The 1970s: Foundation and Path to Independence

The mission: supporting industry

Prof. Günter Spur's vision for a »Production Technology Institute« was a research facility that would directly benefit industry. »Technology transfer« and »applied research« were buzzwords that accompanied the discussion about its founding. The envisioned institute would conduct industry-oriented research, directly support companies – especially those in Berlin – and make developments from academic basic research available to industry. Specifically, it was meant to offer small and medium-sized companies in particular the opportunity to solve manufacturing challenges and implement innovative ideas by essentially »renting engineering capacity on a temporary basis,« as Professor Spur put it in an interview shortly after the institute was founded.

Given this objective, it is not surprising that the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMFT) proposed the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft as the umbrella organization of the planned institute. This idea, however, proved quite controversial in the mid-1970s. Relations between the Eastern and Western powers had reached a historic low in the 1960s with the construction of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The subsequent policy of détente culminated in the Four Power Agreement, which came into force in Berlin in 1972. Although this agreement brought relief for the population of West Berlin, it also included an implicit ban on establishing federal institutions in the western part of the city.

Fraunhofer in Berlin? Of course!

In the case of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, there was another factor to consider. Prof. Hans-Jürgen Warnecke, long-time director of Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart and later president of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, looked back on the founding phase in 2009 and said: »In the beginning, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft was viewed to no small extent as a research institution for defense and military research.« There were fears that the Soviet Union would view the establishment of a Fraunhofer institute in Berlin as a provocation.

To solve this problem, a trick was used: When the new research facility began its work on September 1, 1976, it was officially registered as a branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. Prof. Günter Spur was entrusted with its management. With only two scientific staff and one administrative employee, the »IPA-Berlin« began its work in an office building on the corner of Knesebeckstraße and Kurfürstendamm. Within just two years, however, the space there would become too small for the flourishing institute.

Automated machine tools ...

Automating and digitalizing production from drawing to product – these were the goals of the young institute. The aim was to support companies in putting the previously unexplored potential of innovative technologies such as NC and CNC technology into practice. The development of microprocessor-based control systems was particularly important for a wide variety of machines, from machine tools and industrial robots to assembly lines and other automated systems.

These goals were already evident in the very first project started in 1976: The control system developed at IPA-Berlin to automate a spline shaft grinding machine from DIAG (Deutsche Industrieanlagen Gesellschaft mbH) was a full success at a time when NC/CNC machines accounted for only about 10 percent of the German market. The automated SKR 8 A machines were already in series production in 1977 and were exhibited at the 2nd EMO in Hannover.

»The concept is based on a minicomputer as the central control element for implementing the logical connections and for controlling and monitoring automated operations. In addition to the entire operating software for the computer, interface circuits for controlling the stepper motor drives for grinding and dressing slides also had to be developed.« (IPA-Berlin Annual Report 1977)

Other exhibits at EMO included a segment notching machine by Schuler and a multi-spindle lathe by the company Hasse & Wrede. The freely programmable control systems developed in Berlin increased the ease of use and accuracy of the machines while reducing downtimes and the costs for previously required fixtures.

... and smart ticket machines

It wasn't just the machine tool industry that was interested in technological progress: So-called »service machines« were also set to benefit from flexible microprocessors. A ticket machine developed at IPA-Berlin for the Berlin U-Bahn saved costs and resources in production – »coin processing and ticket printing are also microprocessor-controlled, enabling a high degree of flexibility and extensive data processing and calculations.« (Annual Report 1977) With these activities, the institute’s ideal to extend production technology solutions to areas of application beyond just manufacturing was already starting to show back then – and Fraunhofer IPK still lives up to it today.

Rapid growth in the early years

More than 25 research projects, a sharp increase in the budget from 0.5 to over 4 million DM and in staff from 3 to 36 between September 1976 and the end of 1978 – the IPA-Berlin concept was a success right from the start. This had spatial consequences: Just two years after its foundation, the institute's premises at Kurfürstendamm 202 had already become too small. At its first location, the institute initially had 270 square meters of floor space at its disposal, which was expanded to 450 square meters in the course of 1977. In total, at Kurfürstendamm IPA-Berlin had nine workrooms, an electrical laboratory and a computer room.

It was primarily the computer systems and other laboratory activities that made the first move necessary. At the beginning of 1979, the institute moved into its second premises at Kleiststrasse 23-26: two floors with initially 1,267 square meters, which were expanded to around 1,600 square meters by the end of 1979. And that was not all: The CAD group of the IWF at the Technical University of Berlin also moved into the building at Kleiststrasse.