Contaminated industrial plants cost billions every year in Germany alone. Special coatings can prevent the build-up of contaminants. Researchers are now able to adapt ultra-thin coatings for an extremely wide range of applications.

Cold cracking in high-strength steel presents major quality assurance challenges for the automotive and machine-building industries, since cracks are difficult to predict – until now. A new process can determine, as early as the design stage, if critical conditions for such damage can be prevented. This lowers development times and costs.

It would make life a lot easier if the surfaces of window panes, corrosion coatings or microfluidic systems in medical labs could keep themselves free of water and other liquids. A new simulation program can now work out just how such surfaces have to look for a variety of applications.

These coatings offer protection against rust, scratches and moisture and improve adhesion: Surfaces with a nano coating. A new plasma process enables these coatings to be applied more easily and cost-efficiently – on an industrial scale.

Displays that can be rolled up and flexible solar cells – both are potential future markets. Barrier layers that protect thin-film solar cells from oxygen and water vapor and thus increase their useful life are an essential component.

Flexible and independently operating smart materials can adapt to changing conditions with high speed.

To develop a material with high resistance to wear: that was the objective of a research team. For tools and components specifically subjected to load, their solution delivers an extended product lifespan with better performance characteristics.

These days, plastic components are vital to many fields of industry – lightweight construction, automobile manufacturing and electrical engineering, to name but a few. Now researchers have found ingenious ways to combine plastics with nanoparticles and endow them with new properties. Thanks to these innovative materials, aircraft could in future be better protected against lightning strikes.

Scientists speak of sputtering when energy-rich ions hit a solid object and cause atoms to be released from its surface. The phenomenon can be exploited to apply microscopically thin coatings to glass surfaces. A research team has developed a special sputtering technique that greatly increases the efficiency of the coating process.