Business units: Research and development for real applications

Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM

© Fraunhofer IWM

Business units

Research and development activities at the Fraunhofer IWM are organized into eight business units where similar project topics are grouped together.

Services

Our services range from consultations, studies, tests and investigations related to material, process and component developments.

We tailor our service, research and development projects to the needs of the client – businesses and public institutes - and develop customized solutions for different issues related to the use and processing of materials and components.

We deliver innovative know-how to small and medium-sized companies that lack their own R&D departments.

We take a comprehensive approach to our work: the project team is always put together according to the competencies needed for the topic. The latest findings in the fields of materials science and materials technology are then used to develop long-term, practical solutions to real problems for our clients - mainly on the issues of safety, reliability, lifetime and functionality.

The Fraunhofer IWM’s research activities go above and beyond pure contract research. The funding provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research makes it possible for us to carry out independent preliminary research in fields of technology that will be extremely important in future. The findings made over the course of this research then form the basis for cooperation with business, e.g. in order to develop new applications or open up new markets.

Forms of cooperation

Industrial projects and contract research
We carry out many of our projects directly on behalf of industrial clients. These projects involve the entire range of services that we can provide: from feasibility studies, analyses and assessments to product and system optimization, damage analysis and damage avoidance or process developments.

Publically funded joint projects
We develop, organize and coordinate both national and international project consortia as part of publically funded research activities. We work together with scientific and industrial partners to develop, assess, simulate and develop materials, components and processes.

Strategic preliminary research
Fundamental and preliminary research provides the basis for the research we carry out on behalf of our clients. The Fraunhofer IWM carries out numerous research projects on behalf of the German Research Foundation (DFG), trade associations or other foundations. The institute is also actively involved in Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft inter-institute preliminary research programs. These include market-oriented strategic preliminary research and business-oriented strategic alliances.