with the help of implants. However, the silicone implants commonly used today often provoke defensive reactions from the body and, in the worst case, can even tear. Together with BellaSeno GmbH, the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT is therefore developing an automated production system for breast implants made of a polymer structure that enables breast reconstruction from the patients' own tissue.

For individual cell therapies, clinicians today often use so-called induced pluripotent stem cells, which are obtained from the body tissue of the respective patient. These cells can be differentiated into various types of tissue so that, for example, side effects can be tested and, in the best case, ruled out in advance through upstream drug tests on a patient's cell culture. However, the manual production of tissue samples is still associated with high costs. Fraunhofer researchers from Aachen are now developing a microscope that can be used to automate the entire cell production process: from settling the cells to selecting the appropriate cell culture.

Together with partners from the fields of mechanical engineering, network technology and robotics, the Fraunhofer IPT is now developing an end-to-end real-time capable communication infrastructure based on 5G and Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) in the 5G-Comet project.

Fuel cell technology is regarded as one of the key technologies in the energy revolution. The aim of the CoBiP project is to develop a production technology suitable for continuous manufacture of bipolar plates, one of the central components of a fuel cell.

The intelligent sensor-actuator tool system enables reproducible production processes suitable for series production for the holistic precision machining of complex curved free-form components. The technology, which is being developed and implemented in the project, is to be used in various industries such as tool and mold making, the automotive industry, turbo machinery manufacturing, optics and medical technology.