Research vs Corona

The €6.1 million project INNO4COV-19 is committed to supporting the commercialization of new products across Europe for combatting COVID-19. Looking for the fast development of products – from medical technologies to surveillance solutions - the project will boost innovation to tackle the new coronavirus, reinforcing Europe's technological leadership, and invigorating an industrial sector capable of protecting citizens' safety and well-being.

Fraunhofer FEP will contribute its roll-to-roll plant technology and electron beam technologies for the sterilization of textile materials on large surfaces to the project. Another topic of Fraunhofer FEP within INNO4COV-19 deals with the earliest possible detection of infected persons using OLED microdisplay technology.

In the "Mobile Disinfection" (MobDi) project, new hardware and software solutions for mobile service robots are being developed. On the one hand, these should make it possible to disinfect potentially contaminated surfaces in buildings and means of transportation as needed and gently with a robot. On the other hand, the developments in the project should help to automate the transport of materials in clinics and thus counteract the spread of germs by staff.

In the joint project of various Fraunhofer institutes, Fraunhofer FEP is conducting the first fundamental studies to identify the degree of contamination and the cause of contamination of surfaces. In addition, our researchers are evaluating the disinfection success based on contamination with bacteria samples.

The Next Generation Protective Textiles initiative provides an approach for the production of improved, high-quality protective textiles. This includes qualified selection of base materials, upscaling studies to set the stage for rapid expansion of production capacity, development of novel antiviral coatings, and comprehensive biological and materials science analytics to verify improved properties and also open up new methods of quality control.

As part of the project, Fraunhofer FEP is testing and evaluating textile functionalization by means of inactivation of infectious or contaminated material through functionalization with humic substances with an antiviral effect. In addition, functionalized filter fleeces are refined at Fraunhofer FEP using various surface treatment processes and these are then mounted on a demonstrator (protective mask).