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Sustainable solutions for the optimized use of material properties and new material functions

The Fraunhofer IWM is a research and development partner for industry and public contracting bodies concerning the topics of component and systems reliability, safety, durability and functionality. The Fraunhofer IWM’s »mechanics of materials« approach is used to identify weaknesses and defects in materials and components, determine their causes and develop solutions that lead to the safer use of components as well as the development of functional materials and resource efficient manufacturing processes.

Range of services at the Fraunhofer IWM

Solutions to avoid and control defects, crack formation, deformation, fracture, failure, wear and fatigue in materials and components when taxed with mechanical, thermal, chemical or electrical loads

Material characterization, component testing, damage analyses, failure diagnosis and microstructural analysis

Materials modeling, process and component simulation on the atomic, microscopic and/or macroscopic scale

Surface layer assessment, coatings, tribology, functionalization, bio-surface and interfacial analysis

Process and material development

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Latest Fraunhofer IWM research news and reports

Recyclable lightweight single Component Composite Material developed for Injection-Molded Components

(27.08.2019) Polyethylene (PE) would be an ideal material for lightweight construction: energy-efficient, can be produced from renewable raw materials, almost residue-free recyclable. However, only PE components that are reinforced as composites for example with carbon or glass fibers are truly mechanically resilient. Scientists at the Fraunhofer IWM, MicroTribology Centrum µTC, together with the Freiburg Materials Research Centre and the polyolefin manufacturer LyondellBasell, have now produced and qualified a sustainable "All-PE composite". The trick is that the reinforcing fiber structures are also made of PE and even form themselves during injection molding.

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Fostering the Paradigm Shift in Materials Research - International Conference on Programmable Materials

(14.08.2019)

Berlin, 27-29 April 2020

The conference is aimed at scientists and engineers who want to advance programmable materials with multidisciplinary contributions, who want to work on powerful tools for their realization, and who want to contribute to the paradigm shift...

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Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Programmable Materials CPM

(14.08.2019) Due to the novelty and the reversed development approach, the research and development of programmable materials requires a completely new research structure.

For programmable materials to become reality, all the scientific disciplines involved, from computer scientists simulating our models to process engineers and basic scientists...

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Accessing materials data faster, more reliably and more easily: Shaping scientific knowledge into a data platform

(06.08.2019) Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, the joint project »Innovation Platform MaterialDigitial« has recently been established to pave the way towards a digital infrastructure for material science research data...

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Sliding along on water

(01/07/2019) Machine bearings are usually lubricated with various oils. But today large quan-tities of these oils still end up in the environment. The Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM has developed a method which will in the future make it possible to lubricate slide bearings using water, a much more environ-mentally friendly approach...

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Synthetic rubber outperforms natural rubber

(04/05/2019) Natural rubber from rubber trees is a raw material with a limited supply. Synthetically produced rubber, on the other hand, has not yet been able to match the abrasion behavior of the natural product, rendering it unsuitable for truck tires. But now, for the first time, a new type of synthetic rubber has been developed that achieves 30 to 50 percent less abrasion than natural rubber...

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Quantum Magnetometers for Industrial Applications

(01/04/2019) On April 1, 2019, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft launches the lighthouse project »Quantum Magnetometry« (QMag): Freiburg’s Fraunhofer institutes IAF, IPM and IWM aim to transfer quantum magentometry from the field of university research to industrial applications. In close cooperation with another three Fraunhofer institutes (IMM, IISB and CAP), the research team develops highly integrated imaging quantum magnetometers with highest spatial resolution and sensitivity.

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Atomic Mechanism of Superlubricity Elucidated

(01/11/2018) The phenomenon of so-called superlubricity is known, but so far the explanation at the atomic level has been missing: for example, how does extremely low friction occur in bearings? Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institutes IWM and IWS jointly deciphered a universal mechanism of superlubricity for certain diamond-like carbon layers in combination with organic lubricants.

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