The flat roofs of many buildings as well as some unused floors in some buildings could be used for hydroponic gardening. Aside needed space, the plants growing there could also rely on building‘s waste heat and cleaned waste water. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology (UMSICHT) are developing their solution… »
At present, insulation panels that are both thin and effective are expensive high-end products that are built into energy-saving refrigerators. In order to enable better and cost-effective insulation used in building construction, Fraunhofer researchers are developing vacuum isolation panels (VIPs) – short films for a material that will insulate homes without the need for significant… »
Spiders have inspired a group of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA to create a mobile robot which looks and moves as spiders. This high-tech assistant is still a prototype, but researchers envision its use as an exploratory tool in environments that are too hazardous or hardly reachable for humans…. »
Aside the difference in coloration, a layman might think every glass material is the same, but there is more than it meets the eye in this transparent material. Glass can consist of up to 60 different elements, and experts are constantly creating glass with properties required in some application. Researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for… »
Sitting in a cozy sidewalk cafe, watching passersby and enjoying a chocolate-cream éclair – for many of us, this is a portrait of a relaxation, but the bakers who make the éclairs out of pastry dough inside our favorite home made bakery have to use a special machine that they operate by hand. Researchers have… »
Researchers at Fraunhofer are combining two different techniques – 3D printing technology established in rapid prototyping and multiphoton polymerization developed in polymer science – in order to create artificial blood vessels. Aside creating artificial blood vessels that could be used to could supply artificial tissue, the technology could be a starting point for creation of… »
Certain biological materials exhibit exceptional strength due to their complex structure which has been perfected through time. Inspired by the perfected structures found in nature, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute are collaborating on a project named Bionic Manufacturing. It aims to develop plastic products that are lightweight and strong, while being economic in their use… »
A while ago we wrote about folks from Fraunhofer who came up with active packaging that increases shelf life of spoilable products, and their colleagues came up with a way to indicate whether the food on the shelf is already spoiled due to errors which could occur before the food is packaged, or due to… »
