As an innovative and internationally recognized partner for research and development, the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST develops future-oriented products – including the associated competitive and scalable production systems. Our research encompasses plant engineering, entire process chains of process engineering, process technology and manufacturing technology all the way through to the consideration of entire factories. Taking the requirements of sustainability as a starting point, we maintain an overview of the entire product life cycle – from the material, through the process of creating the component and product, and on to recycling. In interdisciplinary teams and based on our technology and competence fields, we offer our customers from industry and research tailored and sustainable solutions for various sectors, e. g. plant and mechanical engineering, tools, vehicle construction, aerospace, energy, optics, medical and pharmaceutical process engineering, environmental technology, chemistry, and the digital economy. Drawing on a broad spectrum of expertise, technologies, processes and coating materials, we design the optimum process chain for the respective task, right through to the digital design of the entire factory. Currently, our experts are focusing their application-development expertise on energy storage systems with focus on battery cell production and hydrogen technology, micro and sensor technology / Industry 4.0, tribological systems precision optical coatings, multifunctional surfaces for medical technology and pharmaceutical production, flexible production systems as well as cyber-physical systems and Computational Surface Engineering & Science. https://www.ist.fraunhofer.de/en/imprint.html