29.06.2009
Fraunhofer: the biggest applied research organisation in Europe
Günter Helferich has won one of the three Joseph von Fraunhofer prizes (© Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft)
The engineer Günter Helferich has won one of the three 20,000 euro Joseph von Fraunhofer prizes awarded this year by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft for his new blast marking procedure to prevent the illicit copying of products. Helferich is one of 440 employees working at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) in Pfinztal near Karlsruhe. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft as a whole is “a successful bridgehead between science and business”, according to Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Science, Research and the Arts Prof. Peter Frankenberg speaking at last week’s 50-year jubilee of the ICT.
Germany has a total of 58 Fraunhofer Institutes - 14 of which are based in Baden-Württemberg. With around another 20 closely associated institutes, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is the biggest organisation for applied research in Europe. It has a total of 15,000 employees, most of which are educated and trained in the natural sciences or engineering. The Gesellschaft engages in research at a cost of 1.4 billion euros a year - one third of which is covered by basic finance provided by Germany’s national and state governments. Two thirds of the Gesellschaft's budget are derived from orders from industry and public sector customers. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (head office in Munich) has just celebrated its 60th anniversary and is so successful that it created around 1,400 new jobs in 2008 and is set to take on 600 more employees this year in its largely independent operational institutes.
The work of the ICT in Pfinztal near Karlsruhe focuses in particular on battery and fuel cell technology, airbag technology, the use of biomass, environmental simulations, lightweight construction, polymer technology and explosives research. This is also the home base of new price winner Helferich. His new blast marking procedure makes systematic use of blasts for the nano-structuring of steel surfaces. This enables injection moulding tools to be embossed so that products can be fitted with forgery-proof copy protection. Counterfeit products still continue to make up around ten per cent of the total volume of world trade. The new process could be used successfully to combat fake products.
Fraunhofer News: Explosives prevent technology theft
