Innovative products and processes are the cornerstone of the future for many craft enterprises.
In recognition of this, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Affairs is for the first time awarding the "Innovation price craft of Nordrhine-Westphalia" for the best ideas, which above all aim at new solution strategies. Right at the premiere of this award, Ulrich Rotte Anlagenbau und Fördertechnik GmbH, based in Salzkotten, is among the winners of the prize, which is endowed with 10,000 euros. The prize has now been handed over by the Minister of Economics Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart during a ceremony in Düsseldorf. The award is for a workpiece carrier that Rotte has developed for flexible production in a multi-year research cooperation.
The mechanical engineering company with 86 employees wins with its innovation "Active force-sensitive workpiece carrier" (short: "AWT"). With this new product, proven and also future logistics concepts can be mapped within a production with increasing flexibility. During production, the workpiece carrier independently adapts to a wide variety of product variants, such as shape, weight or rigidity. This means that products with batch size 1 and a high number of variants can be produced and brought to the right place at the desired time - all this saves time and costs.
There is a great deal of interest in flexible production solutions across all industries, and with it, of course, the AWT concept. "The AWT as a valuable new component of the range of solutions has been the subject of our customer consulting and system design since the beginning of the project," says Dr. Franz-Barthold Gockel, managing director of the company and head of the innovation project, proudly. He researched this innovation for several years together with representatives of the company MSF-Vathauer Antriebstechnik from Detmold, the University of Paderborn and the Fraunhofer Institute for Design Technology Mechatronics IEM. The research was carried out within the framework of the Central Innovation Program for Medium-Sized Businesses (ZIM), which is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy.
During the research work, the Gütersloh-based company Miele was the godfather and provided its washing machine units for tests with the workpiece carrier. This is because the company faces increasing challenges in final assembly with its various generations of appliances. The research team was thus given the opportunity to test the innovative new development in a real application area.
"Our goal is to increasingly open up new markets and technologies as well as to further expand the competencies we have gained. In this way, we will secure the growth of our company, our location and create varied jobs," says Benedikt Rotte, Chief Executive Director (CEO).
The Innovation Prize of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia will be awarded for the first time this year and is now to be presented every two years to medium-sized craft enterprises which not only implement technological innovations but also stand for new processes and solution strategies in all economic or social areas.
- Here you can find the film of the award ceremony.
To the research partners The Fraunhofer Institute for Engineering Design Mechatronics IEM in Paderborn offers expertise for intelligent mechatronics in the context of Industry 4.0. Scientists from the fields of mechanical engineering, software engineering and electrical engineering work together across disciplines and research innovative methods and tools for the development of intelligent products, production systems and services. www.iem.fraunhofer.de/en In the Department of Sensor Technology at the University of Paderborn, headed by Prof. Ulrich Hilleringmann, there is a profound knowledge in the field of developing mobile, wireless and intelligent sensor and RFID systems as well as energy transmission technology. The department works in close cooperation with the Fraunhofer ENAS department ASE in Paderborn. The basis of the long-standing professional competence are highly efficient EMC-compatible modelling and simulation methods, which enable the design of reliable wireless systems. This knowledge was successfully applied in this project and served to implement the energy supply system, which includes an energy-efficient transmission and storage unit as well as an energy management module. https://ei.uni-paderborn.de/en/sen/startseite
MSF-Vathauer Antriebstechnik is an owner-managed family business from Lippe, Germany, which is known for sustainability, precision, innovation, versatility and reliability. As the technological leader in decentralised drive automation, MSF-Vathauer brings intelligence to drive technology - developed and produced "Made in Germany". www.msf-technik.de/en Miele is the world's leading supplier of premium domestic appliances for cooking, baking, steam-cooking, cooling/freezing, coffee-making, dishwashing, laundry and floorcare. This is complemented by dishwashers, washer-extractors and tumble dryers for commercial use as well as washer-disinfectors and sterilisers for medical facilities and laboratories. The turnover of the 120-year-old family-owned company with around 20,200 employees worldwide was around 4.16 billion euros in the 2018/19 financial year. The headquarters are in Gütersloh, Westphalia. www.miele.de
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