The Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA is getting a new building in Stuttgart-Vaihingen. Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Economic Affairs Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, together with Thomas Bauernhansl, Director of Fraunhofer IPA, and architect Stephan Birk, symbolically opened the construction site with a ground-breaking ceremony on September 27.
The ground-breaking ceremony marks the official start of construction work on the new Fraunhofer research building. Three research centers and a conference area will be brought together on the Birkhof site under the roof of Component V "Personalized Production". Fraunhofer IPA has been researching this topic of the future in various organizational units on the opposite site.
Response to the trend towards individualization and new digital business models
"The individualization and personalization of products will continue to grow in importance, particularly in saturated markets such as those found in Europe and the industrialized world. Companies are currently facing the challenge of producing these products economically using new technologies and processes. With this construction project, the state government of Baden-Württemberg, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Fraunhofer are enabling the expansion of Fraunhofer IPA's research in this field in terms of content and personnel," emphasizes Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism of Baden-Württemberg.
The new building, including the initial equipment, has an investment volume of around 37 million euros, half of which will be borne by the federal government and half by the state. The land on the Birkhof site is being provided by the state at a reduced ground rent.
"In addition to modern production technologies, cyber-physical systems (CPS) are enablers for the economic production of personalized goods, which in turn are equipped with cognitive intelligence. Thanks to their networking and distributed intelligence, they make it possible to master the high complexity of personalized production systems and processes," explains IPA Institute Director Professor Thomas Bauernhansl. IPA Institute Director Professor Alexander Sauer adds: "A central line of our research strategy is to develop technologies and structures for the industrial production of personalized products in quantities of 1 and to make them usable for companies. Additive manufacturing in particular, with its growing variety of processes and materials, opens up great potential as a key technology for personalized production."
These key competencies of personalized production are researched and implemented together with industry at the Center for Cyber Cognitive Intelligence (CCI), the Center for Cyberphysical Systems (ZCPS) and the Center for Additive Production (ZAP).
New building for radically user-oriented value creation
Now the three centers are coming together in one building. "The compact four-storey design with underground parking can meet the space requirements on an optimized footprint and conserves building land resources," explains Professor Stephan Birk from Birk Heilmeyer und Frenzel Architekten. The main entrance leads conference guests and employees into the prestigious foyer with atrium and cafeteria. This light-flooded area is adjoined by a conference room designed for 360 visitors. To the west of the inner courtyard, technical and office areas are arranged over three storeys with galleries. The pilot plants and laboratories are used for researching and demonstrating production processes. An indoor crane is provided for the installation and relocation of machines and robots.
Further laboratories of the research centers are located on the second floor. Two technical centers form the upper end. The workplaces of the scientific staff are located around the inner courtyard and on the north and south sides. Each of the three research centers is assigned a part of the upper floor. The new building is Fraunhofer IPA's second construction project on the Birkhof site, both of which follow the urban planning objectives. In 2018, Birk Heilmeyer and Frenzel Architekten won the tender for the new building component V Personalized Production. Planning began in 2019 and construction is now set to begin on schedule in late summer 2021.
