The Fraunhofer Cleaning Business Unit can look back on 20 years of research and development for industrial parts cleaning. Founded in 2002, the Fraunhofer Cleaning Technology Alliance brought together the Fraunhofer Institutes FEP, ICT, IGB, ILT, IPA, IPK, IST and IWS as founding members. The establishment of an office at the Fraunhofer IPK and the creation of its own website were the basis for the successful start. In addition, the newly founded alliance launched parts2clean in 2003, which is technically organized by today's Fraunhofer Business Unit Cleaning (FRei).
The member institutes of the Fraunhofer Cleaning Business Unit FRei have implemented and continue to implement trends and developments, often making it possible to master industrial challenges in the first place. Examples include uniform standards through the VDA19 series, high-resolution imaging detection of residual contamination, blasting processes with CO2 and lasers, AI-supported cleaning processes, and environmentally friendly cleaning media. Currently, a DIN standardization committee is discussing issues of standardization and assistance for the targeted processing of cleaning tasks. FRei also regularly conducts market surveys and publishes the results in the form of a study.