Press Releases

Thanks to synchrotron radiation, welding processes can be observed in greater detail than ever before – live and in real time! Researchers from Fraunhofer ILT and RWTH Aachen University – Chair for Laser Technology University are working at DESY to make vapor capillaries, melt movements and defects visible. Their findings optimize battery and microelectronics production and pave the way for the development of new materials.

The aerospace industry is undergoing profound change. Companies are facing the challenge of having to drastically shorten development cycles, develop more sustainable technologies and reduce costs, all at the same time. In addition, advances in satellite technology require new manufacturing approaches to make systems smaller, lighter and more powerful. While government space programs continue to play a major role here, private players such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Rocket Lab are driving the commercialization of space travel and setting new standards for efficiency and profitability: Competition has never been so fierce.

Battery production is at the heart of industrial and climate policy worldwide. Indeed, the demand for energy storage systems for electromobility and stationary applications is growing globally as is the importance of efficient, sustainable and regionally independent battery production.

In the face of advancing climate change, we drastically need to monitor and understand the various sources and sinks of greenhouse gases worldwide in real time. One focus to accomplish this is to regulate and monitor man-made methane emissions. Laser systems, as developed by researchers at Fraunhofer ILT, offer ways to do exactly this: At the heart of LIDAR instruments, they can precisely determine greenhouse gases in the atmosphere with high spatial and temporal resolution, even from great distances, and do so worldwide.

Electrode drying in the roll-to-roll process (R2R) has so far been one of the most cost- and CO2-intensive manufacturing steps in the production of lithium-ion batteries. A laser-based R2R drying process developed as part of the IDEEL research cooperation could change this in the future. It combines conventional, oven-based convection drying with laser drying using high-power diode lasers and reduces the drying time by more than 60 percent while maintaining the same quality of results.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT has a new managing director: On February 17, 2025, Dr. Jochen Stollenwerk took over as acting director of the institute. He succeeds Prof. Constantin Häfner, who headed Fraunhofer ILT from 2019 to 2025 and has now moved to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Munich as Director of Research and Transfer.

Whether they are needed for medical technology, telecommunications or aerospace: the demand for high-power lasers is increasing in many industrial sectors. Users are focusing on how cost-effective and stable the systems are. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT has now made significant progress in the development of efficient and stable high-power diode lasers. In principle, it has transferred the writing of fiber Bragg gratings from the world of fiber lasers to that of diode lasers. Dr. Sarah Klein developed the process as part of her dissertation and recently won 3rd place in the prestigious Hugo Geiger Prize.

On April 8 and 9, 2025, the UKP workshop will once again open its doors and bring together experts from industry and research at the venue DAS LIEBIG in Aachen. As the most important platform for material processing with ultrashort pulse lasers, this event not only offers visitors the latest insights into technological advances, but also a unique opportunity to discuss the latest applications and solutions.

In the HyCoFC research project, industry and research partners are working together to develop bipolar plates for durable, cost-effective and high-performance fuel cells, specifically for heavy-duty applications. The project is using innovative material combinations and the latest laser technologies to meet the strict requirements and demanding conditions in heavy-duty transportation. In this way, HyCoFC not only addresses sustainability in logistics, but also strengthens Germany as a business location and creates forward-looking solutions for the energy transition.

Just in time for the start of UNESCO's International Year of Quantum Science and Technology 2025, North Rhine-Westphalia is setting up the first node for the quantum internet of the future. A team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT brought the system developed with TNO in Delft in the Netherlands to Aachen in mid-January to test it here, develop it further and establish the first regional connections to Jülich and Bonn. The project is a milestone on the way to the “Quantum Technology State of NRW.”

The now firmly established “UKP Workshop“ brings together leading experts in ultrashort pulse laser technology every two years. On April 8 and 9, 2025, the 8th UKP Workshop will take place in Aachen, where specialists will present the latest developments in the field of ultrashort pulse laser technology. Around 20 international speakers will give presentations on practical applications and processes with USP lasers. This time, the focus will be on innovative beam shaping solutions specially optimized for different processes. These solutions open up new possibilities for laser-assisted processing in industries such as electronics, energy storage, glass processing and microelectronics.

Bipolar plates for fuel cells are mass produced every second. The forming tools used to manufacture them are milled from high-quality metal alloys that provide them with high wear resistance. In the National Action Plan for Fuel Cell Production (H2GO), the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen is breaking new ground: Instead of milling the tools from an expensive solid block, the institute is using extreme high-speed laser material deposition (EHLA) to apply wear-resistant functional layers to low-cost structural steel close to the final contour. This reduces costs, construction time and tool wear. The EHLA process can also be used to repair damaged and worn tools, thus making a significant contribution to the circular economy.

A new approach to beam shaping will soon make additive manufacturing more flexible and efficient: Fraunhofer ILT has developed a new platform that can be used to individually optimize laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processes. Customized beam profiles improve component quality, reduce material losses and enable previously impossible scaling of the build-up rate of the single beam process. Fraunhofer ILT will be presenting the test system, which is currently under construction, at Formnext in Frankfurt am Main from November 19 to 22.

High-power laser diodes are a key component for fusion power plants of the future. The joint project DioHELIOS sets out to boost their power and efficiency to a new level and to develop approaches for their automated mass production. This is because diode laser modules are required in large quantities for climate-neutral energy generation through laser-based inertial confinement fusion. Several companies and institutes are working together in the BMBF-funded project: ams-OSRAM, the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH), the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, Jenoptik, Laserline and TRUMPF.

An international research team led by QuTech has demonstrated a network connection between quantum processors over metropolitan distances. Their result marks a key advance from early research networks in the lab towards a future quantum internet. The team developed fully independently operating nodes and integrated these with deployed optical internet fibre, enabling a 25 km quantum link. The researchers published their findings in Science Advances.

To test complex brain functions during neurosurgical procedures, surgeons must operate on awake, locally anesthetized patients. This allows surgeons to interact with them and test how their intervention affects brain function. However, opening the skull while the patient is awake is extremely stressful for them psychologically. A new robot-assisted and optically precisely monitored laser procedure developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen is set to enable gentle, vibration-free and virtually silent craniotomies while the patient is awake. The bone tissue of the skull is ablated using short-pulse laser radiation.

“Doing instead of procrastinating”. This is the AI strategy presented by Prof. Constantin Haefner, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, at the “AKL’24 – International Laser Technology Congress” in Aachen, Germany. Experts at the institute are putting this pragmatic strategy into practice in the German-Canadian AI-SLAM project, for example, in which an AI tool for the automated laser cladding of wear parts for the mining industry is being developed.

Spinal canal stenosis – a bony narrowing of the spinal canal – can be agonizing. If it presses on the spinal cord, it comes to chronic pain and paralysis. Surgical intervention is often the only solution: In Germany alone, 111,000 cases are treated every year. However, since stenosis is close to the spinal cord, bony decompression, in which the constrictions are removed using high-speed milling, is risky. A robot-assisted, optically monitored laser procedure, which is currently in the pre-development stage at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen, could help to minimize the risk of such procedures in the future.

The European Commission's targets are ambitious: the ReFuelEU Aviation Regulation stipulates a 60 percent reduction in CO₂ emissions from aviation by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. A comprehensive EU Space Law (EUSL) is also planned, including rules on the sustainability of space activities. Aerospace companies are receiving support from the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen and its new additive manufacturing processes, which significantly reduce the ecological footprint and reduce production costs.

Additive Manufacturing, particularly metal 3D printing, has evolved from a promising technology to a serious constituent of industrial production. Industries such as plant engineering, aerospace, automotive and metalworking are facing a technological transformation that could have far-reaching implications for design, production and sustainability. Dr. Stefan Leuders, head of Technology & Innovation at voestalpine Additive Manufacturing Center GmbH, Düsseldorf, and Dr. Tim Lantzsch, head of Laser Powder Bed Fusion at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, Aachen, discuss the current trends in Additive Manufacturing (AM), analyze the opportunities and risks, and show which industries can particularly benefit.

On September 10 and 11, 2024, the 5th Laser Colloquium Hydrogen 2024 - LKH2 brought together around 60 renowned experts from industry, science and research. The now well-established conference is the ideal platform for discussing the latest developments and applications of laser technology for fuel cell and hydrogen production. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen, the two-day event focused on the continuous production of metallic bipolar plates, process monitoring and the functionalization of surfaces.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT will show experts from the hydrogen industry how advanced laser technologies are helping to pave the way for the breakthrough of hydrogen technology at the international trade fair and conference Hy-fcell, which will take place in Stuttgart on October 8 and 9, 2024. At stand 4E51 in hall 4, the Aachen-based institute will be demonstrating which innovations can meet the growing demand for hydrogen technology and how laser technology increases efficiency, reduces costs and improves the sustainability of fuel cell production.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT and Automatic-Systeme Dreher GmbH are presenting a groundbreaking innovation in the field of sheet metal processing at Euroblech 2024 from October 22 to 25 in Hanover, Germany: a demonstrator system for laser blanking that significantly increases process reliability and efficiency in production through the use of artificial intelligence.

A new ultrashort pulse (USP) laser beam source from TRUMPF, designed for industrial use, will significantly expand the range of applications of USP laser processes. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen will be systematically exploring the potential of this beam source with an average output of 1 kW in the coming months. Among other things, experiments are planned to optimize processes in battery and fuel cell production, toolmaking and semiconductor technology, as well as to test various beam guidance strategies. Many of these pilot applications have their origins in the Fraunhofer internal Cluster of Excellence Advanced Photon Sources (CAPS), to which 21 institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft belong.

Burrs on cut and punched edges of sheet metal increase the risk of injury and can often damage cables and scratch surfaces. For this reason alone, it makes sense to deburr such edges. If this is done by laser, not only can edges be selectively reinforced, but the fatigue strength of the components can be increased and the tendency to forming cracks reduced. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen will be presenting state-of-the-art laser deburring processes at the EuroBLECH trade fair in Hanover from October 22 to 25, 2024. Interested parties can also find out more about laser polishing of sheet metal at the stand in Hall 27 | D142.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT is supplementing its established Aachen “6th Conference on Laser Polishing LaP” on October 15 to 16, 2024 for the first time with a new conference, one that addresses the growing global interest in photonic process chains for the optics industry. The “1st Conference on Laser-based Optics Manufacturing LOM” will focus on laser-based manufacturing of complex optics and aim to boost the transfer of knowledge from research to industry. Laser-based optics manufacturing promises competitive advantages because it is cost-efficient, digitally controllable and also free of grinding dust and polishing agents.

The fifth Laser Colloquium Hydrogen - LKH2, organized by the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, will take place on September 10 and 11, 2024, Once more it will focus on promoting sustainable networking since no state, no company, no research institution can manage the transition to sustainable hydrogen production alone. That is why numerous experts from industry and research will again meet in Aachen to exchange ideas and develop solutions together. One of the highlights of this year's congress will be the presentation of the German-Australian HyGATE project.

How pharmaceuticals act, how efficient catalysts are and how effective and accurate printing inks function all depend on the size of the nanoparticles they contain. However, there are as of yet no methods for monitoring the particle size distribution during grinding processes. In the EU-funded PAT4Nano project, a consortium from industry and research has spent the last four years looking for practicable approaches for such inline measurements. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen has developed a promising laser-based method that could soon make such measurements possible.

Makino and the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT are using EHLA and EHLA3D to redefine the boundaries of Additive Manufacturing. By integrating EHLA3D into a five-axis CNC platform, they have developed a process that can efficiently produce, coat or repair complex geometries with high-strength materials. Result of the collaboration: shorter production times and extended component life in critical industries, while laying the foundations for future innovation in the circular economy.

It’s still just a plan, but a new telescope could soon be measuring gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are something like the sound waves of the universe. They are created, for example, when black holes or neutron stars collide. The future gravitational wave detector, the Einstein Telescope, will use the latest laser technology to better understand these waves and, thus, our universe. One possible location for the construction of this telescope is the border triangle of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.