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Do you often drive over bridges? Even over those made of steel and reinforced concrete? Have you ever wondered how these or other steel structures are maintained? Fraunhofer IKTS, SURAGUS GmbH and dresden elektronik jointly developed the mobile Barkhausen Noise Analyzer, a pilot system for quality control of structural steel, for this purpose.

Thanks to heatable pavement slabs, annoying snow-shoveling will soon be a thing of the past.

The proportion of electronic components in cars is constantly increasing. Without reliable electronics, there will be no safety and comfort in road traffic in the future. Examples of innovative vehicle functions are automated driving and infotainment. In addition, there are new drive systems such as hybrid and electric motors and all-encompassing interconnection. In order to assess the suitability of semiconductor components of the latest technologies, the challenges must be identified and solution approaches evaluated. Nanoanalytics provides a powerful toolkit for this purpose.

Generation Y. I belong to this generation. Some things are imputed to us. A much quoted statement is: We are becoming more environmentally conscious again. In all areas of my life I also try to use natural products and pay attention to the environment.This is particularly important to me in the field of cosmetics, because everyone, including you, uses cosmetics every day. And that is not little: just pause for a moment and think about how many cosmetic products you yourself own and use every day. This is exactly why I prefer natural cosmetics to conventional cosmetics.

In this German video Dr. Matthias Ahlhelm introduces himself and his research area at Fraunhofer IKTS. Shaping and degradable materials, such as ceramic biomaterials, play a decisive role. Matthias Ahlhelm gives you a brief insight into how he and his colleagues produce personalized bone implants from biomaterials in a combination of 3D printing and freeze foaming.

Beautiful, modern, ecological, economical, decentralized! This is how the acronym "smood" – the living of the future – could also be described. But actually "smood" stands for "smart neighborhood". This refers to living and working in a building-intelligent, environmentally friendly neighborhood surrounded by "green energy". Because it is precisely this "green energy" that is the core of "smood".

Offshore wind farms are among the most reliable renewable energy sources. A turbine consists of four main sections: the rotor section, tower, transition piece with working platform and the foundation structure. The foundation structure anchors the turbine stably in the seabed. Bianca Weihnacht and her interdisciplinary team monitor the condition of the foundation structure under water automatically in real time with their ultrasonic sensor system. This enables them to detect and localize cracks in the weld seam between the transition piece and the foundation structure at an early stage. How exactly? Bianca Weihnacht will tell you in a short video and interview.

The employee portrait on Tuesday. In our #diensttalk segment, employees give a small glimpse behind the scenes of Europe's largest institution for ceramics research and reveal what drives them in their research.

The "Plataforma Solar de Almería" in Andalusia is the world's largest research centre for high-temperature solar technology. This is where the EU project CAPTure (Competitive Solar Power Towers) takes place. As part of the project IKTS researcher Dr. Alexander Füssel develops ceramic components for solar tower power plants. In an interview, he explains how, with which materials and which advantages result from this.

Europe's energy supply is undergoing a fundamental transformation: away from nuclear and fossil fuels and towards renewable energy sources. Especially in the field of energy efficiency, thermoelectrics can offer easily implementable and customizable solutions. Will thermoelectrics prevail as a future technology and find a broader application in industry? We asked our expert in thermoelectrics Dr. Hans-Peter Martin about this.