Germany’s Fraunhofer Institutes have been churning out a fascinating collection of announcements this year that showcase the group’s ability to successfully span the research-demonstration-deployment worlds. Deservedly, a lot of countries are looking at Fraunhofer’s ability to blend science, engineering and manufacturing in ways the leverage lots of both government and private sector support.
For example, Fraunhofer’s ceramics wing recently touted pump components that use an instituted-developed diamond-ceramic composite, its machine tools and forming branch demonstrated digital projector lenses using flat arrays of glass microlenses, and a credit card size platform that uses magnetic nanoparticles to detect sepsis was shown off by its Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology.
In reality, each of these examples involved a lot of joint work among various institutes that fall under Fraunhofer’s substantial umbrella.
Besides Fraunhofer, there are several other major research organizations (e.g. the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers) and schools that are really leaving a major imprint on the world of ceramics, glass and other materials.
All of the above is just a teaser for the next (January-February) issue of the Bulletin magazine of the American Ceramic Society. Our annual “international” issue, the January-February magazine will feature a survey of ceramics science and industry in Germany and examines some of the factors of why that sector of the nation continues to have strong performance.