Shrinkage behavior and curvatures can be precisely adjusted

02-Nov-2021

Printed polymers that change shape once in a predefined way when heated? This is now possible thanks to a 4D printing technology developed in the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Programmable Materials CPM. The extent of the change in shape of the printed objects is drastic: they can shrink by up ...

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Efficient and with consistently high quality

04-Oct-2021

Fuel cells are typically applied to generate electrical energy from hydrogen or methanol. Nanoscale catalysts get the process going - but until now, the quality of these materials has varied significantly. The CAN research division of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP ...

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Counterfeit-proof and unique identification shows authenticity of products

17-Sep-2021

Counterfeit-proof product protection and resilient supply chains are the goals of the Fraunhofer SmartID project. The Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied Polymer Research IAP, for Secure Information Technology SIT and for Open Communication Systems FOKUS are developing a novel marking system that ...

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Self-cleaning plastics are just the beginning - The potentials this creates are enormous

03-Jun-2021

In general, plastics are processed at way over a hundred degrees Celsius. Enzymes, by contrast, cannot usually withstand these high temperatures. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP have managed to reconcile these contradictions: They are able to embed enzymes ...

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Plastic components with longer service life

06-May-2021

23 percent of global energy consumption can be attributed to friction losses. Components with reduced friction therefore represent an important contribution to conserving resources and achieving climate protection targets. In the case of plastics, reduced friction can also reduce microplastics in ...

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19-Oct-2020

Innovative insulating materials made of shape memory polymers are developed and tested by the Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied Polymer Research IAP, for Chemical Technology ICT and for Building Physics IBP within the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Programmable Materials CPM. The high-tech ...

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Truck tires with less abrasion

03-Apr-2019

Natural rubber from rubber trees is a raw material with a limited supply. Synthetically produced rubber, on the other hand, has not yet been able to match the abrasion behavior of the natural product, rendering it unsuitable for truck tires. But now, for the first time, a new type of synthetic ...

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27-Feb-2019

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) provide significant energy savings over conventional light sources. In terms of light quality, however, conventional lighting solutions are still superior to LEDs as the latter are unable to reproduce the entire color spectrum. Most importantly, LEDs lack an efficient ...

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Technical Coatings for Additive Manufacturing

05-Dec-2018

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has many advantages: custom manufacturing, flexible production and easy customization, for example. Yet many products have a high surface roughness and porosity. The post processing of the thus fabricated parts is time consuming and often a significant cost factor for ...

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Photovoltaics: easy implementation thanks to modern printing techniques

15-Mar-2018

Renewable energy has become an important topic in today’s society. Modern printing solutions promise the easy and cost efficient production of photovoltaics elements, even beyond architectural uses. At the international exhibition and conference for the printed electronics industry LOPEC 2018 ...

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