Press Releases

How long can noise barrier seals really withstand wind, weather and passing trains? Over decades, temperature fluctuations, UV radiation, pollutants, and tensile and compressive loads act on elastomeric coupling elements. Yet the effects on their ageing resistance have barely been studied. Together with Fraunhofer ISE, Fraunhofer IWM is developing, for the first time, a robust methodology for demonstrating a 50-year service life on behalf of the German Centre for Rail Traffic Research at the Federal Railway Authority (DZSF) – with relevance far beyond rail transport.

Whether it’s an offshore wind turbine tower, a slewing crane, or an excavator arm - load-bearing steel structures are systematically oversized because the quality of their welds is not objectively assessed. The ORka3D joint research project, funded by the BMWE, has developed a method that uses 3D scanning and artificial intelligence to capture the actual geometry of each individual weld and evaluate it on a case-by-case basis. With precise predictions of fatigue strength, sheet metal thicknesses can be reduced by up to 40 percent without compromising safety. Across the industry, this represents a potential savings of several hundred thousand tons of steel and several million tons of CO₂.

Nine partners from industry and research have demonstrated for the first time in the BMFTR-funded project EDCar how the seamless exchange of standardized materials data within an automotive supply chain – from raw materials manufacturers to recycling facilities – enables faster development decisions, reduced materials usage, and new digital business models. The key lies in combining the PMD materials data infrastructure with the Catena-X data ecosystem.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is awarding Professor Daniel S. Gianola of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), the Fraunhofer Bessel Research Award. The prize, worth 45,000 euros, recognizes his outstanding contributions to research on the mechanical properties of structural materials and to the development of innovative in-situ characterization methods. From November 2026 to July 2027, the materials scientist will conduct a research fellowship at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg and at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

The fatigue life of highly stressed components in a hydrogen atmosphere has so far only been estimated with large uncertainties. Classical fracture mechanics calculations are often too conservative and yield significantly shorter service lives than occur. Researchers at Fraunhofer IWM have now developed, for the first time, a crack initiation-based prediction model that allows the Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) lifetime under the influence of hydrogen to be calculated on a physically sound basis. This makes it possible to reliably predict the service life of components in hydrogen turbines and engines at an early stage of development, reduce costly testing, and design safety factors more realistically. This is an important step towards safe and environmentally friendly hydrogen operation of turbines.

A new, model-based optimization strategy developed by Fraunhofer IWM enables, for the first time, the targeted design of mechanical surface post-treatments for metal AM components. As a basis, the strength assessment scheme according to the well-established FKM guidelines is used. In the strength assessment, the effects of the post-treatment via shot peening, burnishing or deep rolling can be implemented. Moreover, process parameters can be optimized by a custom simulation of the post treatment and adapted material models. The optimization strategy assists companies that wish to use additively manufactured components in structural applications which require particularly a high fatigue strength.

In the “TERIS” project, the Fraunhofer institutes ICT, IGD, and IWM—led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF—have reached a decisive milestone. The teams of experts aim, for the first time, to generate, analyze, and predict tire wear in the laboratory in a standardized and practical manner. In line with this first milestone, results are now available on reference abrasion, particle analysis, tribological models, AI-based surface analysis, a test bench concept, and methods for accelerated aging and VOC detection. The tire industry, testing services, and environmental agencies will benefit in the future from reliable, rapid laboratory procedures for emissions assessment.

With the MaterialsCommons project, a pan-European federated digital infrastructure for materials research and development is being created for the first time. Coordinated by Prof. Dr. Peter Gumbsch (Fraunhofer IWM/KIT), the project, funded by the European Commission under Horizon Europe with 28 million euros, brings together 26 research institutions from 14 countries with over 30 industrial partners, including Bosch, Siemens, ArcelorMittal, Infineon, Voestalpine, and Schaeffler. The goal is to unify Europe's fragmented materials data landscape and accelerate the development of new high-performance materials by a factor of 4.

A new simulation model from the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg predicts weak points in forged components caused by incomplete grain formation (recrystallization). Embedded in an efficient digital workflow, this creates a digital forging laboratory that enables material and energy savings in forging processes.

Adding hydrogen to fossil fuels is an important step toward decarbonization of combustion processes in large engines and gas turbines. The materials used in these applications are exposed to extreme temperature changes, mechanical stresses, and hydrogen gas. Depending on its proportion in the fuel and the sensitivity of the materials, hydrogen further reduces fatigue strength. Scientists at Fraunhofer IWM have demonstrated how thermomechanical fatigue under the influence of hydrogen can be determined economically using hollow specimens.