Press releases

Cushioning for upholstery, mattresses and vehicle seats is made primarily from petroleum-based polyurethane foams. Fraunhofer researchers are replacing the conventional material with sustainable foams made from renewable resources that provide exceptional comfort for seating and sleep systems

How can plastic products be developed to be more sustainable, process-stable, and durable, even with increasing recycled content and demanding application conditions? From October 12–16, 2026, the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF will present solutions to these questions at FAKUMA in Friedrichshafen. The institute will be represented at the TecPart – Verband Technischer Kunststoff-Produkte e. V. joint booth in Hall A5, Booth A5-5106.

Safe hydrogen systems were the focus of the visit by Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, to the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF in Darmstadt. Following the presentation of the Hessian Peace Prize on September 18, 2026, he, along with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and the Armenian Ambassador to Germany, Viktor Yengibaryan, learned about the institute’s research and development expertise in the field of hydrogen technologies.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF and the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) have launched the “MultiCycCon” research project. They are investigating how repeated recycling affects the environmental stress cracking resistance of high-density polyethylene (PE-HD) used in safety-critical transport and hazardous materials containers. To this end, they will simulate real-world usage and recycling cycles in the laboratory and develop a rapid method for incoming inspection of PE-HD recyclate materials. The goal is to enable manufacturers, processors, and recyclers to specifically evaluate material quality in the future and use recycled materials more safely and economically.

In the “TERIS” project, the Fraunhofer institutes ICT, IGD, and IWM—led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF—have reached a decisive milestone. For the first time, the teams aim to generate, analyse, and predict tire wear in the laboratory in a standardized and practical manner. As part of this milestone, results are now available on reference abrasion, particle analysis, tribological models, AI-based surface analysis, a test bench concept, and methods for accelerated aging and VOC detection. The tire industry, testing services, and environmental agencies will in future benefit from reliable, rapid laboratory procedures for emissions assessment.

At the Phaeno Museum in Wolfsburg, a rotating billiard table impressively demonstrates the Coriolis force but previously caused significant noise. Vibration experts from the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF integrated Acoustic Black Holes beneath the rotating billiard table, achieving a noise reduction of approximately 13 decibels. ABH technology enhances visitors’ experience, represents a promising approach to reducing noise in various areas of life, and offers significant potential for other industries, such as mechanical engineering and transportation.

New findings from the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Circular Plastics Economy CCPE show how commercial PBSA/PLA blends can be specifically tailored through industrial processing methods to make them suitable for flexible film applications. This opens up concrete bio-based alternatives to petrochemical plastics.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF in Darmstadt enters 2026 with a comprehensive realignment. The aim is to offer end-to-end R&D services from a single source – from material selection and component evaluation to system integration, validation, and operational monitoring. To this end, the institute is combining material, structural, and system expertise with digital methods, AI, and digital twins, as well as strategies for circularity throughout the product life cycle. In this way, the Darmstadt-based researchers are helping industry partners bring safe, efficient, and durable products to market more quickly while using resources more efficiently.

Is it possible to recover plastic recyclates from previously unused waste streams in order to produce high-quality fibers and films? How can bio-based polymer fibers be manufactured so as to allow adjustable biodegradability? These are the questions being addressed by researchers from the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Circular Plastics Economy CCPE in the Zirk-Tex project. As an alternative to mechanical processes, they are jointly developing innovative recycling methods for the production of sustainable roof underlayments and geosynthetics. This involves the analysis of the entire value chain at pilot scale.

In recent years there have been major changes in the life cycle testing of vehicles or individual components: Thanks to the state-of-the-art testing technology today where a few hours in the laboratory are sufficient for life cycle testing - whereas previously test drives on the road would take a couple of weeks for this purpose. This development was clearly reflected at the UC17 Users Conference on Biaxial Wheel and Hub Fatigue Testing, held on November 5th, 2025, in Darmstadt. Around 50 scientists and users from Europe and all around the world met at the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF in Darmstadt. Thanks to a wide range of development and testing activities in the field of wheel testing and approval, the institute was able to establish itself as a technology leader. Today, its testing technology is recognized and accepted worldwide and has become an international standard for improving safety in the design of vehicle wheels and hubs. In addition, it significantly shortens development times for new, reliable, and safety-relevant products.