Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST
Editorial
Dear reader,
With the year drawing to a close, you are today receiving our fourth newsletter. It is with profound sadness that we must inform you of the passing of our founding father and long-standing institute director, Prof. Dr. Heinz Dimigen. Over the decades, his visionary thinking and extraordinary commitment had a decisive influence not only on the Fraunhofer IST, but also on the development of surface technology. We mourn the loss of an outstanding scientist and manager; a man who was consistently loyal to his colleagues, who left his mark and whose memory will always be cherished at our institute. Our sincere condolences go out to his family.
In this newsletter, we report on the launch of the “Fraunhofer Innovation Platform” in Taiwan. In collaboration with Feng Chia University, we are working on the development of cross-sector technological solutions in the field of surface and production technology - in particular for optical and electrical systems.
In our “Answered” section, you can find out how the service life and performance of batteries can be further improved whilst simultaneously minimizing the environmental impact. Furthermore, Dr. Andreas Geißler from the TU Darmstadt and Dr. Jörn Appelt from the Thünen Institute of Wood Research as well as Dr. Kristina Lachmann and Martin Bellmann from the Fraunhofer IST explain how, in the future, plant-based constituents could contribute towards the production of sustainable packaging materials made from paper.
In conclusion, we would like to draw your attention to two events taking place at our premises next year: In collaboration with our cooperation partner PLASUS GmbH, the Fraunhofer IST is hosting a workshop on the 21st and 22nd of January on the topic of “Process Control in Production Lines - Latest Developments and Future Trends”. On the 25th and 26th of June 2025, the International Conference on Fundamentals and Industrial Applications of HIPIMS will take place at our institute.
We hope that this issue will provide inspiring reading, and we wish you a relaxing festive season and a healthy and successful New Year.
The Editorial Team