Fraunhofer IPA maintains close contacts with research institutions and companies in the Far East. On July 25, 2022, the cooperation with Sugino Machine Limited officially began at a symposium.
The Japanese mechanical engineering company SUGINO has entered into a strategic partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. Over the next two years, employees from IPA and Sugino will conduct joint research in the Centers for Dispersion Technology and Particle Technology. The focus: the industrial processing of biopolymers. "Sugino has excellent expertise in the production of pastes and slurries for coating materials and storage technology, as well as in the processing of biopolymers," explains Ivica Kolaric, Head of the Process Industry Business Unit at Fraunhofer IPA. "This cooperation offers the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained in research and implement it profitably. This know-how can also support regional users in particular, for example in the approval and certification of new systems."
Fraunhofer IPA bundles the existing expertise in this area of surface technology in the Center for Dispersion Technology. With its comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach, the center covers the entire process chain of dispersion technology, from the development of scientific principles through to industrial application. The scientists conduct research, for example, into the safety of processes and systems and into energy and resource efficiency. Dr. Marc Entenmann, Head of the Centre for Dispersion Technology, comments: "As a cooperation partner, Sugino symbiotically complements our expertise in surface technology".
In this cooperation project, the IPA scientists support Sugino in the development of their applications and offer their support in the design of the overall process and also in the selection of the right materials. This means that important factors such as the degree of automation, energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness are taken into account from the outset and controlled during development.
This cooperation project has also renewed the collaboration between Fraunhofer IPA and the most important research institution for applied research in Japan, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Kansai (AIST Kansai) in Japan. At the opening symposium, key AIST representatives and scientists spoke about the collaboration, biopolymers and polymer processing.
