Press releases

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.

Every year, around half a million people in Germany are diagnosed with cancer. Despite the existence of effective treatment options for many types of cancer, many questions about the development of the disease remain unanswered. Why does a tumor develop? What factors promote the growth of cancer cells? Why do metastases spread to other organs over time? The animal models mainly in use to date only represent the actual processes in the human body to a limited extent. The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS in Dresden has developed special microsystems in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM in Hanover and the University of Regensburg. They are now using them to examine tissue sections of tumors under realistic conditions.

Sound waves can reveal surface properties. Parameters such as surface or coating quality of components can be analyzed non-destructively using lasers and sensors. In research and some industrial laboratories, this laser-induced surface wave spectroscopy has already become an established measurement technology. With “LAwave”, the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS in Dresden will present the second generation of a user-friendly measuring device at the International trade fair for quality assurance “Control” in April 2024, which will pave the way into industrial practice.

High-resolution hyperspectral images are set to take quality assurance and increased efficiency in industry, agriculture, and autonomous driving to a new level. The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS in Dresden heads a European consortium of twelve companies and research institutes tackling this objective in the project “HyperImage – A universal spectral image sensor platform for industry, agriculture, and autonomous driving”. The European Union is funding the project with a total of 5.6 million EUR over a period of 3.5 years.

Novel storage material for solid-state batteries is the focus of the project “FB2-SiSuFest – Evaluation of silicon anodes in sulfide solid-state batteries”. As a promising anode material, silicon nitride-based particles could enable a high storage capacity with stable and safe operation. The research alliance of renowned partners has received funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) amounting to 1.7 million euros as part of the “Clusters Go Industry” funding guideline as part of the FestBatt cluster. The project will run from December 2023 to November 2025.

Several Fraunhofer Institutes and the Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Senftenberg, under the leadership of Rolls-Royce Germany and other partners such as the research institution ACCESS, are collaborating on the future of hybrid electric flying. Supported by the state of Brandenburg and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, the partners are researching an entirely new propulsion system for medium-range aircraft with up to 35 passengers.

Europe and Saxony support the “Future Mobility” cooperation. The Dresden-based semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies Dresden wants to develop technologies for the mobility of the future together with three medium-sized companies and seven research institutions from Saxony. The European Union and the Free State of Saxony fund the research and development project “Green mobility ‘made in Saxony’ - innovative solutions for future-oriented automotive and industrial applications (Future Mobility)” with around 17.7 million euros. Saxony's Minister of Economic Affairs and Labor, Martin Dulig, symbolically handed the funding decisions to the project partners today at an on-site meeting.