Fraunhofer IPA

We produce the future: sustainable, personalized, and smart

Fraunhofer IPA is one of the largest institutes of the Fraunhofer Society and was founded in 1959. The Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation employs approximately 1,000 people. Its research and development activities focus on organizational and technological challenges in production.

Methods, components, and devices, right through to complete machines and systems, are developed, tested, and used as examples at the IPA. The 15 specialist departments at Fraunhofer IPA cover the entire field of production engineering and are coordinated by six business units. The institute works on an interdisciplinary basis with industrial companies in the automotive, mechanical and plant engineering, electronics and microsystems technology, energy, medical and biotechnology, and process industries.

Key issues and future topics of the IPA

• battery manufacturing
• Bio-intelligent value creation
• Digital transformation
• Frugal production systems
• Circular economy and climate-neutral production
• Artificial intelligence for production
• Lightweight construction and functional coatings
• Mass personalization
• Cleanliness in production
• Resilient value creation
• Robot technologies and services
• Technologies for human-centered production