Press / Newsroom

Radioactive, chemical or biological substances are undetectable to humans in threatening situations and difficult to detect with remote sensing. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE use specially equipped drones and robots to quickly and precisely localize radioactive sources.

Children are usually examined using ultrasound to protect them from radiation exposure. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA are now working on a system to automatically document the spatial recording position of ultrasound scans relative to the patient's body.

Sustainability is an aspect that more and more consumers pay close attention to when buying furniture. As part of their research project titled Linum Tube, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut, WKI have created modern seating furniture that is easy to disassemble, adapt and transport, and is also highly recyclable. The modular systems are made of only two materials: fabric produced from natural fibers and steel tubes.

Polyurethanes (PUR) are found in many products, such as upholstered furniture, foam or insulation materials, flooring, paints and even medical catheter tubes. The production of these high-demand plastics, however, relies on toxic isocyanate. Fraunhofer researchers have now developed an alternative production process using harmless dicarbamate.

Fraunhofer research scientists are optimizing the manufacturing of 3D tissue models using a modular sensor platform and AI. Their solution enables continuous quality control in bioreactors and opens up new perspectives for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries – for more than just animal-free drug testing.

Startups and scale-ups drive innovation in our economy. The first Fraunhofer Technology Transfer Fund (FTTF) was launched to finance technology-oriented start-ups. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, together with the European Investment Fund (EIF) and, for the first time, private and other public investors, is continuing this successful initiative. The goal of the new TT49 fund, with a planned capitalization of 90 million euros, is to provide early-stage support for innovation from the German and European research landscape and to sustainably strengthen technology transfer.

Periodontitis is widespread and can have serious consequences for overall health. Researchers at Fraunhofer have identified a substance that selectively inhibits only those bacteria that cause periodontitis, thereby preserving the natural balance of the oral microbiome. This technology has been further developed and commercialized as a range of oral care products by the spin-off company PerioTrap.

Pests that spread as a result of climate change pose an increasing threat to fruit farming and viticulture in Germany. Fraunhofer researchers are working with partners to develop methods for the early identification of infestations in grapevines and in apricot, apple and pear trees so as to enable timely countermeasures to be taken. A mobile lab, the PhenoTruck®, supports rapid and reliable identification of harmful organisms directly on site. The platform provides a highly mobile system for analyzing disease symptoms, combining machine-learning methods, drone-based multispectral sensing, hyperspectral sensing and molecular biological tests.

Is it possible to recover plastic recyclates from previously unused waste streams in order to produce high-quality fibers and films? How can bio-based polymer fibers be manufactured so as to allow adjustable biodegradability? These are the questions being addressed by researchers from the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Circular Plastics Economy CCPE in the Zirk-Tex project. As an alternative to mechanical processes, they are jointly developing innovative recycling methods for the production of sustainable roof underlayments and geosynthetics. This involves the analysis of the entire value chain at pilot scale.

The partial collapse of the Carola Bridge in Dresden in September 2024 was a wake-up call for Germany’s infrastructure policy. At least 8,000 highway bridges and roughly 18,000 kilometers of railroad in Germany are now considered in need of repair, with the cost of necessary renovations currently estimated at up to 100 billion euros. Continuous infrastructure monitoring is expensive, so it has been neglected. The Engineering of Adaptive Systems institute branch at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS is working on an efficient and cost-effective solution: leveraging robust radar sensor technology originally designed for the automobile sector to monitor bridges, rail tracks, and other structures.