Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology
Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology

Technologies

Machining of Large Structures

Are special machines necessary to machine large structures?

© Fraunhofer IPK / Sascha Reinkober

Robots come with small floor space, but large machining areas. Force-torque controls even allow to cover manual processes such as edge finishing or polishing.

Our solution

  • Create workflow with the help of industrial robots
  • Develop individual solutions to substitute manual processes
  • Add-on systems or special kinematics (e. g. Flexmatik)

 

Your benefits

  • Drastic reduction of costs and floor space
  • More flexible processes thanks to "feeling and seeing" robots
  • Substitution of manual work such as polishing molds without path planning thanks to force-torque sensor technology

Computed Tomography Systems with Inline Measurement

How can (medical) imaging be used in battery cell testing?

© Fraunhofer IPK

By combining hardware and software development, special computed tomography systems can be developed for battery cell testing and inline measurement.

Our solution

  • Develop special kinematics for application-specific computed tomography systems
  • Develop algorithms for component and material separation as well as for the reduction of the number of projections

 

Your benefits

  • Special CTs for special applications (e.g. battery cell testing)
  • Completeness inspection in entire assemblies
  • Inline inspection in injection molding applications

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs)

How can AGVs make it easier for people to transport production resources?

© Fraunhofer IPK / Larissa Klassen

By using a mobile robot, material, products and even production tools and parts can be transported. In addition, an AGV enables the loading of machines.

Our solution

  • Develop mechatronic safety concepts and prototypes
  • Robot control and integration for tasks with contact to humans and work environment
  • Use mobile robots as driverless vehicles for complex tasks

 

Your benefits

  • Flexible production and cost reduction
  • Innovative processes for handling intermediate products
  • Simple automation for repetitive processes or tasks with high loads

R&D of Innovative Cutting Materials Against Tool Wear

What quality improvements are possible in high-precision machining?

© Fraunhofer IPK

With new cutting materials, tool life can be massively increased. The result is a significantly improved quality, especially in tool and mold making.

Our solution

  • Inovative cutting materials:
    • Polycrystalline diamond without binder phase
    • CVD thick-film diamond
    • Binder less carbidel

 

Your benefits

  • Cutting material validation, tool design and process parameter development from a single source
  • More economical cutting processes

Micro Electrical Discharge Machining - Wire EDM

How to use EDM processes in a more time and cost-efficient way?

© Fraunhofer IPK

When very high accuracies are required, machining hard and brittle materials with wire EDM technology is necessary.

Our solution

  • Investigate the effects of thermal loads on the dimensional accuracy of microstructures
  • Determine and optimize technological and geometric machining limits

 

Your benefits

  • Efficient and high-precision manufacturing of components
  • Manufacturing with dimensional deviations GF ≤ 1 µm
  • Manufacture surfaces with roughness Ra ≤ 100 nm

Micro injection molding for the production of high-precision components

How can high-precision and micro components be replicated?

© Fraunhofer IPK

In order to accurately replicate high-precision components, the entire process chain from the component for injection molding and the development and manufacturing of high-precision injection molds up to replication must be optimized.

Our solution

  • Complete development of injection molded parts
  • Component design and tooling
  • Determine process parameters
  • Sampling

 

Your benefits

  • Mapping of all development steps for injection molding of high-precision and micro parts – from sample part to series process
  • Some advantages of micro injection molding: high precision, high quality, environmental friendliness, cost efficiency and all that for smallest dimensions

Multi-domain Development of Smart Systems

How to develop smart tools successfully?

© Fraunhofer IPK

Developing flexible tools considering product variants with the use of IoT helps to manufacture products in less time and higher quality.

Our solution

  • Developing smart tools methodically
  • Design of smart systems from services and infrastructure
  • Identify metadata for flexible reconfiguration
  • Convert and implement demonstrators

 

Your benefits

  • Flexible and networked tools that communicate with their environment and coordinate with each other
  • Integrated product lifecycle of smart tools considering product diversity and families

New Materials for Tool and Mold Making

Which wear-reducing hybrid materials can be developed?

© Fraunhofer IPK

Significant wear occurs in injection molds. New materials can solve this problem.

Our solution

  • Development of a hybrid material made of aluminum bronze with hard particles of spherical tungsten carbide
  • Possibility of clean separation of matrix material and tungsten carbide particles
  • Arithmetic center-line roughness Ra ≤ 140 nm

 

Your benefits

  • Efficient production of wear-resistant injection molds
  • Targeted modification of particularly stressed areas by coating with the hybrid material

Optimized Process Parameters Increase Economic Efficiency of Spark Erosion

How can time-consuming and costly EDM processes be made more economical?

© Fraunhofer IPK

There is potential in the process parameters specified by machine manufacturers that can be tapped through process understanding, experimental evaluation and process optimization.

Our solution

  • Analysis of relevant process parameters and their influences on the respective target parameters
  • For each application, process engineering potentials are exhausted
  • Identification of significant potentials for optimizing the specific process

 

Your benefits

  • Machining time reduced by 80 percent
  • No negative influence on machining quality
  • Application to milling, turning, grinding, and electrical discharge machining

Optimization of High-Precision Machining

How can process times be reduced while maintaining quality?

© Fraunhofer IPK

Industrial manufacturing processes do not exhaust the possibilities that can be tapped by optimizing processes and tools.

Our solution

  • Identify potentials of the process technology of tool and workpiece
  • Develop processes designed to meet specific requirements up to the limits with unaffected tool life

 

Your benefits

  • Machining time reduced by up to 80 percent without affecting the machining quality
  • Optimization strategies applicable to milling, turning and grinding
  • Strategies transferable to ultra-precision machining and other processes

Ultra-Precision Machining of Ductile Materials with Cryogenic Cutting

Can ductile materials be machined reliably?

© Fraunhofer IPK

Ultra-precision machining of ductile materials is possible by using cryogenic machining processes. The technology is also suitable for medical products.

Our solution

  • Component is cooled to below -50 °C
  • Process environment is actively controlled for good machinability of the material
  • Machining is performed with conventional tools and process parameters

 

Your benefits

  • Thermal shrinkage of the workpiece is known and can be compensated
  • Accuracy can be increased by optimized chip formation
  • Existing machine technology can be easily retrofitted