Press Releases

Fraunhofer IWM has developed and successfully commissioned an autoclave for crack growth tests on CT samples in hydrogen at pressures of up to 170 bar. The compact design enables the cost-effective creation of a database for the design and safe operation of hydrogen infrastructure components.

How can new bio-based and biohybrid materials with improved features be developed faster? Six Fraunhofer institutes are jointly exploring this question in the SUBI²MA flagship project, using an innovative bio-based polyamide developed by Fraunhofer researchers as a model. Its specific properties make it a promising alternative to fossil-based plastics.

Climate change, snowmelt, and rising energy costs are putting pressure on ice rink operators. Skating on plastic sheets promises an economical and sustainable alternative. In the race to develop the most athletic skating experience, Glice AG from Lucerne, Switzerland, has now succeeded in a research project with Fraunhofer IWM in Freiburg to develop synthetic ice with gliding properties that are in no way inferior to those of frozen water. The creative interplay between Fraunhofer IWM's materials science research into the contact mechanisms — including the resulting material specifications necessary for enabling skating on plastic — and Glice AG's further development of the formula and manufacturing process for plastic ice sheets ultimately led to the breakthrough.

The scarcity and expense of fatigue data limits optimal design of components and constrains companies to a few well qualified materials when safety-critical applications are concerned. Scientists of Fraunhofer IWM together with colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have developed strategies for significantly improving the extraction of structured information from unstructured scientific literature—the largest corpus of fatigue data to date. They have published their findings on the ChemRxiv platform.

Under dynamic loads, lightweight structures can be subjected to vibrations that on the one hand generate disturbing noises and on the other lead to material fatigue. In the “LEICHT_DISS” project, friction elements were developed and evaluated that absorb vibration energy as part of the lightweight structures and lead to a stabilization of the system. In addition to increased functionality and safety, the use of these new technologies also enables weight savings as well as economic and ecological potential in component design.

The groundbreaking ceremony on July 22, 2025 marked the start of construction for the Engineering Center for Sustainability (Ingenieurzentrum Nachhaltigkeit – IZN) on Freiburg’s airport campus. The new building will foster closer collaboration between Freiburg’s five Fraunhofer institutes and the University of Freiburg under the umbrella of the Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering (INATECH).

40% of waste oil from industrial processes can now be reprocessed into base oils. However, the technological processes for this are not differentiated enough to recover the valuable base materials from waste oil that are used for high-performance lubricants and to produce new long-life lubricants from them. The recycling technologies currently in use are therefore limited to low-viscosity oils. There is a great need among lubricant manufacturers and their base material suppliers to continue using higher-viscosity gear oils, as there is enormous potential for reducing CO2 and costs. There is also great interest in sustainable lubrication solutions in technology sectors such as wind power and mobility.

In the "AluTrace" project, a decentralized data room architecture was developed that enables seamless traceability and analysis of materials and process data. This is not only important for the design process of lightweight components, but also for the entire value chain in additive manufacturing. By implementing a process-specific topology optimization algorithm (PSTO), it was possible to demonstrate how end-to-end data networking can lead to significant improvements in component quality and performance. The results achieved, including a weight reduction of up to 23% while maintaining the same mechanical strength, demonstrate the clear industrial need for effective solutions for lightweight construction.

The “CapS-PTL” project is developing an innovative technology for the production of porous titanium electrodes, which is crucial for efficient hydrogen production by electrolysis. By using capillary suspensions (CapS), precise control of the porosity and mechanical strength of the electrodes is achieved, which significantly increases electrochemical performance.

Raw material extraction in deep-sea environments requires extremely durable components – especially in pumps. In the "SubseaSlide" project, a novel diamond-SiC composite material was developed and qualified, demonstrating exceptional wear resistance and operational reliability under realistic conditions. This research makes a significant contribution to efficiency, supply security and sustainability in marine resource extraction.