Advanced Materials

The quality of a building is immediately dependent on the properties of the materials used to construct it. In the business unit "Advanced Materials" the Fraunhofer Building Innovation Alliance concentrates on the further development of classic materials as well as research on innovative construction materials and surface coatings. At the same time the appropriate manufacturing and processing technologies are developed and tested.

Service Range
The efficient use of materials and energy is as much a central aspect as is the development of environmentally friendly and non-hazardous building materials. In the area of quality assurance the Fraunhofer Building Innovation Alliance offers non-destructive testing methods and the development of testing systems. The service range also includes performance of system analyses and the analysis of requirements and generation of concepts for evaluation of the expected service life of the building materials. The Building Innovation Alliance thus covers the entire value creation chain of building materials development, from the concept to production and processing, all the way to recycling.

Open Field Testing
The Building Innovation Alliance is equipped with a state-of-the-art open field testing facility for long-term field tests, the largest of its kind in Europe. Here the durability of building materials can be investigated under realistic conditions and in original scale.

Sustainable Materials
In addition to improving the insulation properties of classic insulation materials such as polystyrene, research also focuses on the development of recyclable ecological construction foams made from renewable raw materials. Another focus area is the development of environmentally friendly fire retardants and innovative coating materials used in fire protection for the widest possible range of construction components.

Building Materials with Value Added - Application of Nanotechnologies in the Construction Industry
Nanotechnologies can be used to combine the conventional properties of classic building materials through targeted enhancement with additional characteristics. One example here is the use of phase change materials (PCM) to store heat in plaster systems and building facades.