Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM
Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM

Digitalization of Materials - We make Materials an Integral Part of Networked Value Chains

Rarely before have so many transformative forces acted simultaneously on the manufacturing industry. Innovation pressure, regulation, geopolitical disruptions, resource scarcities and climate change are creating an unprecedented field of tension. What these challenges have in common is that companies must rely on a comprehensive digital knowledge base and secure cross-company data exchange on the properties and behavior of materials and the products made from them in order to address these challenges effectively.

Fraunhofer IWM creates the conditions for a systematic and effective handling of materials in development, manufacturing and application. We make materials an integral part of networked value chains. Our ambition is to shorten innovation cycles and response times and to enable fast and accurate data-driven business decisions.

Challenges for Companies – Application Fields of Materials Digitalization

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Competitive Pressure Through Shortened Development Cycles

Manufacturing companies are under pressure to shorten innovation cycles, yet the materials data needed to do so are often scattered across various silos that fail to provide a consistent overall picture. The result includes costly testing efforts because previous test results cannot be retrieved in a structured way. Inconsistent materials data cause coordination losses between development, procurement and manufacturing, and simulations as well as digital twins cannot reach their full potential because validated material parameters are lacking.

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Circular Economy and Use of Recycled Materials

Companies seeking to use recyclates quickly encounter the limits of insufficient data availability. Unknown material compositions lead to unpredictable quality problems in manufacturing, and inadequate traceability across the entire product lifecycle makes closed material loops practically impossible. Without a reliable database, recyclates cannot be systematically qualified as substitutes for primary materials. Added to this are liability risks that arise when the properties of secondary raw materials are not documented.

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Supply Chain Disruptions and Damage Events

In an emergency, every hour counts – yet without a structured digital materials database, root cause analysis in damage events often takes weeks. Alternative suppliers cannot be qualified quickly because comparative data on material specifications is lacking. Recall actions become more expensive and time-consuming when affected batches cannot be traced precisely. And in crisis situations, when transparent communication with customers and authorities is critical, the necessary documentary basis is simply absent.

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Substitution of Critical Materials

In many companies, the search for material substitutes is still carried out manually and is highly time-consuming. A systematic evaluation of alternative materials regarding processability, cost and availability is hardly possible without a digital database. Qualification processes take unnecessarily long because insights from previous tests cannot be used in a structured way. Critical dependencies on raw materials such as rare earths often only become visible when a supply bottleneck occurs – too late to respond swiftly and in a targeted manner.

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Statutory Reporting Obligations

Regulatory requirements for materials and products are increasing. The manual preparation of compliance documentation, for example for the EU Supply Chain Act, REACH or Battery Regulation, ties up considerable resources and is prone to error. Incomplete documentation along the supply chain creates compliance risks. Requirements such as the Digital Product Passport cannot be met if materials data is not available in a structured form. And without tamper-proof data management, reliable auditability for customers and authorities cannot be guaranteed.

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AI Readiness

Investments in artificial intelligence can only reach their full potential when the underlying data is sound. In practice, AI models frequently deliver unreliable results because training data from heterogeneous sources is inconsistent or incomplete. Investments in AI tools for process optimization or quality prediction yield no return on investment if the data foundation is inadequate. Lacking data structure and semantics prevents AI systems from identifying relevant correlations between material, process and quality parameters.

Developing technology platforms and communities for digitalized materials

Through national and European initiatives, Fraunhofer IWM plays a leading role in advancing digitally integrated materials research. The digital transformation of materials research is the key to international competitiveness in science and industry and to addressing global challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, and energy supply. The development, production, and use of materials are knowledge-based and collaborative processes; ultimately, materials information and knowledge — and their availability to stakeholders in companies or research institutions — determine innovation, speed, and sustainability. With the public initiatives Platform MaterialDigital, NFDI-MatWerk, and Materials Commons, the German research and innovation system — even by international standards — has the ideal conditions to generate sustainable impact and value creation through digital transformation.

 

 

The MaterialDigital (PMD) platform creates digital tools to accelerate materials development — from research through production to recycling. Automated workflows, standardized ontologies, and a modern IT and infrastructure lay the foundation for efficient and competitive processes.

(PMD spokesperson Prof. Dr. Peter Gumbsch)

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The National Research Data Infrastructure for Materials Science and Engineering is working on infrastructure solutions that enable materials research data to be made available to the scientific community in accordance with the “FAIR” principles and, in this context, preferably in an open and free-of-charge manner.

(Consortium leader: Fraunhofer IWM, Prof. Dr. Chris Eberl)

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The Materials Commons project marks the first time a pan-European federated digital infrastructure for materials research and development has been established. The goal is to unify the fragmented European materials data landscape and accelerate the development of new high-performance materials by a factor of 4.

(Overall coordination: Fraunhofer IWM, Prof. Dr. Peter Gumbsch)

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Reference Projects on the Development of Ontology-Based Data Ecosystems and Digital Representations for Value Chains

R&D Services

Fraunhofer IWM helps you structure and link material data and make it usable through digital methods such as simulation, AI, and life-cycle analysis.

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Reference Projects

From material data rooms and digital material passports to AI-powered modeling, our projects demonstrate how material data can be leveraged throughout entire value chains.

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