Press

Nürnberg, Germany: The European Union H2020 “EnABLES” research infrastructure project has just launched its Transnational Access program, which offers free-of-charge access to equipment, tools and expertise related to ‘powering the internet of things (IoT)’. The vision of EnABLES is to develop Energy Harvesting solutions and finding ways to reduce the power consumption of devices to eliminate the need for battery replacement.

The Fraunhofer Group for Materials and Components – MATERIALS has a new chairman: Prof. Ralf B. Wehrspohn, head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS, takes office today. Prof. Bernd Mayer, institute director at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM will be the new deputy.

Erlangen, Germany: With its DAB+ software library, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS offers a software defined radio solution that enables the implementation of digital radios with DAB+ (Digital Audio Broadcasting) functionality. Available now, the update to the established library uses efficient spur suppression technology to significantly improve the quality of digital radio reception. It moreover enhances the reception sensitivity of the radio receivers. In turn, this extends the range of coverage for broadcasters and increases the number of channels that can be received in vehicles.

Mainstreaming Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia as raw materials for the fertilizer industry: With this goal in mind, the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS in Halle (Saale) and the OCP Group of Morocco, the world's largest exporter of phosphates, will cooperate even more closely in the future. The two institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work jointly on solutions for a sustainable fertilizer industry.

For years, a French company sold breast implants made of cheap industrial silicone components. Headline news when it broke in 2010, this scandal is still keeping the courts busy today. Now, a research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP has come up with a method to prevent this sort of fraud. It gives manufacturers the opportunity to counterfeit-proof implants – by tagging them with encapsulated tomato DNA.

Which infrastructures are needed for cost efficient smart grid integration of energy consumers with controllable loads and prosumers with renewable generators? The challenge to answer this question was taken by an interna-tional consortium with participation of Fraunhofer IEE in the last three and a half years in a research- and demonstration project, which was funded by the European Union with 11.7 Mio. €. The final results were presented to the pub-lic at July 25th 2018 in Valencia, Spain.

The European Wood-based Panel Symposium, organized by the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research WKI and the European Panel Federation EPF, has firmly established itself in the calendars of the international wood-based materials industry and its suppliers. From 10th – 12th October 2018, the conference will be staged for the eleventh time; due to its great success two years ago, it will again take place in Hamburg. The program for the Symposium is now available.

Glass windows, which can also act as displays and play a current information, resource-saving lightweight membrane cushion construction with highly functionalized films or the future of packaging materials – at the "12 ICCG - International Conference on coatings on glass and plastics" in Würzburg, Germany 280 experts from industry and academia discussed these possible future trends. More than 30 exhibitors at the accompanying exhibition in the Würzburg Congress Center showed what can already be achieved with functional coatings today. Exhibitors included the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC with highlights such as electrically colorable windows, printed sensors and biodegradable coatings for compostable packaging films.

In the future, closed carbon loops play an important role to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions and ensure safe and cost-effective access to carbon sources as the basis for products of the chemical industry. In order to increase the efficiency and thus profitability of the synthesis processes required for this, Fraunhofer IKTS has developed a new membrane reactor in cooperation with the Thuringian company MUW-SCREENTEC GmbH.

Plastics are conquering the earth - unfortunately not always to the earth’s advantage, as indicated by the increasing reports on plastic waste. Two studies by the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF, on the other hand, demonstrate that upcycling of PET bottles and the recycling of flame-retardant plastics are worthwhile both for economic reasons and for protecting the environment. Further details on these studies will be presented at the Compounding World Expo 2018 in Essen, from June 27 to June 28, at booth 707. Another main focus will be on new procedures in process technology, under the keyword Industry 4.0. A monitoring system that is based on intelligent sensor nodes, for example for a twin-screw extruder, ensures that networked work processes run reliably. With another patented procedure, the corrosiveness of plastic melts can be determined quickly, which also helps to prevent downtime in the future.