Press Releases

Dec 10, 2013: Ultra-short laser pulses provide a fast and precise way of processing a wide range of materials without excessive heat input. Scientists from Bosch, TRUMPF, Jena University and Fraunhofer IOF have turned the ultra-short-pulse laser into an effective series-production tool. For their collective effort they were awarded the German Future Prize 2013 on December 4.

Dec 4, 2013: Technology can assist in compiling history. Fraunhofer researchers receive the European Innovation Prize from the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO) on 4 Dec 2013 for software that reconstructs files of the East German state security service.

Nov 18, 2013: Two international awards at once: The lightweight experts from the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT from Aachen/Germany won both the “JEC Americas Innovation Award 2013” in the field of “Process” and the title “German High Tech Champion 2013” in the category “Lightweight Design”.

Oct 14, 2013: Rubber can be extracted from the juice of the dandelion. Yet the decisive breakthrough to industrial manufacturing is proving to be a tough step. Working jointly with industry and science, the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME has optimized the cultivation and production engineering over the past few years. Now the researchers – in collaboration with Continental – are building the first ever pilot system to extract vast quantities of dandelion rubber for making tires: an important milestone on the path to rubber procurement in Europe.

Oct 13, 2013: The media group Thomson Reuters honored Fraunhofer as one of the »Top 100 Global Innovators« in 2013. Criteria for the award include the number of filed patents and its success, the global scope of the patent portfolio, and the inclusion of patents in quotations and references.

Jun 14, 2013: The experts of Paint/Lacquer Technology at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Bremen are currently developing novel de-icing technologies for the next generation of aircraft. This work is being undertaken in an international project with European and Japanese partners. The objective is to develop an integrated system comprising three synergistic components: Active de-icing technology, functional coatings which assist the de-icing function, and sensor technology which not only monitors the icing in real-time but also the de-icing.

Jun 10, 2013: Plastic bags coated by plasma at atmospheric pressure serve as a GMP laboratory for the cultivation of adherent cells. The plasma is used to modify the internal surface of the bag specifically, so that different cell types can grow on it.

Jun 10, 2013: The demand for even faster, more effective, and also energy-saving computer clusters is growing in every sector. The new asynchronous programming model GPI might become a key building block towards realizing the next generation of supercomputers.

Jun 10, 2013: Magnetic field sensors are a contact- and wear-free means of measuring the position of machine parts and products. A new generation of Hall sensors is now making the process even more precise and free of interference.

Jun 10, 2013: Molecular farming is an easy, fast, and safe method for producing vaccines and therapeutic proteins in plants. Now a team of Fraunhofer researchers from the USA has built up a Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) compliant plant factory.

Jun 10, 2013: Three young researchers have been recognized for producing final dissertations that demonstrate scientific excellence. Their findings include new methods of naturally preserving fresh foods with hops extracts, an ultra-compact microscope that makes it possible to examine hundreds of prepared samples simultaneously, and the use of protein-protein interaction analysis to nip fungal pathogens in the bud.

May 14, 2013: The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft continued to grow in 2012, with total business volume up four percent to a new total of 1.9 billion euros. Revenues from research projects with the industry have enjoyed particularly strong growth, increasing by 12 percent, to 453 million euros.

May 14, 2013: Our dependence on information technology is growing, as are attacks on IT systems in order to manipulate or copy them. Together with the political, economic and scientific sectors Fraunhofer is working on strategies and solutions intended to prevent this. With intelligent technologies for the security of embedded systems, smart grids, Cloud computing or mobile devices researchers are improving our private security and protecting company products and services.

May 13, 2013: The omega-3 fatty acids contained in fatty salt-water fish are an important component of a healthy diet in humans. Despite being aware of this fact, Germans still do not eat enough fish. Now Fraunhofer researchers have developed a method that allows omega-3 fatty acids to be added to popular foods. They are launching the first of these products exclusively in EDEKA stores: the omega-3 sausage.

Jan 15, 2013: Fraunhofer and The University of British Columbia UBC in Vancouver, Canada will partner to jointly develop technologies for sustainable energy production and supply.