Endress+Hauser held its 12th annual inventors’ meeting in Maulburg, Germany, on March 30 to honor patents with a sustained and positive effect on the business. A record 225 applications were submitted, but just seven product and process innovations received awards.
Four “Patent Rights Incentive Awards” went to teams of inventors at Endress+Hauser production sites at Conducta (Waldheim, Germany) Flowtec (Reinach, Switzerland) Wetzer in (Nesselwang, Germany) and Maulburg (Maulburg, Germany). Each winner received €15,000 prizes.
Thomas Sulzer and Johannes Ruchel of Flowtec advanced an interior polyurethane liner for magneto-inductive flowmeters that allows them to be used for drinking water. Peter Zinth, Wolfgang Steidle and Tobias Stückl of Wetzer made an environmental sampler suitable for use in explosion hazard zones.
Ralf Reimelt and Herbert Schroth of Maulburg improved precision and reliability of level measurements with guided radar by building in “interference signals.” Another award went to Katrin Scholz, Stefan Auras, Sven Härtig and Jens Voigtländer from Conducta, who improved the production method for single rod electrodes.
Three teams also were honored for outstanding improvements in existing business processes. “Process Innovation Awards” were given to teams from Flowtec (optimization in logistics through ocean freight), Process Solutions (improvement in the ordering process) and the Waldheim production site at Maulburg (optimization of the innovation processes for safety products). Each received €10,000 prizes.
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