Press

This year, a total of three Fraunhofer IST apprentices successfully completed their training. Two apprentices were even honored by the Braunschweig Chamber of Industry and Commerce for their particularly good performance in the final examinations.

On 3^rd September, the time had finally come: After eleven years, Project Manager Torsten Hochsattel held in his hands the – for the time being – final antenna component for the Sentinel-1C and D missions to be coated by him and the galvanic team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST.

The Fraunhofer Battery Alliance bundles the expertise of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in the field of electrochemical energy storage devices. Only recently, the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, represented by the engineers Sabrina Zellmer and Stefan Blume, has also been a member.

On 5^th July 2019, the Fraunhofer Water Systems Alliance (SysWasser), represented by the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, and the Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park (SRTIP) in the United Arab Emirates signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The goal of the future cooperation is the further development of technologies in the field of water management.

On 10^th July, the Hochschule Mannheim - University of Applied Sciences and the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST signed a cooperation agreement on the expansion of joint research activities in the field of tribology and surfaces. The Kompetenzzentrum Tribologie has been working closely with the Braunschweig institute since 2018 within the framework of the newly created DFG (German research foundation) priority program SPP2074 “Fluid-free lubrication systems”.

At this year’s 19^th Fachtagung für Plasmatechnologie (plasma technology conference), which took place from 17^th to 19^th June in Cottbus, Prof. Dr. Claus-Peter Klages was awarded the Rudolf Seeliger Prize for his achievements in the field of plasma research.

Optical functions – e. g. anti-reflective coatings or filters for specific spectral ranges – can be realized by means of interference coating systems. These systems deploy a sequence of high and low-refractive layers (e. g. Ta₂O₅ und SiO₂) whose layer thicknesses are precalculated according to the desired optical function. At the Fraunhofer IST, such coating systems are produced by means of magnetron cathode sputtering; applications are optical components in the field of precision optics.

The “Hacking Engineering” Hackathon is a new format which was initiated by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the VDMA, Europe’s largest industry association for mechanical engineering, and which took place in Berlin from 17th to 19th May 2019. The idea is to bring together companies from the fields of mechanical engineering and systems engineering with startups from research and interested students in order to collaboratively develop innovative future-oriented technologies. The teams of participants had 48 hours in which to solve one of four specified challenges. One of the winning teams chose for its solution the multifunctional thin-film sensor system developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST – and thereby won “Kill the valve”.

On March 26, 1949, the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft was founded and now celebrates its 70th birthday this year. The motto of the anniversary year: 70 years of Fraunhofer. 70 years of future. #WHATSNEXT. For the Fraunhofer IST, the anniversary of the founding was a cause for celebration as well.

As part of the ”Future Day for Girls and Boys”, school children from the grades 5 to 9 once again had the opportunity to spend a whole day exploring the research work of the Fraunhofer Institutes IST and WKI. A total of 24 young researchers – 13 girls and 11 boys – immersed themselves in the fascinating world of research at the two Fraunhofer Institutes. Together with the WKI, the Fraunhofer IST once again opened the doors for interested young people.