Fraunhofer IPA celebrates 60th anniversary
The Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA forges links between science and practice. This is to be celebrated in 2019: 60 years ago – on July 1, 1959 – the institute in Stuttgart started its work.
“Just how valuable Fraunhofer is for the German innovation system can be seen from the fact that other countries such as Brazil, Great Britain and the USA are setting up organisations with similar structures to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft,” says IPA Institute Director Professor Thomas Bauernhansl. As the largest production technology institute of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Fraunhofer IPA not only aims to deal with current topics, it also wants to set trends. “Especially in the automotive and mechanical engineering state of Baden-Württemberg, we are in demand to play a pioneering role. In Industry 4.0, i.e. digital transformation, we were able to play a leading role. We will also be involved right from the start in the biological transformation, which is becoming increasingly important,” said Bauernhansl.
International networking as an important pillar
The Fraunhofer IPA employs 700 scientists. In addition to the branch offices and project groups in Bayreuth, Mannheim and Reutlingen, Germany, the Fraunhofer IPA also maintains branches of different size and structure in Austria, Hungary and Japan, each coupled with universities. The most recent international presence of the Fraunhofer IPA is currently being established in Shanghai /Lingang, one of China’s leading science and technology regions. The Project Center for Smart Manufacturing, a cooperation with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, implements research projects on digital transformation together with industrial partners.
Strengthening Stuttgart as a business location
The institute wants to grow not only internationally, but also locally. “IPA 100 in the next two to three years is a realistic target for us. That means 100 million euros in sales per year – an increase of more than a third compared to today. In order to implement this, existing structures must be adapted, new structures set up and, above all, the employees taken along,” says Professor Fritz Klocke, who has been supporting the Fraunhofer IPA management since July 2018.
