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Making harvesting robots, submarine grippers, and autonomous rovers on distant planets more universally applicable and autonomous in the future – researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS in Dresden work on enabling them to “feel”: In various projects, they are working with academic and industrial partners on biomimetic artificial grippers. Combining 3D and dispensing printing with other technologies shall achieve this – fish also have a major influence.

Prof. Dr. Andrés Fabián Lasagni has been elected as a member of Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Lasertechnik e. V. (WLT). The election occurred during the society's recent general meeting, recognizing his pioneering work in laser-based manufacturing and his role in advancing sustainable technologies. Prof. Lasagni is the Chair of Laser-Based Manufacturing at the Institute for Manufacturing Science and Engineering at Dresden University of Technology and the Director of the Center for Advanced Micro-Photonics (CAMP) at Fraunhofer IWS.

On the evening of June 14, 2024 Dresden will once again be a hive of activity and many young as well as old night owls will be able to experience science and research interactively at Dresden's universities, research institutions and scientific companies and laboratories. In keeping with the motto of this year's 21st Dresden Science Night – United By Science – the Fraunhofer Institutes FEP, IFAM, IKTS and IWS will once again be jointly opening the doors to the Fraunhofer Campus at Winterbergstrasse 28.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS has achieved decisive progress towards new ecological aircraft construction concepts. Within the EU programm Clean Sky 2 in the project “Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator” (MFFD), a team of researchers in Dresden provided proof of concept for the chipless joining of carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic component structures. The automated process approach developed joined the upper and lower halves of the world's largest CFRTP aircraft fuselage segment. In addition to saving on labor, for instance when drilling and riveting, the novel construction method and the CONTIjoin process enable massive reduction in weight, material and time. As a result, the production of future commercial aircraft should become faster, more eco-friendly and competitive. The researchers will present their results and the system technology at the International Aerospace Exhibition ILA 2024 in Berlin.