During the long development history of mechanical engineering, engineers have substantially exhausted the traditional methods of reducing friction. Further optimisations are mostly just a matter of a few per cent. Innovative coatings made of diamond-like, shiny black carbon compounds can now exploit their advantages. They combine extraordinary lubricity with anti-adhesive properties, chemical stability and extreme material hardness. In the Pegasus research project, scientists from research and industry are working on their large-scale use for drive trains in vehicles.  more...

With a new, tiltable rotary drum refining furnace, an industrial enterprise has succeeded in melting more copper at once. This also reduces the emissions from dioxins and other organic pollutants. The technical trials and the development of the energy efficient furnace were funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment as a demonstration project within its Environmental Innovation Programme.  more...

47 per cent of the net electricity consumed in Germany is used by industry. Particularly in automation technology, robot arms would not move without drive energy and heavy components would remain at a standstill in the production. A potential study recommends new solutions for energy optimised system operations. The intention is to increase the energy productivity of the electrical and pneumatic drive technology by up to 50 per cent.  more...

As part of the research project "Green Logistics Target Costing", the International Performance Research Institute (IPRI) has developed a software tool and a guideline for "green" low-emission logistics. The results of the project will allow the chemical industry and engineering companies to take the CO2 emissions in logistics into consideration during product development, and to organise logistics processes based on cost information.  more...

A special purpose project company founded by Fels-Werke GmbH from Goslar in Germany has won the Innovation Award for Climate and Environment for a process that uses lime to produce pure synthesis gas from pollutant-rich waste and biomass. The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology provided 4.5 million euros of support for this project. Since 2009, this award has been honouring concepts from Germany that contribute to climate and environmental protection and, at the same time, strengthen the country as a business location.  more...

Four federal ministries have jointly determined how they want to promote research in the next few years that contributes to "an environmentally sound, reliable and affordable energy supply". The 6th Energy Research Programme, which was adopted in 2011 in Berlin, replaces its predecessor from 2005. The plan intends to increase the German government´s annual funding budget to one billion euros by 2014.  more...

Carbide is an important base material for production of fertilisers, manufacturing raw iron und in other products for the chemical industry. A chemical company from Southern Germany has developed a new process which allows plastic waste to be used to produce carbide. The carbon in the plastics is used in the carbide synthesis. That means that part of the black materials coke and coal used for the production can be replaced by the secondary raw material SCS (=synthetic carbon sources).  more...

The meter reader never rings the doorbell anymore. The Smart Meter sends the consumption data to the office by e-mail in real time. This intelligent meter is the starting point for the interactive network. The new standardised devices can do far more than calculate consumption totals. They act as control and information nodes. They allow the latest consumption data to be used to control machinery and electricity generation systems according to the supply of electricity and the grid load. They are essential if variable tariffs are to be used.  more...

In future, superconductors will allow extremely efficient, compact and light-weight wind energy generators to be built, with the same performance as corresponding permanent magnet machines but which are only half their size. At the same time they can decrease the use of rare earths significantly for the expansion of wind energy. The "Life Needs Power" energy forum at the Hanover Trade Fair discussed how the pending scarcity of these raw materials could slow the expansion of wind energy. In his presentation, Dr. Michael Bäcker (Zenergy Power GmbH) explained the solutions second-generation superconductors offer.  more...

Food packaging: It should be colourful, lifelike and economic, whereby the inks play a central role. They must be quickly applied to the cardboard and film and be suitable for foodstuffs. A clean solution is to cure the ink using an electron beam within a few tenths of a second. However, flexographic printing requires that new inks, printing plates and machines are precisely matched to the nearest millimetre. Four companies have developed a machine that requires just a sixth of the energy used in previous printing processes.  more...