Fraunhofer-Institut für Betriebsfestigkeit und Systemzuverlässigkeit LBF

Fraunhofer LBF in Darmstadt is one of the most traditional institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Over 75 years ago, the former “Laboratory for Structural Durability LBF” shaped a completely new area of research that even back then was already economically significant and, up to today, has lost none of its topicality and pertinence. Particularly in the last decade, the institute developed its competence center both in breadth and depth on the basis of experimental structural durability with a great deal of innovation force and high degree of dynamics. Additional market segments beyond the traditional vehicle and mechanical engineering branches of industry were opened up. The latest milestone in the development of the „Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF“ was the integration of the renowned German Plastics Institute DKI in 2012. The tried and tested competencies are found today in numerical and experimental structural durability, in smart structures and system reliability and in the area of plastics. Fraunhofer LBF continues to develop these four core competencies on a technical and organizational level in research divisions of the same name and in a total of 10 departments. The institute has documented its future plans in a dynamic strategy plan that is checked and assessed by external evaluators on a regular basis. The operative work is critically examined in continuous analyses on customer satisfaction. The management system of Fraunhofer LBF is certified according to DIN ISO EN 9001:2000 and the testing laboratory is accredited according to the requirements of DIN ISO-IEC 17025. This has also led to an extraordinarily high number of customers that has been loyal to the institute for decades.