Production and Environment

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

© Matthias Heyde / Fraunhofer

Product development

Minimal time-to-market: Anyone looking to achieve this objective nowadays has no option but to turn to computer-based simulation. State-of-the-art simulation technology allows the properties of components and products to be tested right from the design phase. Additive production techniques facilitate the rapid, cost-effective production of tailor-made prototypes and models.

Projects

  • Quality control at the point of a finger

    link: picture download

    For production operations, quality assurance over the process chain is indispensible: it is the only way to detect problems at an early stage and lower additional costs. Fraunhofer researchers developed an efficient type of quality control: With a pointing gesture, employees can input any detected defects to car body parts into the inspection system, and document them there.

  • On the way to lead-free technology

    Computersimulation

    The change-over to lead-free products is in full progress. The problem is however that the environmentally friendly alternatives have to be as effi cient as the lead-containing variants. One example is the injection system of diesel engines. Lead-free functional materials can be found faster by means of computer simulation methods.

  • Hydrogen makes metal brittle

    Forscher im Speziallabor

    Hydrogen is considered the fuel of the future. Yet this lightest of the chemical elements can embrittle the metals used in vehicle engineering. The result: components may malfunction and break. A new special laboratory is aiding researchers’ search for hydrogen-compatible metals.

  • Perfectly shaped solid components

    When metals are shaped, the materials they are made of are often damaged in the process. One cause of this is excessive press force, which cracks and perforates the material. By running simulations on a PC, research scientists can now calculate how to avoid component defects.

Further information

  • Fraunhofer Numerical Simulation of Products, Processes Alliance

    The simulation of products and processes today plays a decisive role in all phases of the product life cycle, from model-based materials development and simulation of manufacturing processes to operating characteristics and product placement on the market.