News

Fraunhofer IWS is working on a new evolutionary stage of reactive joining. In future, reactive multilayer systems (RMS) will join sensors and other components in the field of microsystems engineering as direct coating on wafers and components or as thin films in a particularly gentle and environmentally friendly way - using less energy and yet much faster than the joining technologies used so far.

Advanced thermal spraying, welding and additive manufacturing technologies are set to aid the breakthrough a highly fuel-efficient alternative rocket engine for profitable small satellite missions. The technology in question is an aerospike engine. Such engines could reduce fuel consumption by one-third for many rocket launches, thus improving the environmental and financial costs of space travel.

Functionalized fiber-reinforced plastic composites are to replace metals – that is the goal of the team headed by Manuel Reif. The researcher from the Thermal Spraying group has now been awarded the Oerlikon Metco Young Professionals Award for his research in lightweight construction. The scientists have developed a solution for functionalizing fiber-reinforced plastic composites so that they can also be used in applications previously dominated by metals. Using the example of an aircraft wing, they demonstrated how thermal spraying can be successfully used to apply multilayer heating systems and reduce weight at the same time.

In the course of the digital revolution, numerical simulation and calculation methods are taking on a decisive role in all product lifecycle stages. In order to develop structurally relevant products for the automotive and aerospace industries as well as for medical and energy technologies, it is necessary to have a holistic strategy with particularly close inter¬linking between virtual and real worlds.

Fuses, modules and interconnect cables are widely used in many different technical environments – applications range from inside conventional control cabinets to space. While the automation degree in fabricating various technical components is increasing, wiring remains a laborious and error-prone manual process. Researchers at Fraunhofer IWS, together with partners such as AIRBUS, are developing processes to manufacture conductive paths in a cost-efficient and safe manner.

Many people associate steel construction technology with manual welding and glaring arcs. In order to manufacture large-scale, highly stressed steel structures such as overhead cranes or wind turbine towers in line with high quality standards, exten¬sive technical expertise and efficient processes are required. High-energy, modern joining processes such as laser beam welding will revolutionize steel construction in the coming years. A research project conducted over the past 2.5 years on low-distortion and low-energy laser beam welding for thick-walled steel structures follows precisely this goal.

Already in the early stages of component development, standardized characteristic values are indispensable for the selection of materials. However, as development advances, focus shifts to application-oriented load scenarios. At Fraunhofer IWS, these scenarios can be transformed into individual test procedures by directly linking process knowledge and material understanding.

The new material class of high-entropy alloys (HEA) promises many innovations in aviation, turbine and tool construction as well as other industries. Testing the countless variations in the chemical composition of this material class would require research and development lasting thousands of years. Researchers at Fraunhofer IWS have further enhanced methods for material design that will enormously accelerate this work.

The electrification of municipal vehicles is increasing the demand for ultra-light truck bodies to compensate additional battery weight. An adapted multi-material lightweight construction based on fiber-reinforced semi-finished plastic products and aluminum structures facilitates the cost-effective production of lightweight containers in small series. In this context, the type of joining technology plays a particularly important role.

The increasing electrification of mobility also affects aviation. The battery is both a key technology and a bottleneck for all electrical flight applications. Its own weight significantly limits the range and payload of the aircraft.

In the "ESDBond" project, the Kunststoff-Zentrum (SKZ) and Fraunhofer IWS successfully modified flexible electrically conductive adhesives and potting compounds to dissipate electrostatic charges. In this process, they achieved significant reductions in electrical volume resistance by adding smallest amounts of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Based on these results, the follow-up project "carBONDshield" is investigating possibilities for using such modified systems for electromagnetic shielding.

In recent years, extensive development work has revealed the potential of thermal spraying with fine powder suspensions with particle sizes in the sub-micrometer and nanometer range. Suspension spraying enables the fabrication of tailored coatings in which layer thicknesses, morphology and properties can be varied over an extremely extensive application range.

Today, new coatings on brake discs meet increasingly complex requirements. Conventionally, a destructive metallographic cross-section is used to check their quality. This method is expensive, slow and resource-intensive. Fraunhofer IWS researchers have now demonstrated that a fast and non-destructive evaluation can also be achieved using the LAwave^® method.

Hybrid manufacturing describes the combination of different manufacturing processes in order to implement targeted use of their advantages. Therefore, Fraunhofer IWS particularly focuses on combinations with additive manufacturing processes. Hybridization is used wherever – locally and geometrically limited – materials with optimized properties are required: for example, medical technology, automotive and plant engineering, and aerospace.

Fraunhofer IWS and Papiertechnische Stiftung PTS are jointly creating the basis for a binder-free paper joining process. They previously generated meltable reaction products by irradiating papers with a carbon monoxide laser (CO laser). The research team subsequently “bonded“ two papers in a heat-sealing process.

Brake discs are moving into focus as part of the current green-energy discussion. Fraunhofer IWS scientists have developed the HICLAD® process concept to allow a maximization of corrosion and wear protection by tailored surface functionalization. A further focus includes the reduction of particulate emissions. An additional advantage of this technology is the cost-effective series production.

The Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig has elected Andrés Fabián Lasagni as a full member of the Technical Science Class. With this appointment, the TU Dresden professor joins the list of more than 200 renowned members of various disciplines. During the hybrid public fall session of the Academy on December 11, 2020, Lasagni will be formally admitted to the Academy in the presence of Sebastian Gemkow, Minister of State for Science of the Free State of Saxony.

Optical lithography has been considered a key technology for microchip production for more than 40 years. The new development towards EUV lithography extended the limits of the classi-cal technology by far. The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS contribut-ed to the fact that now the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, ZEISS and TRUMPF have been awarded the “ Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2020”. The project "EUV Lithography – New Light for the Digital Age" focuses on the manufacturing method of the latest EUV microchip generation. Along the way to this success Fraunhofer IWS, together with Fraunhofer IOF and Fraunhofer ILT, has established several milestones in recent decades.

Prof. Martina Zimmermann becomes the first female president of the German Materials Society (DGM). She starts work on January 1, 2021. Together with Prof. Gerhard Schneider (Aalen University) she consti-tutes the dual leadership of the DGM for the period 2021/22 - both were elected at the virtual DGM gen-eral meeting at the end of September 2020.

A novel multimode fiber laser allows individual modifications of the laser beam shape within a few milliseconds – without using external optical elements. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS can now realize various applications from heat conduction welding to deep penetration welding with only one laser system. Following intensive tests of the high-power fiber laser in Dresden's laboratories, industrial customers are invited to cooperate with Fraunhofer IWS experts to discover the laser’s advantages for their specific applications.