Press releases 2018

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has many advantages: custom manufacturing, flexible production and easy customization, for example. Yet many products have a high surface roughness and porosity. The post processing of the thus fabricated parts is time consuming and often a significant cost factor for manufacturers. Technical coatings open up new possibilities for the AM market, especially in industrial production. In a joint project, researchers from the Belgian NPO Sirris and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP have investigated technical coatings for additive manufacturing (TCAM) with promising results.

When sewage sludge is used as an agricultural fertilizer, the polyacrylamide copolymers (PAMs) that are used as flocculants are released into the environment. According to the Fertilizer Ordinance, these cannot remain in the soil. Fraunhofer researchers have developed a method to test under realistic conditions whether PAMs degrade in the environment and how quickly this happens. The study has found that the degree of degradation complies with the requirements of the Fertilizer Ordinance. The new method can also be used in other areas to investigate the persistence and degradation of polymers and microplastics in the environment.

On September 1, Dr. Christian Dreyer assumed the professorship for Fiber Composite Material Technologies in the department of Engineering and Natural Sciences at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau. Dreyer is also the acting director of the research division Polymer Materials and Composites (PYCO) at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP at its Teltow and Wildau sites. The professorship focuses on the efficient production of light-weight building materials, e.g. for applications in the aerospace industry, the automotive industry and for wind turbines.

Professor Horst Weller was presented with the 2018 ECIS-Solvay Prize at this year's conference of the "European Colloid and Interface Society" (ECIS) held from September 2 to 7 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Since 2001, the prize has been awarded to European scientists who have been long-standing pioneers in the field of colloids and interfaces.

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.

By combining plastics with bio-components such as peptides, enzymes or sugar molecules, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP and BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg are developing polymer materials with new properties for a wide variety of applications. As part of a joint project group, their goal is to make the technical and industrial production of these materials possible. The Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg has allocated 2.5 million euros to fund the project for a duration of five years.

As part of the Fraunhofer lighthouse project »Electricity as a Raw Material«, ten Fraunhofer Institutes joined forces to develop new electrochemical processes for the synthesis of important base chemicals and to optimize existing processes. The lighthouse project started in August 2015 and runs until July 2018. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP, the scientists developed a novel proton-conducting polymer membrane as part of the project.

Two impregnation systems and an industrial microwave for the energy-efficient production of fiber-reinforced lightweight components can now be combined with one another in a unique way at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Wildau. This is where the IAP research division PYCO will soon be pooling its entire expertise in lightweight construction. On June 8, 2018, the foundation stone for a new office and lab building was laid in Wildau in the presence of Dr. Martina Münch, Minister for Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg, Andreas Meuer, Member of the Board of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Stephan Loge, Chief Administrative Officer of the Dahme-Spreewald District and Prof. Dr. Ralf Raimund Vandenhouten, Vice President of Research and Transfer at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau.

There are videos on the internet that can make one marvel at technology. For example, a smartphone is casually bent around the arm or a thin-film display is rolled in all directions and with almost every diameter. From the user's point of view, this looks fantastic. From a professional point of view, however, the question arises: Is that already possible? At Display Week 2018, scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP will be demonstrating today’s technological possibilities and their next projects. Display Week is one of the world's leading display technology fairs and conventions, taking place from May 22 to 25 in Los Angeles.

The ComCarbon® technology from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP will make it possible in the future to produce carbon fibers at low cost for the mass market. The institute will present this new technology at the leading aerospace trade fair, the ILA Berlin 2018, from April 25 – 29. Examples of applications for polymer-based lightweight construction and function-integrated plastics will also be presented.