The 2010s: Focus on production – with additional space

And the work continued: From casting molds to copper nozzles to component-integrated sensor systems, researchers explored a wide variety of applications. In addition to the increasingly sophisticated laser-powder processes, researchers also gained experience in the use of electron beam and laser cladding systems for additive manufacturing of components. For example, the institute acquired multi-laser systems that increase the build-up rate in selective laser melting and enable additive manufacturing to be used more cost-effectively. Since 2023, research has also been conducted using the institute’s own cold-spray system in collaboration with the Werner-von-Siemens Centre for Industry and Science and the IWF of the TU Berlin. Finally, various post-processing technologies are being tested in a dedicated post-processing laboratory.

The experts were also active beyond the optimization of AM processes themselves. Starting in 2017, expertise from various fields was pooled to enable agile and flexible collaboration in interdisciplinary projects. In the AGENT-3D project, they had already been working since 2013 with over 60 partners from industry and research to bring additive manufacturing into industrial practice. The stated goal: to secure Germany’s technological leadership in key areas of additive manufacturing. To integrate additive manufacturing systems into flexible production structures, the engineers sought to establish the new manufacturing processes as certification-ready production systems. With »Additive Manufacturing AM 4.0«, they developed an app for decentralized online process and machine monitoring to enable companies to achieve end-to-end process control and, thereby, effective quality management.

Thanks to their expertise, the researchers at Fraunhofer IPK can now support companies with questions regarding a wide variety of processes, ranging from electron beam melting and cold spray to polymer-based processes. They cover the entire additive manufacturing process chain, from the creation of CAD models right through to post-processing, supplemented by feasibility studies and portfolio analyses. The institute is thus a reliable partner for industry, particularly when it comes to getting started with additive manufacturing effectively.

To ensure that the new wing would blend seamlessly into the existing architecture of the PTZ, Professor Peter Bayerer, who had already co-designed the PTZ main building as an architect, was commissioned with the design. The cornerstone was laid on February 11, 2010, and the shell of the building was already complete by the middle of the year. The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on July 9. The doors were opened to employees for the first time during the PTZ summer party on September 16, 2011. Exactly 25 years to the day after the PTZ’s inauguration, the »Application Center for Microproduction Technology – AMP« was officially opened on November 25, 2011. 

Constant climatic conditions

When components and structures become extremely small, the tools required to manufacture them also become miniatures that must work with the highest precision – and are highly sensitive to environmental influences. The expansion of a tool due to temperature fluctuations of just a few tenths of a degree Celsius is enough to turn products into rejects. Even the slightest material changes caused by corrosion make machining according to the specified parameters impossible.

The AMP is therefore climate-controlled with extreme precision. Relative humidity is regulated throughout the building so that it neither exceeds 55 percent, ruling out corrosion, nor falls below 45 percent, which would be harmful to employees’ health. In two laboratories with high-precision environments, the temperature can be maintained at a constant 20 °C ± 1 °C to prevent components from expanding excessively. The ultra-precision laboratory, the most sensitive area of the AMP, is even temperature-controlled with an accuracy of ± 0.2 °C. In addition, a section of this laboratory was constructed on a separate foundation that is vibration-isolated from the rest of the building’s foundation. The supporting columns extend particularly deep into the ground, and the foundation itself has an unusually high mass. All of this serves as passive vibration damping: Neither vibrations from the street nor those generated within the building itself are directly transmitted to this area, which contains ultraprecision machines.

Early activities in quality assurance

»You have arrived late, but you have arrived!« This famous quote by Schiller shall solely be used here to mark the first appearance of quality management (QM) in this institute history. Questions relating to quality were addressed at Fraunhofer IPK almost from the very beginning. As early as 1980, the entry »Quality Assurance« appeared under »Special Projects« in the organizational chart. At that time, the institute developed systems that could automatically detect and evaluate defect characteristics in various production processes.

In September 1988, the IWF of the TU Berlin established a professorship in quality science, to which Gerd Kamiske was appointed. This broadened the focus of the quality activities at PTZ: Alongside quality assurance in the production process, strategic quality management emerged in the form of Total Quality Management (TQM). Quality was no longer defined solely by product-specific attributes. Instead, it was to be holistically integrated into all processes within the company through organizational and human resource structures.

This idea eventually helped quality management gain a foothold at Fraunhofer IPK: In 1993, for the first time the institute established a dedicated department under the leadership of Joachim Herrmann, who in 1995 also succeeded Professor Kamiske at the IWF. Similar to the quality science efforts at the IWF, the QM department approached quality from two perspectives: A working group on manufacturing metrology continued the quality assurance work. For example, the group developed systems for measuring the flatness of glass surfaces. Above all, however, the department supported companies in the broad field of quality management systems, computer-aided quality management (CAQ) and process optimization. Since these topics overlapped with the Process Engineering division, the institute decided to dissolve the Quality Management division as a separate unit within Fraunhofer IPK during the restructuring of the institute in the late 1990s and assign it to Corporate Management.

Ten years later: a fresh start for QM

In the years that followed, the institute shifted its quality activities in a completely new direction: inward. To meet the demand for consistently high-quality research and to fulfill customer requirements, the institute introduced a process-oriented quality management system (QMS) compliant with ISO 9001 for its own processes in 2006. The QMS has since been transitioned into an integrated management system (IMS). Processes, tasks and responsibilities within the institute are clearly defined within this system and mapped using the institute’s own software, MO²GO.

Shortly thereafter, the institute reestablished a dedicated Quality Management department. Succeeding Professor Herrmann, Professor Roland Jochem was appointed to the Chair of Quality Science at the IWF on September 1, 2010; the following year, Fraunhofer IPK established a corresponding department under his leadership. For seven years, the team focused on QM strategies and methods for development and production as well as for production planning, procurement and maintenance, sales and customer service. The goal was sustainable quality excellence that creates added value for companies.

Bringing quality into companies

In collaboration with industry partners, the team developed and implemented, for example, methods and procedures for holistic and systematic planning of quality management. Tools for evaluating the benefits and cost-effectiveness of QM systems based on a combination of performance measurement and Monte Carlo simulation supported the strategic introduction and efficient implementation of these systems. Sustainability, as an essential quality characteristic of corporate organization, was also a focus of research. For example, this involved developing a decision-making methodology for competency-based team organization during the implementation of the DIN EN ISO 50001:2011 standard (energy management systems), complete with systematic guidance for its application within a company.

Globally operating companies must also structure and implement quality management on a global scale. Consequently, a key outcome of these research activities was the development of a procedural model for introducing global quality management systems. The model was successfully implemented at an industrial partner and published in a book titled »Globales Qualitätsmanagement. Basis für eine erfolgreiche internationale Unternehmensführung« (»Global Quality Management: The Foundation for Successful International Corporate Management«).

In 2018, history repeated itself: As part of a streamlining of the institute’s structure, quality management was once again incorporated into the Corporate Management division.

SOPRO: production goes autonomous

A flashback to the late 1980s: Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) sought to integrate design, planning and manufacturing into overarching IT systems. Then came the Internet, along with teleservices, and by the late 2000s, the next milestones: embedded systems and the internet of things (IoT). Processors and software intelligence were integrated into devices, laying the foundation for them to connect and interact autonomously. In production practice, the goal was to achieve scenarios like this: A workpiece signals to the machine park, »I'm done on the lathe, who can deburr me?« An available machining center replies: »I have capacity, come here!«

This was the vision behind self-organizing production, which Fraunhofer IPK first pursued on a larger scale with the »SOPRO« project. Starting in 2008, Eckhard Hohwieler and his team, in close cooperation with Fraunhofer IZM and the DAI Laboratory at TU Berlin, tested how centralized control systems in production could be replaced by more flexible alternatives. The idea: Each workpiece »knows« its status and how it needs to be processed in the next step, and independently negotiates for the appropriate manufacturing capacity. To implement this in practice, Fraunhofer IZM developed so-called Process-eGrains, tiny and particularly robust wireless sensor nodes, and the DAI added a corresponding agent platform. On this basis, software agents from Fraunhofer IPK were able to collect and exchange manufacturing information.

»Start dip« – flexibility in manufacturing

With this, they wanted to make manufacturing processes more flexible. Around this time, industrial partners increasingly confronted Fraunhofer IPK with the challenge of ever more diverse customer requirements. A growing number of product variants, extending even to a batch size of one, stood in contrast to inflexible manufacturing structures: Processes and machine schedules were planned and controlled centrally, and every change entailed significant re-planning efforts. The proposed solution was to decentralize planning responsibilities: Employees at all organizational levels would be given greater autonomy in managing the production process, supported by intelligent technologies.

While concepts in this field were generally labeled »Industry 4.0« or »Integrated Industry«, the term »digitally integrated production (dip)« gained traction at Fraunhofer IPK. This choice of words was meant to clarify that production is the primary focus and that digitalization is viewed as a tool to support processes. While Industry 4.0 often remained vague in its definition and referred primarily to a collection of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cyber-physical systems or the cloud, dip asked: What does this mean specifically for manufacturing companies, and what measurable benefits result from it?

Fraunhofer IPK took up a pioneering role in answering this question, which resulted in significant attention. On October 2, 2012, the Industry 4.0 working group, set up by the Industry-Science Research Union and acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering, presented its groundbreaking interim report at an implementation forum at the PTZ in front of more than 175 guests. In February 2015, Hohwieler visited German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel and had the opportunity to discuss Industry 4.0 on the program »Die Kanzlerin direkt.« The topic also shaped Fraunhofer IPK’s presentations at Hannover Messe from 2016 to 2018, where the institute used extensive exhibits to demonstrate how various integrated solutions could contribute to flexible process control: modular shop floor IT and industry cockpits, digital twins and cloud-based machine system control. All of these and many more solutions were also parts of the »Start dip!« program, through which the institute supported companies of all sizes on their path to flexible manufacturing. They also form the basis of digitally integrated production as the institute implements it today.