Digitalization in industrial manufacturing Automated assembly operations are a key to success. They enable stable manufacturing, high precision manufacturing and greater responsiveness to market demands. The Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF’s innovative digital instrumentation and information networks are increasing the transparency of aircraft manufacturer Airbus’s manufacturing operations and optimizing collaboration between humans and machines. Was the cabin door delivered on schedule? Does it have the same temperature as the fuselage? And did its installation go as planned?…
Researchers at TU Graz have found a way to convert the aromatic substance vanillin into a redox-active electrolyte material for liquid batteries. The technology is an important step towards ecologically sustainable energy storage. “It is ground-breaking in the field of sustainable energy storage technology,” says Stefan Spirk from the Institute of Bioproducts and Paper Technology at Graz University of Technology. He and his team have succeeded in making redox-flow batteries more environmentally friendly by replacing their core element, the liquid…
Smart solutions for production facilities The volatile output of electricity from wind farms and photovoltaic plants can pose a real headache for energy companies. This is because of the need to maintain a stable supply of power at all times, even when such facilities are generating little or no electricity. Part of the solution to this problem is to adapt the power consumption of production plants to the fluctuating output from wind and solar generation. Researchers from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have…
Ecofriendly plastic alternative A new type of plastic made of reclaimed waste readily degrades in less than a year. The substance that will soon serve to manufacture and break down mainly disposable products in an ecofriendly way goes by the name of polyhydroxybutyrate. This innovative material can be produced on an industrial scale in a new process developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology IPK and its partners. Everyday life devoid of plastics – that would…
Mobile radar device pinpoints signs of life When someone is buried by an avalanche, earthquake or other disaster, a rapid rescue can make the difference between life and death. The Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR has developed a new kind of mobile radar device that can search hectare-sized areas quickly and thoroughly. The new technology combines greater mobility with accurate detection of vital signs. Some regions of the world record hundreds of earth tremors a…
The case of the cluster anemones If you dive in the Mediterranean Sea, the cluster anemone is among the most fascinating and magnificent corals you could see. You can find it on rocks or sponges, in scarcely lit areas such as sea caves and gorges, where it clusters in dense agglomerations resembling yellow and orange carpets. In a study published in Scientific Reports, a research group of the University of Bologna found evidence that some corals commonly labelled as “cluster…
Researchers at the University of Bath in the UK and biopharma company UCB have found a way to produce miniaturised antibodies, opening the way for a potential new class of treatments for diseases. Until now, the smallest manmade antibodies (known as monoclonal antibodies, or mAbs) were derived from llamas, alpacas and sharks, but the breakthrough molecules isolated from the immune cells of cows are up to five times smaller. This is thanks to an unusual feature of a bovine antibody known as…
An international team led by current and former McMaster University researchers has developed an artificial lung to support pre-term and other newborn babies in respiratory distress. The group has proven the concept using a live piglet, a major step along the route toward approval for use in humans, where the portable device could save many lives and prevent catastrophic damage by taking up some of the placenta’s role in oxygenating the blood until babies are able to breathe independently. “This…
Innovative coating for bipolar plates in fuel cells. Electric cars which can be filled up within five minutes, reach ranges like a diesel and yet drive “cleanly”: This is already being achieved by hydrogen fuel cell vehicles today. However, so far they are still rare and expensive. Apart from efficiency problems, this is due, among other things, to one core component: Gold-coated bipolar plates (BiP) in fuel cells are expensive and complex to manufacture. The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and…
University of Southampton scientists investigating ways of removing carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases from our atmosphere believe volcanic ash could play an important role. A team from the University’s School of Ocean and Earth Science has modelled the impact of spreading volcanic ash from a ship to an area of ocean floor to help amplify natural processes which lock away CO2 in the seabed. They found the technique has the potential to be cheaper, technologically simpler and less…
An African millet crop could be improved for growth in the dry, arid lands of Saudi Arabia by using information about its genome. Fonio is already well-adapted to this environment but has not had as much domestication as the major cereal crops, such as wheat, rice and maize. Gene targeting could lead to higher yields and larger grains. “The Arabian Peninsula is home to 80 million people and needs to import 90 percent of its food,” says KAUST plant scientist,…
Possible link to the Pleistocene epoch, the period of the Ice Ages? When the brightness of the star Betelgeuse dropped dramatically a few months ago, some observers suspected an impending supernova – a stellar explosion that could also cause damage on Earth. While Betelgeuse has returned to normal, physicists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have found evidence of a supernova that exploded near the Earth around 2.5 million years ago. The life of stars with a mass more…
Dresden researchers develop a new method and discover new features of primary cilia – little understood antenna-like structures protruding from cells. Cells sense their environment and send signals to other cells to function properly. The responsible “organ” to perform these functions is the cilium, an antenna-like structure protruding from most vertebrate cells. There are two types of cilia: motile and non-motile cilia. While motile cilia have been studied extensively, the three-dimensional architecture and molecular composition of non-motile cilia, also called…
Metha-Cycle decouples wind power from electricity demand Chemists at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT) in Rostock are able to produce hydrogen from methanol under mild conditions of less than one hundred degrees Celsius and ambient pressure, with the yield and purity required for fuel cells. To achieve this, they optimized a proprietary process that they had published in NATURE at the time. The catalytic reaction is at the heart of the Metha-Cycle project, a concept for the storage and…
In birds and other species alike, pairs can face considerable difficulties with reproduction. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen have now shown in an extensive analysis of 23,000 zebra finch eggs that infertility is mainly due to males, while high embryo mortality is more a problem of the females. Inbreeding, age of the parents and conditions experienced when growing up had surprisingly little influence on reproductive failures. Zebra finches are small songbirds that originate from Australia….
Next-generation batteries using lithium-rich materials could be more sustainable and cost-effective, according to a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. The pivotal discovery, which aims to improve the understanding of advanced materials for transportation and grid storage, was published in the article, “Harbinger of hysteresis in lithium-rich oxides: Anionic activity or defect chemistry of cation migration,” on June 24 in the Journal of Power Sources. “Lithium-rich oxides offer the possibility of more sustainable and cost-effective options over…
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