Fraunhofer

Robots to Clear the Sea Bed of Plastic

86 million metric tons of plastics end up in the oceans every year, with devastating consequences for marine life, nature and, ultimately, for us humans. The vast floating patches of plastic carpeting the water's surface, some as large as entire countries, are only the tip of the iceberg. Around 90 percent of this garbage ends up on the seabed.

Wood Based Biopaste for 3D Printing

A viscous biopaste that is easy to process, solidifies quickly and is suitable for producing even complex structures using the 3D printing process has been developed. The wood-based biodegradable synthetic could potentially be used in lightweight construction, amongst other things.

New Solar Energy Optics

Finnish technology company ICS has developed a unique technology platform and a film solution providing a 5-10% increase in energy output for conventional solar modules - and even higher gains for more advanced applications.

Mobile Robot Cleaner Takes Production Hygiene to a Higher Level

Production lines and hygiene zones have to be spotlessly clean. And absolute cleanliness is critical wherever food is processed and medical instruments are handled. Now researchers have come up with a mobile cleaning device that sanitizes equipment and production spaces standards in a reproducible way.

TRUMPF

TRUMPF develops additive manufacturing solutions for metal parts. The company has developed systems utilising two different laser technologies: laser metal fusion (LMF) and laser metal deposition (LMD).

Ynvisible Expands Its Printed Electrochromics Offering

Ynvisible Interactive Inc has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. The license agreement covers RISE's intellectual property rights for printed electrochromic displays and related inks.

Thermal Management for EV/HEV 2020

Thermal Management for EC/HEV 2020 was presented online on 02 Jun 2020. The event included talks from three companies in the electric vehicle industry.

Volterion

Volterion is a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute of Oberhausen in Germany. The company has developed a novel weldable, innovative, flexible bipolar graphite electrodes that result in compact, and lightweight electrode stacks.

Materials Zone

Materials Zone are a platform technology for connected research data. IDTechEx interviewed their Co-founder and CTO Barak Sela.

Solar Energy Solutions for Facades

Photovoltaic elements are usually found on rooftops - after all, that's where solar irradiation is highest. However, as researchers have discovered, PV elements on facades can be a useful way to supplement the power supply. If appropriately designed, they can be attractively integrated and deliver 50 percent more energy than existing types of wall-mounted PV elements. Even concrete walls are suitable.

Therapies Without Drugs

Researchers are investigating the potential of microimplants to stimulate nerve cells and treat chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes, or Parkinson's disease.

WEVO

Wevo develops and produces resin systems, primarily for use in electrical and electronic equipment, and in particular for automotive electronics.

Teaching Tomorrow's Automobiles to Hear

Modern cars already feature a range of sophisticated systems such as remote-controlled parking, automatic lane-departure warning and drowsiness recognition. In the future, self-driving cars will also have auditory capabilities. Researchers have now developed a prototype system capable of recognizing external noises such as sirens.

A Wearable Exoskeleton from the PowerGrasp Project

In automobile production, industrial robots and production lines largely relieve people of having to work with heavy loads. This is not the case for people who work in a trade or in care, where the body can be heavily burdened by hard work. In the PowerGrasp project, a second skin provides additional strength.

Quantum Dots: The Long Road Towards Emissive QLEDs

In this article, IDTechEx highlight the trends, challenges, and innovation opportunities, shedding light on the likely technology roadmap towards QLED.

Hanergy Collapse: Significance for EV and Photovoltaic Industry

Hanergy is a large Chinese company. In past years, it has been in trouble for allegedly false accounting but it has been a global leader in flexible and thin film photovoltaics including GaAs and copper indium gallium diselenide CIGS and it has its own advanced silicon photovoltaics PV.

Fraunhofer IOF

IDTechEx met with Fraunhofer IOF at CES 2020 and saw a demonstration of their video based health monitoring system.