Magazine

Painting processes are essential to give products specific surface properties. While painting in mass production is mostly automated, in small batch sizes, the paint application is manually carried out by employees. Workers are exposed to significant physical strain during this process. Protective clothing and respirators are essential due to harmful paint components, and challenging body postures, such as overhead painting, pose additional difficulties. Additionally, this manual process is very cost-intensive. Therefore, the MemoLaRo project aims to design a future-proof painting workspace that significantly improves working conditions for employees. The goal is to develop assistive painting robots that, with the help of sensor systems and automated painting programs, can efficiently paint components.

CUSTOMIZABLE PROSTHETICS AND ORTHOTICS THROUGH VITRIMERS BASED ON BENZOXAZINES | The individual production of prosthetics and orthotics is a complex process. These orthopedic devices must fit perfectly to avoid pain or discomfort for patients. However, conventional fiber-reinforced composites allow for little adjustment after the resin is cured. A novel fiber-reinforced polymer developed by Fraunhofer IFAM in collaboration with other partners in the "CFKadapt" project could provide a solution. This material is based on a dynamic polymer network and can be adapted in various ways to pressure points and physiological changes. As a result, the need to produce a new prosthesis, which takes several months, could be eliminated in the future.

POWDER TECHNOLOGY AS A SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVE TO CONVENTIONAL MANUFACTURING PROCESSES | Scarcity of raw materials and increasing environmental pollution pose major challenges to today's world. This makes the sustainable, resource-saving manufacture of products all the more important. The entire product life cycle must be considered: From design through manufacturing and logistics to recycling. Powder technology offers the best prerequisites here. It allows material and energy consumption to be significantly reduced and raw materials to be easily recycled. Fraunhofer IFAM has been working on various processes of powder technology for many years.

FUNCTION INTEGRATION IN FIBER-REINFORCED PLASTICS | At Fraunhofer IFAM, functional printing technologies can be used to functionalize various aircraft parts and components. Printed conductors and sensors for temperature, strain or impact measurement as well as heating structures can be incorporated into fiber-reinforced plastics for the aerospace sector.

CONDUCTIVE COMPOSITES FOR SEAWATER DESALINATION | Seawater is plentiful, but drinking water is scarce. Desalination plants can convert seawater, but these plants use tubes made of special steel or titanium. Thermally conductive plastic composites can alternatively be used for heat exchangers in seawater desalination plants to replace expensive and hard-to-find titanium alloys.

Fraunhofer IFAM has tested optical components in collaboration with the Japanese company Asahi Kasei. The Japanese company Asahi Kasei manufactures the specially developed WGFTM polarizing film, which withstands strong mechanical and thermal stresses. Additionally, this film has good and uniform transmission and reflection properties across the entire visible and infrared spectral range. In the latest development, this film has been incorporated into finished optical components such as camera filters and polarizing beam splitters.

CHEMICAL RECYCLING OF PET FOR MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES | Mechanical recycling of PET has its limitations: Repeated thermal stress causes the quality of the material to deteriorate, which leads to so-called downcycling in other applications. An alternative is chemical recycling, considered an important step towards a sustainable circular economy. The large industry has recognized this as well and plans to invest 9.8 billion euros in chemical recycling technologies by 2030. The SKZ Plastics Center, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer IFAM, is developing a method to make chemical recycling of PET accessible for medium-sized enterprises.

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft aims to identify trends and needs in the German industry in order to offer fast and forward-looking solutions. In this context, the Fraunhofer lead projects play an important role. Their aim is to quickly transform original scientific ideas into marketable products. The FutureCarProduction lead project has now been launched under the leadership of Fraunhofer IFAM.

The Agora study “Towards a Climate-Neutral Germany by 2045” identifies electrification as one of the key factors in accelerating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the economy, industry and society. The authors locate the greatest potential in the transport sector and the heating market.

CHARGING MANAGEMENT FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE FLEETS - SOLVER-BASED, CUSTOMIZED AND COST-EFFICIENT | The experts in the "Research Data" unit at Fraunhofer IFAM use a specifically developed simulation environment to determine the most cost-effective solutions for operating electric fleets on site for individual scenarios.