Achieving more together. This motto also applies in the research and development community and is the basic idea of all performance centres throughout Germany. Universities and Fraunhofer Institutes in a region cooperate in these centres in order to work on joint research projects on a defined topic. The results are then transferred into concrete applications together with mostly regional companies. In the Smart Production performance center, where the Fraunhofer Institutes for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (IWU) and Electronic Nanosystems (ENAS) in Chemnitz have been cooperating with the Technical University of Chemnitz since mid-2017, developments ranging from materials research to intelligent production through sensor integration and adaptive toolmaking have been driven forward.

In order to further expand the potential of the interdisciplinary cooperation, the performance center, entitled "Smart Production and Materials", started the second funding phase with an expanded consortium on July 1, 2019. The new partners, the Fraunhofer Institutes for Material and Beam Technology (IWS) and Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) as well as the Technical University of Dresden, are expanding the performance centre both regionally to the Saxon state capital and its surroundings, and technically by adding their expertise in materials science. Accordingly, the cooperative scientific projects in this phase concentrate on two main topics: The first is additive generative manufacturing, including a wide variety of materials (e.g. plastics, metals, ceramics and selected composites) and the second is the expansion of intelligent production technology, which focuses both on increased data acquisition and its use through the integration of sensors and actuators and on the digitisation and networking of production processes. The overriding goal remains the transfer of knowledge into the practice of innovative companies, from start-ups to global players.

Further information can be found at: http://leistungszentrum-smart-production.de/

Contact:

Jana Tittmann-Otto
Fraunhofer Institut für Werkzeugmaschinen und Umformtechnik
Reichenhainer Straße 88, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany
Telefon: +49 371 5397-1176

www.iwu.fraunhofer.de