Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA

The Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA develops, tests and implements components, devices and methods, up to entire machines and manufacturing plants. The nearly 1 000 employees in 15 departments are coordinated via six business units, which together conduct interdisciplinary innovation projects with automotive, machinery and equipment industry, electronics and microsystems, energy, medical engineering and biotechnology as well as process industry.

Fraunhofer IPA supports the regional industry to successfully operate in a global competitive environment. The research focus is on the cost-effective production of sustainable and personalised products. We are putting this ethos into practice together with our partners in the framework of flagship projects such as the ultra-efficient factory, FastStorageBW, the Center Lightweight Engineering, and the Center Smart Materials. Customised products in batch size 1 at mass manufacturing cost become a reality. The factory of the future for functionally integrated lightweight automotive construction, ARENA2036 and others like the Campus Personalised Production provide the excellent open innovation infrastructure for joint research with the industry, in particular SME.

“Smart” machines, tools, parts and orders all interact with each other in near real time via the internet. Our focus is on such cyber-physical production processes. We are integrating solutions into existing systems, from Lean Management to “Industrie 4.0”.