Consortium

The Fraunhofer Institute for Materials Recycling and Resource Strategy IWKS develops circular materials and materials science technologies for an ultimate sustainable, waste-free circular economy. In close cooperation with universities, other Fraunhofer institutes and industrial partners, we research the substitution of critical raw materials with more sustainable alternatives and develop solutions for the intelligent regeneration of future-oriented materials as well as their energy-efficient recovery as sustainable precursors for production.

As part of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, our goal is to make research findings applicable to industrial companies. Together with our partners, we thus make a valuable contribution to a transformation of industry and a healthy planet.

Around 400 employees, experts and specialists from various disciplines, at the Fraunhofer LBF and the associated Department of System Reliability and Machine Acoustics at the TU Darmstadt contribute their combined know-how to interdisciplinary research and project work. With the aim of designing, evaluating and modeling processes for reliable products, LBF scientists are continuously developing new solutions with regard to the development of efficient design, simulation and assurance tools, methods for controlling uncertainties along the value chain, and sustainable solutions for plastics.

Research focus

The Fraunhofer LBF team develops innovative solutions along the entire value chain, from the material and its processing, through the realization of the finished component and the complex system, to qualification with regard to safety and reliability. In the six performance fields of Digital Engineering, Smart Solutions, Reliability Design, Circular Economy, Ultra Lightweight Design and Future Mobility, the researchers develop solutions from product design to verification.

Due to its expertise, the Fraunhofer LBF's focus within the performance center is on evaluating the safety and reliability of H2 systems as well as on optimizing and evaluating the service life of materials and components in contact with H2.