Fraunhofer – patent forge
Fraunhofer’s experts in application-oriented research work closely with industry.
Following the maxim “We invent the future”, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has become Europe’s largest application-oriented developer of new technologies. Founded in 1949, the organisation with 23,000 employees and 66 institutes is developing virtually all the technologies that will enter private households and industry in the near future.
Projects range from contactless charging stations for electric cars and redox flow batteries to storage systems for wind and solar electricity and industrial robots with a soft grip that can hold ripe tomatoes without damaging them. Fraunhofer Institutes produce an average of three new inventions every working day. One highlight was the mp3 coding format for compressing audio data. Because it requires minimal storage it has conquered the Internet. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is active worldwide with subsidiaries, offices and joint ventures in nine European, two North American, two South American, seven Asian and three African and Arab countries as well as in Australia.
