Press releases 2016

On November 1, 2016, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Leyens joined the Fraunhofer IWS Dresden Board of Directors as a new member. The 49-year old materials scientist heads the renowned research institute in the fields of laser processing, materials and surface science together with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Eckhard Beyer. Both are also institute directors at the TU Dresden.

The decisive argument for purchasing a laser cutting machine is the optimal combination of good quality, maximum feed rate, low investment and operating costs. During the last years, fiber and disc lasers have achieved a leading position as a laser source for cutting of thin metal sheets due to their distinctly higher cutting rates. The need for optimization emerges for sheet thicknesses exceeding 5 mm. Compared to CO2-lasers, the solid state lasers cause an increase in surface roughness and burr formation.

Last night, Fraunhofer IWS Dresden received the second prize of the EARTO Innovation Awards 2016 in the category Impact Delivered for the: Development of super hard diamond-like carbon coatings for improved energy efficiency. These coatings are applied on piston rings and other parts in the powertrain. Coated piston rings show a reduction in fuel consumption of about 1.5 % or 3 g/km CO2 emission. Series production has started. Further components will follow.

Joining of completely novel material combinations, new construction principles, and production processes guaranteeing high quality – these are the challenges to which enterprises and the scientists at Fraunhofer IWS have been standing up for years. Parts and assemblies are expected to be possibly light, strong, durable and reliable. The application of hybrid joints between metals and reinforced composites in the automotive, aerospace and many other areas are a new trend, which is significantly swayed by Fraunhofer IWS Dresden, and is presented at EuroBLECH 2016.

Material savings, flexible production and high user comfort are increasingly gaining importance in the field of railway vehicles. Analyses and simulations of passenger flows in vehicle interiors allow for an improved vehicle body layout. Mass-reduced manufacturing of sidewalls with individualized door-cuts can be optimized by low-distortion laser welding and completely connected integral structures. At the trade fair InnoTrans 2016 the Dresden Fraunhofer institutes IWS and IVI are presenting jointly developed technical implementations for passenger flow simulations and manufacturing techniques for low heat input and highly efficient laser welding procedures.

Professor Mücklich, Professor Lasagni and ten of their colleagues at Saarland University, the Steinbeis-Forschungszentrum Material Engineering Center Saarland, Dresden University of Technology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology receive one of two second prizes of the 2016 Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis.

Together with Technische Universität Dresden the Fraunhofer Institute IWS Dresden runs the Center for Additive Manufacturing Dresden. This internationally attention-attracting institution is the biggest center of competence in Eastern Germany for the development of high-tech parts via 3D-printing. From here, AGENT-3D, the biggest in Europe research program in the field of additive manufacturing, is being managed as well. Currently, allowances from the project executing organization Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH worth of 5.3 Million Euro are available for the Fraunhofer Institute IWS for strategic, management and technology projects. Numerous enterprises take part in the program as well.

The Fraunhofer IWS has made another important step forward with respect to the research on n-conductive polymers for printed electronics. The Dresden scientists succeeded in modifying an n-conductive polymer, already synthesized in 2015, in such a way that it can now be processed as a paste and be printed in a three-dimensional manner.

Emerging markets for mobile energy storage currently boost the interest in next generation batteries. The Fraunhofer IWS will present the latest results at the 5th “Lithium-Sulfur Battery Workshop” on November 21 - 22, 2016 in Dresden. Renowned national and international experts from industry and science will come together to gain profound insight in the current and future trends and developments.

From 31. May to 2. June Fraunhofer IWS Dresden will present at the International trade fair for laser material processing LASYS in Stuttgart innovative technologies and systems capable for integration into industrial production processes. An emphasis is layed on the long-standing systems COAXn und COAXwire for powder and wire deposaition welding. For the first time the recent development COAXwire2016, which is operational also in combination with a diode laser, will be presented. This development is convenient for the processing of flux cored wire and thus offers an even broader spectrum of applications as its forerunner.

For a flexible and a rapid material laser processing highly-dynamic galvanometer mirrors are used similarly as in laser shows. These are supposed to reach prefera-bly high velocities and accelerations and to be rapidly controllable. With a special electronic system developed by the Fraunhofer Institute IWS Dresden, the so called module ESL2-100, it is possible to control the galvanometer directly by the machine control system. This allows a holistic interlinking to the main control system, which simplifies considerably the control procedure. In addition, for the implementation of a laser process a plurality of scanner mirrors can be applied simultaneously.

On Mai 10, 2016 it will finally be done: with the opening of the fair Sensor+Test in Nuremberg Fraunhofer IWS Dresden presents a particular highlight. IWS bears a sig-nificant part in the development of contactless methods for material imaging apply-ing light as a tool, and demonstrates on the fair its newest developments in the area of spectral imaging and its imanto® product range.

Metals with excellent electric conductivity such as copper, aluminum and gold are of special interest in the fields of electric mobility and power electronics. Due to their strong reflectance in the infrared wavelength range, the laser processing of these materials presents a huge challenge. Most of the available continuously radiating high power lasers (cw) operate exactly in this wavelength range. The Fraunhofer IWS can now apply a novel “green” laser for processing tasks of these materials. With a power of 1 kW at 515 nm and a beam quality of 2.5 mm mrad, this novel laser opens up completely new application possibilities for joining and cutting tasks. Furthermore it enables new fields of applications in the area of electric mobility and power electronics.

Within the framework of the joint project »BatCon« (Num. 01 MX12055C), funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Fraunhofer IWS scientists have developed novel property- and cost-optimized joining techniques for the fabrication of aluminum-copper cell joints over the past three years. In December 2015 all cooperation partners – Robert Bosch GmbH, ElringKlinger AG, Wieland-Werke AG and the Fraunhofer IWS – met for the final colloquium in Dresden. All partners and the project management – the Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) – were highly pleased with the results. The IWS scientists were able to decisively further develop the technologies for joining processes for cyclically loaded and non-aging Al/Cu-cell joints with very low transition resistance. An implementation into industrial application with industrial partners is very close.

Joining is the key challenge in production processes and often a significant cost factor. The knowledge and the selection of the appropriate procedure is therefore of the utmost importance. Within the framework of the 9th international laser symposium and the joining symposium “Tailored Joining” renowned experts will meet for an international exchange of experiences in Dresden on February, 22 - 24, 2016. The symposia and the open house invitation to the “Innovationsabend für Unternehmen - Industrie @ Fraunhofer IWS“ will offer comprehensive insight into the recent developments and industrial applications of laser and other welding processes. Solid phase and mechanical joining procedures such as adhesive bonding and composite technologies will find a wide presentation platform.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Stefan Kaskel, Cair of Anorganic Chemistry at the Technischen Universität Dresden and head of the business unit Chemical Surface- and Reaction Technology at the Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoff- und Strahltechnik IWS Dresden received the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) award for his excellent scientific research in the field of energy storage devices. The prize includes a research stay at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Osaka (Japan).