Plants instead of petroleum – making new bio-based material solutions tangible on a pilot scale

From laboratory to pilot scale - a rocky road

21-May-2024 - The INN PRESSME joint project, funded by the European Union with around 14 million euros, was launched three years ago. The aim of the 27 project partners from nine European countries is to establish a Europe-wide ecosystem for the development and production of plant-based, recyclable, and/or ...

Environmentally friendly non-stick coating replaces per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) on everyday products

16-Oct-2023 - Whether it is pans, cutlery or packaging, per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) have been used for coating in a wide variety of everyday products and processes for many years. Due to known risks of these substances to humans and the environment, at least a partial ban on the production and ...

Environmentally friendly manufacture of battery electrodes

New dry-coating process

03-Sep-2021 - Conventional processes for manufacturing battery electrodes involve mostly toxic solvents and require a lot of space and energy. This is not the case with DRYtraec® – a new dry-coating process developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS. The technology is ...

Special coating protects steel from hydrogen ‘attack’

Almost no evidence of brittleness

29-Jul-2020 - Regeneratively produced hydrogen is an ideal energy carrier, which will be used in future applications as fuel cells and cars and will supplement natural gas as an energy source. But atomic hydrogen often induces brittle behavior in metals at high temperatures. Lukas Gröner of the Fraunhofer IWM, ...

Porous silicon layers for more efficient lithium-ion batteries

06-Sep-2019 - The Fraunhofer FEP has developed coating processes for industry for several years. Recently in the project PoSiBat, Fraunhofer FEP scientists were able to develop a non-toxic and efficient manufacturing process for porous silicon layers. The results of the recently completed project will be ...

Nanocoating prevents greasy smears

Anti-fingerprint surfaces

05-Jul-2019 - Not only are greasy fingerprints on shiny stainless steel surfaces unattractive, they also attack the surface in question. A new nanocoating being developed by Fraunhofer researchers will in the future prevent the annoying smudges that result from fingers touching stainless steel surfaces. The ...

Paints and varnishes based on potato starch

Metal coating based on renewable raw materials

03-Jan-2018 - If a surface has to be protected against corrosion, in 80 percent of all cases this takes place through coating it with paints or varnishes. When doing so, the proportion of bio-based, environmentally-friendly solutions is extremely small. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied ...

Environmentally friendly alternative to prohibited hard chrome plating using chromium(VI)

16-Aug-2017 - The strict conditions on the use of chromium(VI) for corrosion and wear protection coatings, which will take effect in the EU in September 2017, hit the manufacturers of highly stressed metal components particularly hard. One such company is IHC Vremac Cylinders B.V. in the Dutch city of ...

Diamond-like coatings save fuel

10-Jun-2015 - Coating engine components with hard carbon reduces friction to almost zero – a development that could save billions of liters of fuel worldwide every year. Now researchers have developed a new laser method to apply the coating on the production line.Scientists already know how to coat components ...

Brilliant counterfeit protection

08-Jun-2010 - Counterfeit products create losses in the billions each year. Beside the economic damages, all too often additional risks arise from the poor materials and shoddy workmanship of »knock-off artists«. Yet with the aid of fluorescing dyes, materials can be individually tagged and identified with ...