Press & Events

From May 6 to 8, 2020, laser manufacturers and users from various branches will meet at the AKL’20 for the 13th time. Featuring over 600 participants, 87 speakers and over 50 sponsors and exhibitors, the “AKL – International Laser Technology Congress” has established itself as the leading forum for applied laser technology in Europe. The program of events is already available at www.lasercongress.org – where you can also register now for AKL’20.

Ultra-thin glass – one human hair thick – is ideally suited as a material for mass production of optical components and parts as well as for encapsulating optical and optoelectronic systems. Its production requires a completely coordinated process chain – from manufacture to functionalization. This is the goal to be accomplished by 2022 in the GLASS4FLEX joint research project.

The Pavement Profile Scanner PPS-Plus from Fraunhofer IPM is part of the latest measuring vehicle MESAS of the Federal Highway Research Institute BASt. The research vehicle records the condition of road surfaces and the substance of the asphalt surface and thus provides the basis for optimum maintenance planning. During test runs, MESAS has already successfully measured more than 11,000 kilometers of the federal trunk road network. Now regular operation starts.

Additive manufacturing systems can generate highly complex components, which could not be produced with conventional machine tools or only with great effort. Nevertheless, such industrial 3D printers are far from being standard equipment in factories. This is not just due to the purchase costs, but also to many other challenges. The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS Dresden has developed particular solutions and will present them at the “formnext” trade fair in Frankfurt am Main in November 2019. Included here are “COAXshield”, a local molten pool shield for laser powder build-up welding and the “LIsec” analysis device for controlling the powder flow in additive manufacturing processes.

Following a successful premiere in 2019, the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT will kick off the second Laser Symposium on Electromobility – LSE’20 – in Aachen on February 12, 2020. The two-day event will focus on high-efficiency laser techniques for every step in the process chain for producing batteries and electric vehicles. One of the main highlights will be a presentation from Swiss company E-Force One AG on the electrification of heavy-duty transportation.

In the umbrella concept “Research Fab Battery”, German scientists want to develop novel batteries that are capable of storing at least 70 percent more energy for electric vehicles and smartphones than conventional lithium-ion solutions while maintaining the same volume. As part of the cluster of competence for battery materials “ExcellBattMat“ funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Dresden's “ExcellBattMat Center” (project KaSiLi: structural cathode adaptation for silicon and lithium materials) contributes key components for this new battery generation. On November 1, 2019, researchers from Fraunhofer, TU Dresden and Leibniz started working together on innovative battery electrodes consisting of ultra-thin silicon or lithium layers to achieve high energy densities.

A new class of materials promises many innovations in aviation, turbine construction and other branches of industry: High entropy alloys (HEA) are metals in which five or more elements are atomically bonded in similar proportions. Properly designed, they are harder, more heat-resistant and lighter than steel, aluminum and other classic materials. For about 15 years, engineers around the world have been trying to make these innovative materials ready for series production. But high-entropy alloys are still too expensive and difficult to process. The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS Dresden is therefore now inviting experts to a symposium in March 2020 to demonstrate how they can overcome these problems – for example through industrial 3D printing, in other words “Additive Manufacturing”. Fraunhofer IWS will give a first insight with the lecture “High entropy alloys for Additive Manufacturing” on November 21, 2019, 2:15 p.m. at the “TCT Introducing Stage” during the “Formnext” trade fair in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Standards of food safety and food quality have never been higher in Germany and throughout the European Union. This is especially true in the dairy industry. Yet despite such high standards, traces of impurities, pesticides and antibiotics can find their way into milk, with sometimes serious consequences for consumer health. In the EU-funded project MOLOKO, Fraunhofer researchers have teamed up with partners to develop a new optoplasmonic sensor designed to provide fast, on-site analysis of safety and quality parameters for milk. This early-warning system will bring the industry substantial savings in time and money as well as a drastic reduction in wasted product, thereby helping to improve performance along the entire supply chain.

A spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT receives a special distinction: the Aachen-based company Laser Melting Innovations GmbH & Co. KG is one of the winners of the “formnext Start-up Challenge” 2019. The young Aachen scientists will be honored by the jury for the development of their low-cost system on November 19 at the formnext in Frankfurt on the AM4U stage (hall 11.0-F71). With this system for Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) with metal powder, SMEs in particular have at their disposal an industry-suitable system technology for metallic 3D printing.

Tungsten carbide-cobalt is an excellent material for cutting tools as it is extremely heat- and wear-resistant. In the new research project “Additive Manufacturing of Machining Tools out of WC-Co – AM of WC-Co”, scientists from the Institute for Materials Applications in Mechanical Engineering IWM and the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL of RWTH Aachen University as well as from the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT are now investigating how Laser Powder Bed Fusion can be used to process this material. It aims to additively produce cutting tools that achieve longer tool life thanks to complex cooling geometries.