Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute

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The Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt ( Empa for short ; French Laboratoire fédéral d'essai des matériaux et de recherche ) is a Swiss research institution for application-oriented materials science and technology . It has three locations - Dübendorf , St. Gallen and Thun . As part of the ETH Domain , it is assigned to the Federal Department of Economics, Education and Research (EAER). For more than 100 years since it was founded in 1880, Empa has been a traditional materials testing institute . Since the late 1980s, it has increasingly transformed into an interdisciplinary research institution . In its public appearance, Empa is called Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science & Technology .

research

Under the vision of “Materials and Technologies for a Sustainable Future”, Empa has set itself the goal of working out solutions to major industrial and social problems, for example in the areas of energy, the environment, mobility, health and safety. She sets her research focus areas (“Research Focus Areas”) in the five subject areas of nanostructured materials, sustainable construction and building technologies, natural resources and pollutants, energy technologies and health and performance.

In 2015, the annual budget was around CHF 107 million in federal funds and more than CHF 61 million in third-party funds, of which CHF 45 million came from research applications and almost CHF 11 million from service revenues. The corresponding figures for 2014 were 107, 73 and 49 and 12 million francs.

The change from materials testing to research facilities is also reflected in the name: Since 1988, Empa has been officially called the Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute . Since 2001, the change in strategy has become more and more evident: The number of scientific publications rose from 67 in 2001 to almost 630 in 2015. The number of projects financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation rose from 5 to 120 over the same period. Third-party funding also rose from 33.8 million francs in 2000 to more than 61 million francs (2015). Empa is currently involved in more than 60 ongoing projects in the EU framework programs.

The focus of Empa's activities is application-oriented research and development, often in close partnership with industrial companies. She expresses this in her slogan: “Empa - The Place where Innovation Starts”. Empa pursues a multidisciplinary approach - scientists and engineers from numerous disciplines work together on most projects. It also supports the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and Lausanne as well as universities and technical colleges in teaching and is involved in the organization of scientific conferences and training and further education events through the Empa Academy. Conferences, lecture series, seminars and courses are aimed at scientists, experts from industry and business, but also at the general public, for example in the series of "science aperitifs".

Empa building in St. Gallen

Directors

Term of office director
1880-1901 Ludwig von Tetmajer
1901-1924 François Schüle
1924-1949 Mirko Roš
1949-1969 Eduard Amstutz
1969-1988 Theodor H. Erismann
1989-2001 Fritz Eggimann
2001-2009 Louis Schlapbach
since 2009 Gian-Luca Bona

history

Employee at EMPA in St. Gallen, 1964

In 1880 the institute for the testing of building materials begins its activity. Ludwig von Tetmajer , professor of building materials science, is its first director. It is housed in the Polytechnic in Zurich (today's ETH ).

In 1891 Tetmajer was commissioned to investigate the cause of the collapse of the railway bridge built by Gustave Eiffel near Münchenstein . In a short time he succeeds in showing that the previously used Euler's hyperbola may only be used in the elastic range of the steel under discussion.

In 1895 the name Eidgenössische Materialprüfungsanstalt is used for the first time.

In 1937, the textile control center expanded in 1911 to become the Swiss Research Institute in St. Gallen. Empa is given a new name: Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute for Industry, Construction and Commerce .

In 1962 Empa moves from Zurich to the suburb of Dübendorf . The focus is on civil engineering, safety technology, surface technology, metallic materials, composite materials, non-destructive tests, chemical analyzes, exhaust gas and outside air tests, building services, building physics, acoustics and noise abatement.

1988 marked a change in the direction of research. From now on, Empa is called the Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute .

In 1996 Empa moved into the new “Im Moos” building at the St. Gallen site . The focus of activity is on clothing physiology, personal protection systems, functional fibers and textiles, biocompatible materials, material and image modeling and technology risk assessments.

Former Empa logo

In 2001 Empa will focus even more on research and innovative developments; However, knowledge transfer and services remain an important part of the portfolio. An international research commission is set up to evaluate Empa's research activities at regular intervals.

In 2003 nanotechnology came to Empa. The new department “nanotech @ surfaces” works on nanostructures, nanotubes as electron sources and quasi-crystalline layers. The “Functional Polymers” department is created in Dübendorf.

In 2004, another new department was created in Dübendorf: “Nanoscale Materials Science”. It focuses on the development and analysis of nanostructured surfaces and coatings.

In 2005 she founded the "International PhD School Switzerland - Poland" together with the Warsaw University of Technology and the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. This cooperation with the new member states of the EU has intensified within the framework of the so-called “Cohesion Billion”, the Swiss contribution to the EU's eastward expansion, for example through numerous “Joint Research Projects” and joint events such as the “Swiss-Polish Science & Technology Days”. , which took place in Warsaw for the first time in 2010.

Also in 2005, Empa celebrated its 125th anniversary with 13,000 visitors under the motto “Research that inspires”.

In 2006 the “Center for Synergetic Structures” was created with a new financing model as a public-private partnership between Empa and Festo AG with the aim of developing new, ultra-light support structures.

In 2008 Empa founded the business incubator “glaTec” in Dübendorf, which is intended to encourage and support the establishment of innovative young companies in the Empa's environment. It is the counterpart to «tebo», which has existed at Empa in St. Gallen since 1996. Empa is also significantly expanding its activities in photovoltaics. In addition, a collaboration with the Japanese National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) is agreed, which will open a liaison office in glaTec in 2010.

In 2010 Empa agreed new partnerships with various industrial partners in the fields of fuel cells, medtech applications and sustainable mobility concepts. In addition, the activities within five “Research Focus Areas” will be geared even more closely to Empa's core task of converting research and technology into marketable innovations.

In 2011 and 2012, Empa participated extremely successfully with almost 25 projects in the special measures financed by the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) against the strong franc, which are intended to strengthen the innovative strength and thus the competitiveness of Swiss companies.

In 2014, the Swiss government initiated a priority program to promote energy research; eight different competence centers (“Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research”, SCCER) are to better network the Swiss universities and research institutions in the field of energy research and promote synergies. As the “Leading House”, Empa takes over the management of one of these eight centers in the field of energy-efficient buildings and districts (“Future Energy-Efficient Buildings & Districts”, FEEB & D) with the aim of increasing the energy consumption of Swiss buildings by a factor of 2050 five lower.

In 2014 the ground-breaking ceremony took place for NEST , a building concept that is intended to help bring technologies and products in the construction and energy sectors to market more quickly together with industrial partners. NEST consists of a central backbone - the «backbone» - and three open platforms on which individual, inhabited research and innovation modules are installed according to a « plug & play » principle. After the “backbone” of NEST had been created by 2015, construction could begin on the first modules. On May 23, 2016, the building was opened with various modules. In 2018, an EPFL module was installed in which solar panels that were more interesting for architects and builders because colored instead of dark were used. An industrial manufacturing process for these panels was worked out in collaboration with industry.

In 2015, a second demonstration and technology transfer platform in the mobility sector was presented: move . This enables new vehicle drive concepts with significantly lower CO 2 emissions to be developed and tested in practice, such as hydrogen vehicles, various hybrid concepts or optimized gas vehicles. Electricity from photovoltaic systems or hydroelectric power plants, which fluctuates strongly over time and is not required in the grid, serves as the energy source. This is then first converted into hydrogen or methane through the electrolysis of water (power-to-gas concept). A third platform also went into operation in 2015, the ehub (Energy Hub), which, as a kind of control center, controls and coordinates the energy flows between NEST and move with their various energy users and sources. In this way , ehub is supposed to ensure an optimized energy supply, especially under the sign of strongly fluctuating energy sources such as solar and wind power. The platform therefore also has intermediate storage for the various energy sources.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Financial report of the EHT Council on the ETH Domain 2019 , on ethrat.ch
  2. ^ A homely laboratory , NZZ, May 23, 2016
  3. ^ Well- being house and solar power plant , NZZ, September 25, 2018, page 22, title of the print edition