Fraunhofer

Two of the problems with traditional plastics are the facts that they're made from non-renewable petroleum, and they stick around for centuries once discarded. A new alternative, however, is made from existing waste, and should biodegrade in a year.

A new breakthrough could overcome some of the problems around recycling cotton clothing, with scientists demonstrating a new technique that converts cotton into a yarn suitable for the mass manufacture of textiles

Researchers claim they've come up with the world's first manufactured non-cuttable material, just 15 percent the density of steel and impervious to drills or angle grinders. They say it could make for indestructible bike locks and lightweight armor.

If you're preparing food on an automated production line, then that line had better be clean. A new autonomous robot was designed with this in mind, as it actually learns how to clean better over time.

Engineers at the Fraunhofer Italia Innovation Engineering Center (IEC) in Bolzano, Italy, are developing software that would enable a robot assistant to carry out autonomous logistics tasks on construction sites.

It sounds counterintuitive to put solar cells indoors, but there’s light energy inside that’s largely going to waste. Now a team of engineers has created flexible perovskite solar cells with the highest efficiency of any indoor flexible solar cells.

If there's one way of getting automobiles to use less gas, it's by lowering their weight. With that in mind, European researchers have now created a plastic camshaft module, which they claim offers more advantages than simply being lightweight.

Although many aspects of the automobile manufacturing process are now automated, the inspection of welds is still typically performed by humans. A new robotic system should make the checking of those welds easier and more accurate than ever before.

While dashboard-integrated trays are useful for storing items such as sunglasses, they can also add to a sense of in-car clutter. With this in mind, German scientists have created a tray that flattens into the dash when not required.

When two interlocking parts of a product are joined together in a factory, they typically make a satisfying "click" sound. By listening for such noises, a newly-developed system can detect when faults have occurred on robotic assembly lines.

A company spun off from the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems is looking commercialize a micro loudspeaker made from 100 percent silicon. After successful seed funding, Arioso Systems GmbH is now ready to take the technology to market.

While we're used to seeing buildings with photovoltaic panels on their roofs, the fronts of those buildings are typically panel-free. German researchers are working on putting that space to use, with facade-based solar panels.