Technologies

ENVIRONMENTAL SIMULATION FOR TESTING AND INSPECTION OF ANTI-ICE COATINGS | For the characterization of surfaces, laboratory tests under reproducible icing conditions are necessary to investigate ice formation and ice adhesion strength. This provides material developers with initial information on the performance of the surfaces. Fraunhofer IFAM determines the potential of newly developed icephobic coatings in application-specific laboratory tests.

In the corrosion testing laboratory at Fraunhofer IFAM, various test methods are available for you - for aviation, as well as for automotive and maritime technologies, and for all other applications in which corrosion protection is important. Thus, you benefit not only from the expertise of our personnel in the field of corrosion protection, but also from the diversity of our capabilities.

In today’s world, where resource conservation and sustainability are increasingly important, powder technology plays a crucial role in recycling and the circular economy. Whether metallic residues, powder waste from additive manufacturing, filter dusts, or even complex hybrid materials: what was often considered hard-to-recycle waste can be transformed at Fraunhofer IFAM into new, value-added materials and components using powder technology processes. The key advantage: powder technology enables the direct use of recycled materials – even when they are not spherical, fine powders.

Fraunhofer IFAM has now developed a novel solution for the dynamic improvement of the kinematics: the hybrid drive for industrial robots.

FUNCTIONALIZABLE METAL SURFACES THROUGH PLASMA ELECTROLYTIC OXIDATION (PEO) | Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO), also known as micro arc oxidation (MAO), is a wet chemical process that enables the production of highly functionalizable oxide layers on metals whose oxides do not have electrical conductivity, such as aluminum, magnesium, or titanium. These coatings are hard, wear-resistant, heat-resistant, and porous, making them ideal for use in aerospace, medical technology, and other high-performance industries.

Fraunhofer IFAM has been working on electromobility and the casting of electric drive components since 2008. The focus is on the development and testing of new casting concepts and design methods for electric motor castings. The field of expertise has been expanded to include the analysis and evaluation of castings for the body construction of electric vehicles, with a particular focus on giga-casting.

RELIABLE IDENTIFICATION OF CAST COMPONENTS | The reliable identification of castings is an attractive goal in many respects. For example, it permits the unambiguous assignment of production parameters to a specific component and thus enables quality documentation, as is increasingly required not only in the aerospace industry. In addition, it forms the basis for process control based on the individual component, as is being pursued in the context of Industry 4.0 approaches.

BRINGING NOVEL MATERIALS INTO PRODUCTION! | The field of "Core and Mold Materials" at Fraunhofer IFAM focuses on a wide range of research topics relating to materials and their processes for casting. The demand for higher functional integration in cast components and the associated increase in component complexity on the one hand, and the demand for sustainable, energy-saving processes on the other, is continuously increasing. Both require the development of new core and mold materials and their processes in the world of casting and its products.

"INTELLIGENT" CAST COMPONENTS FOR THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY, URBAN AIR MOBILITY AND MANY MORE | Materials, components, and structures with a certain degree of inherent "intelligence" are a central research topic at Fraunhofer IFAM. A typical field of application is the monitoring of mechanically loaded components in operation in all its gradations: from simple load monitoring to damage detection and localization to the prediction of the remaining component lifetime. The basis of such capabilities is a technical nervous system that detects loads and thus provides a basis for their evaluation: sensors.

SIMULATION AND MODELING OF CASTING PROCESSES | An important step for every casting development is the process simulation, in which the design of the casting itself, but also of the mold, is checked for production-compatible design and optimized if necessary. By mapping the entire casting process and subsequent solidification in detail, we can identify areas where casting defects are most likely to occur. The accompanying simulation significantly shortens development times and in many cases enables practical test series to be saved or reduced through realistic mapping of processes and procedures. In the sense of a digital twin, it can also be used for process monitoring and control.