Hannover Messe 2024

Additive technologies offer a number of advantages over traditional, subtractive machining processes, but generally only deliver semi-finished products, as the surface quality of additively manufactured components is often inadequate or support structures have to be removed. The final added value is therefore created through post-processing. Depending on the material and the functional and quality requirements, various technologies are available for post-processing the component surface.

To this end, the Fraunhofer Group for Production is presenting a joint exhibit in the form of a turtle in the »Production Technologies« area. The turtle presents haptically innovative post-processing technologies for additively manufactured components.

Cleanrooms create clean production environments and at the same time require low contamination behavior of all hardware components used, such as robots, grippers or production systems. The individual, dynamic, breathable, textile protective cover 2ndSCIN® for hardware components enables a highly clean environment with minimal effort.

The manual quality inspection of components or products in industry is strenuous for employees and also prone to errors. The Fraunhofer IEM is presenting a universally applicable solution for this. Together with ATM manufacturer Diebold Nixdorf and software specialist Verlinked, the it's OWL project CogeP has created a combination of a collaborative robot (cobot), AI-based image analysis and an IoT platform. The system relieves employees of the task of visual inspection and can be integrated into any inspection scenario.

In the Production Technologies area, the Fraunhofer ILT will also be presenting a large number of exhibits on various topics, such as an additively manufactured hydrodynamic plain bearing for wind turbine gearboxes with printed torque sensors or the additive manufacturing of lightweight aluminum components using EHLA3D.

From 2027, a battery passport will be required for large batteries placed on the European market. This is intended to provide the public, economic stakeholders and regulatory authorities with selected business and sustainability information about the individual battery and make product value chains more digitalised, transparent and efficient in accordance with EU law. The underlying process is visualised by a physical model.

As part of the Smart Ocean Technologies research group, the Fraunhofer IGP is developing a smart solution for repairing coating damage on maritime structures. A mechanized underwater application technology will enable the partial repair of coatings on existing offshore facilities in the future and offers numerous advantages compared to manual application. Mechanized application enables a particularly uniform and reproducible coating quality to be achieved, which protects the structure from corrosion in the long term.  In addition, the smart use of underwater vehicles (ROVs) eliminates the need for risky diving operations, which increases occupational safety on the high seas. The work is also less dependent on the weather, which goes hand in hand with a reduction in maintenance costs.

Hydrogen technologies play an important role in achieving climate targets. The core elements here are the systems that produce hydrogen from renewable energies (electrolysers) or convert hydrogen into electrical energy (fuel cells). At present, these systems are still produced in small quantities and at high prices. The aim must be to significantly reduce the costs of these systems through industrial mass production.
The BPPflexRoll, developed jointly with Profiroll, is a milestone on the way to mass production of bipolar plates for electrolysers and fuel cells. As a near-series machine, it already has control technology and an operating concept that corresponds in key respects to an industrial system. The Fraunhofer IWU shows a forming roller (from the test environment), which describes the forming process in more detail and illustrates the impact of the technology on the subsequent points of the process chain.

The »Gaia-X« initiative is developing an open source framework for a federated and secure data infrastructure that enables the trustworthy exchange of data and guarantees the digital sovereignty of data owners as well as the interoperability of different platforms. Using the example of a drone selection service for firefighting operations as part of the "GAIA-X 4 AMS" project, the demonstrator shows how new data-based business models can be enabled by data ecosystems based on Gaia-X and collaborative digital twins and how multiple partners can connect through Gaia-X data ecosystems.