Tele­phone and tele­vi­sion re­cep­tion, GPS nav­ig­a­tion sys­tems, broad­band in­ter­net via satel­lite – none of this would be pos­sible without elec­tron­ics in space. However, cos­mic ra­di­ation in par­tic­u­lar can dam­age com­pon­ents, lead to short-term fail­ures, mal­func­tions and memory er­rors and cause the elec­tron­ics to age more rap­idly. Es­pe­cially satel­lites, some of which re­main in space for sev­er­al dec­ades, there­fore re­quire par­tic­u­larly ro­bust and ra­di­ation-res­ist­ant elec­tron­ics. The same ap­plies to med­ic­al products such as CT scan­ners, in which high-en­ergy X-rays are used.

An open-source tool en­ables ac­cess to in­nov­at­ive tech­no­lo­gies

To en­sure that cir­cuits func­tion re­li­ably in the long term, chip de­sign­ers must ac­count for stress factors for semi­con­duct­or tech­no­lo­gies such as ra­di­ation bom­bard­ment in the design stage. However, smal­ler com­pan­ies and re­search in­sti­tu­tions in par­tic­u­lar of­ten lack rel­ev­ant in­form­a­tion on the lim­its and prop­er­ties of the com­pon­ents im­ple­men­ted in the semi­con­duct­or chips. They there­fore of­ten have only lim­ited ac­cess to in­nov­at­ive tech­no­lo­gies.

Re­search­ers at Fraunhofer IIS are work­ing jointly with part­ners on a solu­tion in the FlowSpace project: “We want to make elec­tron­ics even more ro­bust and re­li­able with an open-source tool,” ex­plains Ro­land Jancke, Head of Design Meth­od­o­logy in the En­gin­eer­ing of Ad­apt­ive Sys­tems di­vi­sion at Fraunhofer IIS.

Ac­cord­ing to Jancke, the open-source tool and an open pro­cess design kit (PDK) could give a broad com­munity such as uni­versit­ies and smal­ler com­pan­ies ac­cess to in­nov­at­ive tech­no­lo­gies. An open PDK provides an in­ter­face between the tech­no­lo­gists de­vel­op­ing a com­pon­ent and the chip de­sign­ers. With freely ac­cess­ible in­form­a­tion about the com­pon­ents in the semi­con­duct­ors, the de­sign­ers know how these ele­ments be­have and can be used. For ex­ample, chip de­sign­ers can already ac­count for com­pon­ent aging in the design phase. In the FlowSpace project, Jancke's team sim­u­lates the long-term re­sponse of com­pon­ents to ra­di­ation in the labor­at­ory.

The sci­ent­ists use math­em­at­ic­al mod­els and meas­ure­ments to real­ist­ic­ally sim­u­late how a cer­tain com­pon­ent is likely to age, and wheth­er it will still func­tion, after be­ing ir­ra­di­ated over a ten-year peri­od.

Chip de­velopers design rel­ev­ant cir­cuit parts re­dund­antly for ap­plic­a­tions ex­posed to ra­di­ation in or­der to pre­vent mal­func­tions. The new solu­tion en­ables the chip area re­quired for this to be re­duced, as it is also com­pat­ible with in­creas­ingly smal­ler semi­con­duct­ors that are even more sens­it­ive to ra­di­ation. Smal­ler solu­tions are be­com­ing in­creas­ingly pop­u­lar, as they save en­ergy, space and weight. This is es­pe­cially im­port­ant for space mod­ules.
 

The mar­ket value of in­stalled in­dus­tri­al ro­bots has reached a new high of US$16.7 bil­lion world­wide. De­mand con­tin­ues to be driv­en by tech­no­lo­gic­al in­nov­a­tions, new mar­ket de­vel­op­ments and the open­ing up of new busi­ness areas. The main trends that con­tin­ue to drive this de­vel­op­ment are:

AI & Autonomy in Ro­bot­ics

Ro­bots that use ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence to work in­de­pend­ently are be­com­ing more com­mon. Main be­ne­fit of AI in this con­text is the in­creased autonomy of ro­bots em­powered by AI. Dif­fer­ent types of AI drive this trend: Ana­lyt­ic­al AI helps to pro­cess large data­sets, de­tect pat­terns, and provides ac­tion­able in­sights. This en­ables them to autonom­ously an­ti­cip­ate fail­ures be­fore they oc­cur in smart factor­ies or path plan­ning and re­source al­loc­a­tion in lo­gist­ics for ex­ample.

Gen­er­at­ive AI, on the oth­er hand, marks a shift from rule-based auto­ma­tion to in­tel­li­gent, self-evolving sys­tems. GenAI cre­ates new out­puts and en­ables ro­bots to learn new tasks autonom­ously and gen­er­ate train­ing data through sim­u­la­tion. This also al­lows a new kind of hu­man–ro­bot in­ter­ac­tion with nat­ur­al lan­guage and vis­ion-based com­mands.

A key trend to fur­ther de­vel­op autonomy in ro­bot­ics is Agen­t­ic AI. This tech­no­logy com­bines ana­lyt­ic­al AI for struc­tured de­cision-mak­ing, and gen­er­at­ive AI for ad­apt­ab­il­ity. The hy­brid ap­proach aims to make mod­ern ro­bot­ics cap­able of work­ing in­de­pend­ently in com­plex, real-world en­vir­on­ments.

Ro­bots gain ver­sat­il­ity as IT meets OT

De­mand for ver­sat­ile ro­bots is ac­cel­er­at­ing. This dir­ectly re­flects a mar­ket push to­ward a con­ver­gence of In­form­a­tion Tech­no­logy (IT) and Op­er­a­tion­al Tech­no­logy (OT). The merge of IT's data-pro­cessing power and OT's phys­ic­al con­trol cap­ab­il­it­ies en­hance ro­bot­ics ver­sat­il­ity through real-time data ex­change, auto­ma­tion, and ad­vanced ana­lyt­ics. This in­teg­ra­tion is a found­a­tion­al ele­ment of the di­git­al en­ter­prise and In­dustry 4.0. The IT/OT con­ver­gence breaks down these silos, cre­at­ing a seam­less flow of data between the di­git­al and phys­ic­al worlds, which sig­ni­fic­antly en­hances the cap­ab­il­it­ies and ver­sat­il­ity of ro­bot­ics.

Hu­manoids to prove re­li­ab­il­ity and ef­fi­ciency

The field of hu­manoid ro­bot­ics is ex­pand­ing rap­idly. Hu­manoid ro­bots for in­dus­tri­al use are seen as a prom­ising tech­no­logy where flex­ib­il­ity is re­quired, typ­ic­ally in en­vir­on­ments de­signed for hu­mans. Pi­on­eered by the auto­mot­ive in­dustry, ap­plic­a­tions in ware­hous­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing are com­ing in­to fo­cus world­wide.

Today, com­pan­ies and re­search­ers are mov­ing bey­ond pro­to­types to de­ploy hu­manoids in real life. Re­li­ab­il­ity and ef­fi­ciency are key to suc­cess: In com­pet­ing with tra­di­tion­al auto­ma­tion, hu­manoid ro­bots need to match high in­dus­tri­al re­quire­ments to­wards cycle times, en­ergy con­sump­tion and main­ten­ance costs. In­dustry stand­ards also define safety levels, dur­ab­il­ity cri­ter­ia and con­sist­ent per­form­ance of hu­manoid ro­bots needed on the fact­ory floor. Hu­manoids in­ten­ded to fill labor gaps need to achieve hu­man-level dex­ter­ity and pro­ductiv­ity, key meas­ures to prove real world ef­fi­ciency.

Safety and Se­cur­ity in Ro­bot­ics

As ro­bots in­creas­ingly op­er­ate along­side hu­mans in factor­ies and ser­vice set­tings, en­sur­ing they op­er­ate safely is not just im­port­ant, it’s es­sen­tial for the ro­bot­ics in­dustry. The AI-driv­en autonomy fun­da­ment­ally changes the safety land­scape, which makes test­ing, val­id­a­tion, and hu­man over­sight much more com­plex—but also more ne­ces­sary. This be­comes par­tic­u­larly clear in the in­ten­ded use of hu­manoid ro­bots. Ro­bot­ic sys­tems need to be de­signed and cer­ti­fied in line with ISO safety stand­ards and clearly defined li­ab­il­ity frame­works.

In the con­text of AI in ro­bot­ics and the con­ver­gence of IT and OT, a spec­trum of safety and se­cur­ity con­cerns arise that de­mand ro­bust gov­ernance and clear as­sign­ment of li­ab­il­ity. The rap­id ex­pan­sion of ro­bot­ics sys­tems in­to cloud-con­nec­ted and AI-driv­en en­vir­on­ments is ex­pos­ing in­dus­tri­al pro­duc­tion to a grow­ing ar­ray of cy­ber­se­cur­ity threats. Ex­perts cite a rise in hack­ing at­tempts tar­get­ing ro­bot con­trol­lers and cloud plat­forms, en­abling un­au­thor­ized ac­cess and po­ten­tial sys­tem ma­nip­u­la­tion. As ro­bots be­come more in­teg­rated in­to work­places, con­cerns are mount­ing over the sens­it­ive data they col­lect — in­clud­ing video, au­dio, and sensor streams. Deep learn­ing mod­els which are of­ten de­scribed as 'black boxes' can pro­duce res­ults that are dif­fi­cult or im­possible to ex­plain, even to their own de­velopers. The leg­al and eth­ic­al am­bi­gu­ity sur­round­ing li­ab­il­ity has promp­ted calls for clear frame­works to gov­ern AI de­ploy­ment.

Ro­bots as al­lies in tack­ling labor gaps

Em­ploy­ers around the world are strug­gling to find people with the spe­cial­ized skills re­quired. These un­filled jobs leave ex­ist­ing staff cov­er­ing ex­tra shifts, with rising stress and fa­tigue across all sec­tors. A key strategy for ad­dress­ing this is­sue is to ad­opt ro­bot­ics and auto­ma­tion. In this trans­form­a­tion pro­cess, em­ploy­ers be­ne­fit from tak­ing their hu­man work­force on board. The close co­oper­a­tion with em­ploy­ees in im­ple­ment­ing ro­bots plays a cru­cial role to en­sure ac­cept­ance – both in in­dus­tri­al man­u­fac­tur­ing set­tings as well as in the man­i­fold ser­vice ap­plic­a­tions. The be­ne­fits that ro­bots de­liv­er, such as tack­ling labor short­ages, tak­ing away routine tasks or open­ing up new ca­reer op­por­tun­it­ies, mean that they will be ac­cep­ted as al­lies in the work­place. At the same time, ro­bots are a way to make a work­place much more at­tract­ive to young people. Com­pan­ies and gov­ern­ments are push­ing skilling and up­skilling pro­grams to help work­ers keep­ing up with chan­ging skills de­mand and com­pet­ing in an auto­ma­tion-driv­en eco­nomy.

LAPP, sup­pli­er of in­teg­rated solu­tions and branded products in the field of cable and con­nec­tion tech­no­logy, con­tin­ues its growth strategy in Asia. Mat­thi­as Lapp, CEO LAPP Group, says: “With its strong po­s­i­tion in high-tech man­u­fac­tur­ing – par­tic­u­larly in the semi­con­duct­or, elec­tron­ics, and auto­ma­tion in­dus­tries – Taiwan holds great po­ten­tial for LAPP. We see sig­ni­fic­ant op­por­tun­it­ies to sup­port these ad­vanced pro­duc­tion en­vir­on­ments with re­li­able, high-per­form­ance con­nectiv­ity solu­tions. By es­tab­lish­ing this strong loc­al pres­ence, we are em­phas­iz­ing our com­mit­ment to cus­tom­er fo­cus and our loc­al for loc­al strategy.”

Dat­ing back more than 15 years, LAPP’s part­ner­ship with DK­SH Taiwan has been long and fruit­ful. DK­SH is a Swiss hold­ing com­pany spe­cial­iz­ing in mar­ket ex­pan­sion ser­vices – of­fer­ing sourcing, mar­ket­ing, sales, dis­tri­bu­tion, and after sales sup­port – primar­ily across Asia Pa­cific, Europe, and North Amer­ica to help oth­er com­pan­ies grow in new or ex­ist­ing mar­kets. Mat­thi­as Lapp says: “Now, we are in­cred­ibly ex­cited to wel­come their cable dis­tri­bu­tion op­er­a­tions to LAPP Group and our glob­al team of more than 5.700 col­leagues. To­geth­er, we will grow even fur­ther.” LAPP Taiwan is based in Taipei and Taoy­uan and em­ploys more than 10 people. 

Both com­pan­ies have agreed not to dis­close the fin­an­cial de­tails of the agree­ment.
 

Ef­fect­ive from Janu­ary 2026 on, Al­ex­an­der Heiz­ler takes his new po­s­i­tion as Chief Ex­ec­ut­ive Of­ficer (CEO) at dia­phragm pump man­u­fac­turer KNF. He has been with the com­pany since 2009 and served as Chief Op­er­at­ing Of­ficer (COO) since 2021. His ap­point­ment en­sures con­tinu­ity and re­flects KNF’s com­mit­ment to long-term sta­bil­ity as a fam­ily-owned busi­ness.

“I am honored to take on the role of CEO,” says Heiz­ler. “KNF stands for tech­no­lo­gic­al ex­cel­lence, strong val­ues, and a ded­ic­ated glob­al team. I look for­ward to con­tinu­ing this suc­cess­ful jour­ney.”

Passing on the bat­on

After more than 40 years at KNF, in­clud­ing 26 as CEO, Mar­tin Beck­er is step­ping down from op­er­a­tion­al lead­er­ship. He will now fully fo­cus on his role as Chair­man of the Board of Dir­ect­ors, where he looks for­ward to con­tinu­ing his close and trus­ted col­lab­or­a­tion with Al­ex­an­der Heiz­ler in a new ca­pa­city. This marks the com­ple­tion of a care­fully planned trans­ition. Mar­tin Beck­er will also re­main con­nec­ted to the com­pany as a share­hold­er.

“Passing on the op­er­a­tion­al lead­er­ship of KNF is a deeply per­son­al step for me,” Beck­er ex­plains. “I am proud of what we have built to­geth­er and fully trust Al­ex­an­der Heiz­ler to lead the com­pany with pas­sion and re­spons­ib­il­ity.”

Seam­less Trans­ition 

This lead­er­ship change un­der­scores KNF’s en­dur­ing val­ues and its clear vis­ion for the fu­ture as a glob­al tech­no­logy lead­er. With over 900 em­ploy­ees world­wide, KNF re­mains com­mit­ted to in­nov­a­tion, sus­tain­ab­il­ity, and cus­tom­er-fo­cused dia­phragm pump solu­tions.

WIKA has ex­pan­ded its pres­ence in North Africa by es­tab­lish­ing a new sub­si­di­ary in Cas­ab­lanca, Mo­rocco. Since 11 Decem­ber, the man­u­fac­turer of meas­ure­ment tech­no­logy is sup­port­ing its ex­ist­ing cus­tom­ers across the Maghreb re­gion from this loc­a­tion, while also driv­ing its sales activ­it­ies. This move forms part of WIKA’s strategy to op­er­ate with agil­ity world­wide through loc­al fa­cil­it­ies. By be­ing closer to cus­tom­ers and part­ners on site, the com­pany aims to pro­cess or­ders even more ef­fi­ciently and de­liv­er the highest level of ser­vice.

“The open­ing of the sub­si­di­ary in Mo­rocco marks an im­port­ant mile­stone in our re­gion­al growth strategy,” says Mar­cel Frei, Seni­or Vice Pres­id­ent South Europe at WIKA. “Our loc­al pres­ence en­ables us to of­fer cus­tom­ers even more flex­ible, per­son­al­ised sup­port and to strengthen col­lab­or­a­tion with re­gion­al part­ners. All of this in­creases WIKA’s vis­ib­il­ity in North Africa – and helps us to un­lock new mar­ket po­ten­tial.”
 

Dr. Jochen Peter (50) will join the man­age­ment board of Bosch Rexroth AG in Lohr am Main on Janu­ary 1, 2026 and, after an in­duc­tion phase, will be­come Chief Ex­ec­ut­ive Of­ficer on March 1, 2026. He suc­ceeds Dr. Stef­fen Haack (59), who will step back from the CEO po­s­i­tion, but will re­main a mem­ber of the man­age­ment board. Haack will re­tain re­spons­ib­il­ity for en­gin­eer­ing and will con­cen­trate on identi­fy­ing new stra­tegic growth areas for Bosch Rexroth in the fu­ture.

"Stef­fen Haack de­serves great re­cog­ni­tion for his im­port­ant con­tri­bu­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of Bosch Rexroth in re­cent years. He act­ively ini­ti­ated and ac­com­pan­ied the up­com­ing gen­er­a­tion­al change as a mem­ber of the man­age­ment board. In do­ing so, he has cre­ated the ne­ces­sary sta­bil­ity in a chal­len­ging mar­ket en­vir­on­ment and driv­en the fur­ther de­vel­op­ment of Bosch Rexroth," says Dr. Tanja Rückert, mem­ber of the board of man­age­ment of Robert Bosch GmbH and chair­wo­man of the su­per­vis­ory board of Bosch Rexroth AG.

Peter stud­ied mech­an­ic­al and pro­cess en­gin­eer­ing at the Tech­nic­al Uni­versity of Kais­er­slaut­ern and in­dus­tri­al en­gin­eer­ing at the Uni­versity of Ha­gen. He star­ted his pro­fes­sion­al ca­reer in 2000 as a de­vel­op­ment en­gin­eer at BMW while com­plet­ing his doc­tor­ate de­gree at the Fraunhofer In­sti­tute and then worked for the Bo­ston Con­sult­ing Group, in­clud­ing in the USA. In 2011, he moved to the Zeiss Group and held vari­ous man­age­ment po­s­i­tions be­fore be­com­ing a mem­ber of the ex­ec­ut­ive board of Carl Zeiss AG in 2017. There he was re­spons­ible for the In­dus­tri­al Qual­ity and Re­search di­vi­sion un­til the end of Septem­ber 2025.

"In his pre­vi­ous po­s­i­tion, Jochen Peter has shown that he can tap in­to new mar­ket po­ten­tial even in dif­fi­cult en­vir­on­ments, de­vel­op soft­ware busi­ness and suc­cess­fully drive trans­form­a­tion in a com­pany," says Rückert.
 

Non-European mar­kets re­main the driv­ing force be­hind growth at HART­ING. For the third year in a row, the Ger­man mar­ket is strug­gling with stag­na­tion, a lack of or­ders, de­clin­ing pro­duc­tion and weak ex­port de­vel­op­ment. In the year of the tech­no­logy group's 80th an­niversary and the 40th birth­day of its Ja­pan­ese sub­si­di­ary, the com­pany gen­er­ated sales of ap­prox­im­ately 312 mil­lion euros in the Asia-Pa­cific (APAC) re­gion. This rep­res­ents a strong in­crease of 30 per cent over the same peri­od last year. In North and South Amer­ica (Amer­icas), the com­pany achieved sales of 206 mil­lion euros (+33 per cent). 

The EMEA re­gion (ex­clud­ing Ger­many) also achieved double-di­git growth: Europe, the Middle East and Africa were up 11 per cent on the pre­vi­ous year with a total of 358 mil­lion euros. In Ger­many, sales de­creased by 0.5 per cent to 221 mil­lion euros. The auto­mot­ive di­vi­sion in par­tic­u­lar is strug­gling with a short­fall in pro­duc­tion ca­pa­city. Philip Hart­ing, HART­ING Tech­no­logy Group’s CEO: "The glob­al eco­nomy is fa­cing sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenges such as geo­pol­it­ic­al ten­sions and con­flicts, trade bar­ri­ers, in­fla­tion and grow­ing gov­ern­ment debt. Against the back­drop of these ma­jor un­cer­tain­ties, we are grate­ful that we were able to in­crease our sales so sig­ni­fic­antly."

Hart­ing re­mains con­cerned about the de­vel­op­ment of the com­pet­it­ive­ness of Ger­many and Europe as in­dus­tri­al loc­a­tions. "The trans­form­a­tion of the Ger­man eco­nomy and in­dustry is con­tinu­ing un­abated. The con­sequences of the short­age of skilled work­ers seem to have dis­ap­peared from the radar. The eco­nom­ic base is crum­bling. Our cus­tom­ers in the auto­mot­ive mar­ket, mech­an­ic­al en­gin­eer­ing, auto­ma­tion tech­no­logy and the rail­way in­dustry are severely af­fected. Com­pet­it­ive pres­sure from China con­tin­ues to in­crease. We must there­fore con­tin­ue to in­crease our pro­ductiv­ity, make pro­cesses more ef­fi­cient and con­sist­ently re­duce costs,” says the HART­ING CEO. 

Glob­al com­pany with loc­al roots

As a glob­ally act­ive Tech­no­logy Group, HART­ING is con­sist­ently re­spond­ing to geo­pol­it­ic­al de­vel­op­ments by fur­ther ex­pand­ing its net­work of pro­duc­tion, de­vel­op­ment and sales loc­a­tions. World­wide, the Group in­ves­ted ap­prox­im­ately 74 mil­lion euros in re­search and de­vel­op­ment and pro­duc­tion ca­pa­cit­ies in the past fin­an­cial year. In Ban­galore, In­dia, for ex­ample, a 650-square-metre tech­no­logy centre was built to en­able loc­al de­mand for in­nov­at­ive con­nect­or solu­tions to be met even more quickly.

To sup­port fu­ture growth, more than 100 mil­lion euros is to be in­ves­ted in the new fin­an­cial year 2026 for the first time in the com­pany's his­tory. Over the next five years, 75 mil­lion euros will also be in­ves­ted in ex­pand­ing the “Fact­ory of the Fu­ture” in Es­pelkamp. Pro­duc­tion areas will be con­sol­id­ated, pro­cesses op­tim­ised and ex­pert­ise pooled in the ex­ist­ing Plant 2 in or­der to strengthen Es­pelkamp as a state-of-the-art and fu­ture-proof loc­a­tion.

"In this way, we are sim­ul­tan­eously strength­en­ing Ger­many as a busi­ness loc­a­tion, con­sist­ently driv­ing for­ward our in­ter­na­tion­al­isa­tion and meet­ing loc­al and re­gion­al re­quire­ments," says Philip Hart­ing. "Hav­ing a broad base in­creases our chances of be­ing more re­si­li­ent to crises. We still see glob­al busi­ness as the basis for fur­ther growth."

HART­ING is not only com­mit­ted to sus­tain­ab­il­ity and fu­ture-proof­ing its own tech­no­lo­gic­al solu­tions. The Tech­no­logy Group also made fur­ther pro­gress on its way to cli­mate neut­ral­ity and re­duced the total CO₂ emis­sions of all its plants to ap­prox­im­ately 5,600 tonnes (-18 per cent com­pared to the pre­vi­ous fin­an­cial year) through the con­tin­ued use of re­new­able en­ergy. HART­ING aims to re­duce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emis­sions world­wide to zero by 2030.
 

As one of the lead­ing food whole­salers in the re­gion, Früchte Jork sup­plies over 13,000 items to around 600 res­taur­ants and ho­tels with­in a ra­di­us of 180 kilo­met­ers. The com­pany’s steady growth brought the pre­vi­ous manu­al deep-freeze ware­house, in which or­der pick­ing was car­ried out with fork­lifts at minus 22 de­grees, to its lim­its. To­geth­er with Klinkham­mer, the own­er fam­ily there­fore de­veloped a concept that takes stor­age ca­pa­city, pick­ing per­form­ance, and en­ergy ef­fi­ciency to the next level. “In re­cent years, we have evolved from a tra­di­tion­al fruit and ve­get­able whole­saler to a fresh pro­duce ser­vice pro­vider. The auto­mated lo­gist­ics cen­ter is an­oth­er mile­stone in our growth strategy,” says Max­imili­an Jork, Man­aging Dir­ect­or of Früchte Jork GmbH.

Five lanes at full power

The new, auto­mated deep-freeze ware­house has 26,280 tray stor­age po­s­i­tions. The goods are stored ef­fi­ciently in terms of both space and en­ergy – and leave the ware­house just as auto­mat­ic­ally as they came in. Goods-to-per­son pick­ing de­liv­ers the trays dir­ectly to the work­sta­tion at an er­go­nom­ic height. This means less bend­ing, less lift­ing, and less time in the frosty stor­age area.

Smart tech­no­logy for per­fect pro­cesses

An in­teg­rated se­quence buf­fer en­sures that or­ders are pro­cessed in ex­actly the right or­der. Flex­ible tray sys­tems al­low vari­ous sizes of car­tons to be stored. State-of-the-art stack­er cranes with cam­era tech­no­logy en­sure pre­cise con­trol and re­duce en­ergy con­sump­tion by re­cov­er­ing power dur­ing brak­ing. The res­ult: great­er pre­ci­sion, short­er dis­tances and re­duced elec­tri­city con­sump­tion.

Pre­cise and safe – even at minus 30 de­grees

The Leuze FBPS 607i bar code po­s­i­tion­ing sys­tem in­creases ef­fi­ciency and re­duces costs in auto­mated ware­house op­er­a­tions. Klinkham­mer has been us­ing the FBPS 607i from Leuze for po­s­i­tion­ing its stack­er cranes since 2022. The first safe bar code po­s­i­tion­ing sys­tem with re­dund­ant SSI in­ter­face and in­teg­rated heat­ing en­ables use even at tem­per­at­ures as low as -30°C. Con­nec­ted dir­ectly to the drive’s fre­quency con­vert­er, the sys­tem re­acts in just 10 mil­li­seconds. At the same time, the FBPS meets the stricter re­quire­ments of the new ma­chinery dir­ect­ive: Where two sep­ar­ate devices were once needed to achieve the re­quired per­form­ance level, today a single FBPS does the job. This saves time dur­ing in­stall­a­tion and in­teg­ra­tion and also makes the solu­tion eco­nom­ic­ally at­tract­ive.

Fur­ther ex­pan­sion

The new deep-freeze ware­house is just the be­gin­ning. In the second ex­pan­sion phase, auto­mat­ic shuttle ware­houses for chilled and dry goods were put in­to op­er­a­tion, which auto­mat­ic­ally com­bine or­ders. This makes the en­tire lo­gist­ics pro­cess even more ef­fi­cient. With this in­vest­ment, Früchte Jork is not only boost­ing its com­pet­it­ive­ness but also mak­ing a clear state­ment: Mod­ern auto­ma­tion can in­crease pro­ductiv­ity and save en­ergy – all while en­sur­ing bet­ter work­ing con­di­tions.

The JUMO fa­vo­TRON is a com­pact PID con­trol­ler for entry-level ap­plic­a­tions. It is a two-state and three-state con­trol­ler with pro­gram con­trol­ler func­tion, auto­t­un­ing, and uni­ver­sal meas­ure­ment in­put of­fers a mod­ern and power­ful solu­tion for a wide vari­ety of pro­cesses. The device’s high de­gree of con­trol qual­ity en­sures ef­fi­cient and re­li­able pro­cesses in the food and bever­age in­dustry, wa­ter and wastewa­ter treat­ment, ther­mo­pro­cess tech­no­logy, and HVAC ap­plic­a­tions.

An in­tu­it­ive user in­ter­face with plain text dis­play in 4 lan­guages (Eng­lish, Ger­man, French, and Span­ish) en­ables quick and straight­for­ward op­er­a­tion, para­met­er­iz­a­tion, and con­fig­ur­a­tion. As a res­ult, the user re­quires sig­ni­fic­antly less time. Key high­lights are the simple con­fig­ur­a­tion via the USB-C setup in­ter­face as well as the fast and se­cure cabling us­ing spring ter­min­als with PUSH IN tech­no­logy. The in­teg­rated ser­vice and op­er­at­ing hours counter sup­ports pre­dict­ive main­ten­ance plan­ning and min­im­izes down­time.
 

Advantech has expanded its compact IPC lineup with the introduction of its new IPC-221 compact industrial computer chassis. Compared to the previous generation, IPC-221 packs desktop CPU performance (65W) into a compact box PC (240 x 233 x 93 mm) with a single-sided I/O layout, making it particularly suitable for space-constrained applications such as machine integration or cabinet installation. It delivers stable, high-performance computing to meet a wide range of industrial control requirements.

Multi-Generation CPU Support

The IPC-221 features a new flat design (240 x 233 x 93 mm) that saves vertical space, making it particularly suitable for cabinet installation. It can be paired with Advantech’s PCE-2x series motherboards and supports a wide range of CPU options, including Intel® Celeron®, Pentium®, and Core™ i3, i5, and i7 (10th, 12th, 13th, and 14th Generation) processors, as well as the latest Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 2 (Ultra 5, Ultra 7, Ultra 9), providing both performance and flexibility. IPC-221 is capable of supporting high-load industrial applications, such as soft motion axis control, and HMI data visualization, ensuring real-time processing and system stability. When paired with the latest PCE-2134 or PCE-2034 CPU modules, the IPC-221 leverages its built-in NPU to enable the efficient execution of lightweight AI workloads at the edge. This makes the IPC-221 an ideal solution for smart manufacturing and automation environments.

Expanded I/O for Greater Functionality

IPC-221 offers extensive I/O expansion, including two full-height PCIe slots for additional expansion cards and multiple COM ports for easy connection to external devices. The Remote Switch function further enhances integration flexibility, allowing the IPC-221 to be deployed in diverse smart manufacturing scenarios and to meet various industrial requirements. With the compact design, high-performance computing, and extensive I/O expansion, IPC-221 is an excellent choice for compact device integration, smart factories, and industrial automation. 
 

From ro­bot­ic spray­ers to autonom­ous tract­ors, the ma­chines of the fu­ture must in­teg­rate three key tech­no­lo­gies: po­s­i­tion­ing, per­cep­tion, and con­trol.

Each sys­tem is es­sen­tial, but autonomy only works with deep in­teg­ra­tion, elim­in­at­ing data gaps or delays between what the ma­chine sees, where it is, and how it re­acts. This syn­chron­isa­tion re­duces er­rors, speeds up de­vel­op­ment, and im­proves per­form­ance. Choos­ing the right sup­pli­er is crit­ic­al.

Where am I?

Autonom­ous ma­chines must know their pre­cise loc­a­tion. GNSS po­s­i­tion­ing, en­hanced by in­er­tial sensors (GNSS+INS), en­sures the ac­cur­acy re­quired for tasks like plant­ing or har­vest­ing. Even small de­vi­ations can im­pact yield. Pre­ci­sion and re­li­ab­il­ity are non-ne­go­ti­able.

Farms present real-world chal­lenges: tree cov­er, rolling ter­rain, and vari­able satel­lite vis­ib­il­ity. Po­s­i­tion­ing sys­tems must over­come these hurdles with ad­vanced sensor fu­sion and com­pli­ance with stand­ards like ISO 25119 and ISO 18497.

What’s around me?

Per­cep­tion al­lows ma­chines to “see” and un­der­stand their en­vir­on­ment. Us­ing cam­er­as and ad­vanced al­gorithms, per­cep­tion sys­tems de­tect dy­nam­ic obstacles like an­im­als or people, which are cru­cial for safety and route plan­ning.

They re­cog­nise:   

• Obstacles: Rocks, logs, people, an­im­als,
• Bound­ar­ies: Crop rows, fences, field edges,
• In­fra­struc­ture: Trees, poles, build­ings.
   

Per­cep­tion helps avoid col­li­sions and in­forms de­cisions, but without po­s­i­tion­ing, it lacks con­text. To­geth­er, they en­able ac­cur­ate de­cisions in the right loc­a­tion.

How to auto­mate op­er­a­tions?

Once a ma­chine knows its po­s­i­tion and sur­round­ings, it must act. Con­trol sys­tems con­vert data in­to move­ment, man­aging nav­ig­a­tion and im­ple­ment op­er­a­tion with pre­ci­sion and safety.
Con­trol sys­tems must ad­apt to vari­ous ma­chine types and con­di­tions. The tight­er the in­teg­ra­tion with po­s­i­tion­ing and per­cep­tion, the smooth­er and more ef­fi­cient the op­er­a­tions.

Why is in­teg­ra­tion es­sen­tial?

Po­s­i­tion­ing, per­cep­tion, and con­trol each provide unique value, but their full po­ten­tial is un­locked only when they work to­geth­er. A re­li­able part­ner of­fer­ing all three sys­tems sim­pli­fies de­vel­op­ment by provid­ing:   

• Seam­less com­mu­nic­a­tion,
• Pre-tested com­pat­ib­il­ity,
• Stream­lined cer­ti­fic­a­tion,
• Re­duced risk.
   

For ag­ri­cul­tur­al autonomy, in­teg­ra­tion is the key. The fu­ture be­longs to ma­chines that can think and act as one. 

The new edgeN­ode Por­tain­er com­bines Soft­ing’s ex­pert­ise in in­dus­tri­al con­nectiv­ity, OT/IT in­teg­ra­tion, and se­cur­ity with Por­tain­er.io’s in­tu­it­ive plat­form for man­aging con­tain­er­ized soft­ware mod­ules. This in­teg­rated of­fer­ing lowers the entry bar­ri­er for im­ple­ment­ing in­nov­at­ive II­oT solu­tions and em­powers or­gan­iz­a­tions to op­er­ate in­dus­tri­al edge en­vir­on­ments at a large scale.

Cent­ral­ized con­tain­er li­fe­cycle man­age­ment

Por­tain­er is an open-source man­age­ment tool­set that al­lows OT and IT teams to de­ploy, man­age, and mon­it­or con­tain­er­ized ap­plic­a­tions eas­ily. It sup­ports auto­mated and manu­al work­flows and can be used for both large-scale in­dus­tri­al de­ploy­ments and in­di­vidu­al device con­fig­ur­a­tion.

edgeN­ode Por­tain­er lever­ages the Por­tain­er plat­form to provide cent­ral­ized li­fe­cycle man­age­ment for edge ap­plic­a­tions. Users can de­ploy Dock­er con­tain­ers or stacks, push up­dates, man­age con­fig­ur­a­tions, and per­form roll­backs across an en­tire fleet of devices out of the box. This in­cludes Soft­ing’s edge­Con­nect­or Dock­er con­tain­ers, which can be seam­lessly used with edgeN­ode Por­tain­er and en­able se­cure con­nectiv­ity to Siemens, Al­len-Brad­ley, Mod­bus TCP, SI­N­U­MERIK, and FA­NUC con­trol­lers via OPC UA and MQTT.

edgeN­ode Por­tain­er fea­tures a com­pact DIN-rail form factor and op­er­ates re­li­ably in ex­ten­ded tem­per­at­ure ranges. Users can flex­ibly de­ploy com­pon­ents for ma­chine con­nectiv­ity from Soft­ing In­dus­tri­al, from third-party pro­viders, or a com­bin­a­tion of both. The device sup­ports on-premises and out­bound-only com­mu­nic­a­tion, en­abling re­li­able op­er­a­tion even un­der re­strict­ive fire­wall policies.

Ad­vanced cy­ber­se­cur­ity and com­pli­ance

edgeN­ode Por­tain­er was de­veloped in ac­cord­ance with Soft­ing In­dus­tri­al's se­cure de­vel­op­ment pro­cesses, which align with IEC 62443. It of­fers ro­bust cy­ber­se­cur­ity with rap­id up­dates, trans­par­ent ver­sion­ing, and patch­ing. These fea­tures help man­u­fac­tur­ers build se­cure, scal­able in­dus­tri­al ar­chi­tec­tures. 
 

TURCK presents a new solution for Ethernet communication in hazardous areas. The GEN-2G multiprotocol gateway enables a continuous, intrinsically safe, copper-based Ethernet infrastructure in ATEX Zone 1 for the first time. The new solution expands the existing excom system with the GEN-3G Zone 2 gateway, now allowing easy conversion from Profibus DP to Ethernet communication in Zone 1 as well – without replacing the I/O and sensor level.

Hot swapping option

Communication between non-hazardous and hazardous areas is carried out using fiber optic cables with TURCK's FOCEN11Ex-2G and FOCEN11-3G media converters – over distances of up to 2,500 m. From this point, several excom stations can be integrated intrinsically safely via copper cables in Zone 1. This eliminates the previously common, costly point-to-point installation of each station via fiber optic cable. The GEN-2G multiprotocol gateway even allows hot swapping during operation without the need for a fire extinguisher. With the GEN-2G, existing excom installations can also be quickly and cost-effectively converted to Ethernet communication and made future-proof. 

International approvals such as ATEX, IECEx, CCC, and others, as well as maritime approvals (DNV, BV, LR, ABS, KR) expand the system's range of applications. The solution enables easy connection of sensors and actuators as well as the integration of HART data for diagnostics and IIoT applications. Since the entire excom family has system approval for hazardous areas, extensions do not need to be re-approved; this can be done by the user.
 

IEN Europe: Mr. Shee­han, why did Mersen de­vel­op the new 2,000 VDC fuses for PV sys­tems?
JT Shee­han: We re­ceived cus­tom­er re­quests for these high voltage fuses in the US and Europe. Un­til lately, there were only fuses avail­able for PV ap­plic­a­tions with max. 1,500 VDC Voltage but we see an in­crease in the in­terest in 2,000 VDC PV fuses and solu­tions in gen­er­al.

IEN Europe: Why does a grow­ing num­ber of cus­tom­ers ask for PV fuses with 2,000 VDC?
JT Shee­han: It’s all about ef­fi­ciency and cost: PV pan­el build­ers are try­ing to achieve great­er ef­fi­ciency in photo­vol­ta­ic fields us­ing longer runs of cabling at a high­er voltage. This also helps min­im­ize the num­ber of com­pon­ents in the sys­tem which leads to a cost sav­ings. Run­ning at the high­er voltage also al­lows for the po­ten­tial to op­er­ate with less heat loss and great­er ef­fi­ciency while main­tain­ing the same out­put.

IEN Europe: And these kinds of fuses are com­pletely new to the European mar­ket?
JT Shee­han: Yes, they are even new in gen­er­al. Mersen was the first to mar­ket with these 2,000 VDC fuses. Our fuses are very small, they only meas­ure 22 mm x 85 mm. We tried to re­duce more to save ad­di­tion­al space, but we couldn’t get it any smal­ler than that. The HP20P fuses are de­signed for low min­im­um break­ing ca­pa­city cap­ab­il­it­ies of 1.35 times the fuse rated cur­rent value, which al­lows for safe cir­cuit in­ter­rup­tion un­der typ­ic­al low fault cur­rent con­di­tions.

IEN Europe: Sounds as if it was dif­fi­cult to de­vel­op these fuses? How long did it take?
JT Shee­han: It took us about two years and sev­er­al Design It­er­a­tions. The reas­on was, that 2,000 VDC is a very high voltage for a fuse. This breaks all bound­ar­ies in terms of fuse tech­no­logy and per­form­ance. It was par­tic­u­larly de­mand­ing, but our test­ing fa­cil­ity gives us every op­por­tun­ity to identi­fy the best design, sup­por­ted by close co­oper­a­tion between the mar­ket­ing and R&D teams. Mersen Test Lab in New­bury­po­rt is one of the very few test labs where fuses with 2,000 VDC can be tested on the globe. That is a big ad­vant­age for us com­pared to our com­pet­it­ors.

IEN Europe: Are there already sol­ar fields in which PV mod­ules with 2,000 VDC fuses are in use?
JT Shee­han: These are mostly pi­lot projects or early-stage de­ploy­ments — not yet a wide­spread glob­al ad­op­tion. The main obstacles re­main stand­ard­iz­a­tion and loc­al in­stall­a­tion reg­u­la­tions. Today, a lot of our cus­tom­ers are qual­i­fy­ing their PV equip­ment for the use with 2,000 VDC rated voltage. We de­veloped the HP20P so that our cus­tom­ers re­ceive the most power­ful fuse avail­able once they have com­pleted their qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­cess. So, we are kind of ahead of the mar­ket.

IEN Europe: That is really in­ter­est­ing. Now, what ap­prov­al do the fuses already have?
JT Shee­han: We already got the UL 248-19 and the UKCA. The ap­provals for
 IEC 60269-6 and CSA C22.2 are pending. 

IEN Europe: Mersen is not only ahead of the mar­ket. The com­pany also played an im­port­ant role in re­writ­ing the UL stand­ard to up­grade it to 2,000 VDC. Is that cor­rect?
JT Shee­han: Yes, I chaired the task group to help de­vel­op the new stand­ard for 
2,000 VDC PV fuses. Mersen was deeply in­volved in this pro­cess and this new mar­ket since the very be­gin­ning. We had a large in­flu­ence on the de­vel­op­ment of the “new” UL stand­ard for PV fuses. And that ab­so­lutely makes sense as we pro­duce fuses for PV sys­tems since 2009 and have a great level of ex­pert­ise there.

IEN Europe: So, to get it right: the HP20P fuses are es­pe­cially made for string pro­tec­tion in lar­ger PV sys­tems such as sol­ar farms?
JT Shee­han: Not only, but they are also for use in com­bin­er boxes. These boxes take sev­er­al sol­ar strings and bring them to­geth­er to cre­ate a single source of power be­fore it goes in­to the in­vert­er.

IEN Europe: Ok. And when will the new fuses be avail­able in Europe?
JT Shee­han: They are already avail­able. Cus­tom­ers can or­der them right away.

IEN Europe: Mr. Shee­han, thank you very much for the in­ter­view.

About JT Shee­han
JT Shee­han gradu­ated at BSME Wentworth In­sti­tute of Tech­no­logy in Bo­ston (USA), 2005. He has been with Mersen for over fif­teen years in vari­ous tech­nic­al, en­gin­eer­ing, test­ing and product mar­ket­ing po­s­i­tions. Today, Shee­han is re­spons­ible for the de­vel­op­ment of new products and works closely with En­gin­eer­ing and Mar­ket­ing teams at Mersen. JT Shee­han is among oth­er things vot­ing mem­ber of NEMA Codes & Stand­ards and mem­ber of NEMA Fuse Sec­tion 5FU, the IEC SC 32B Fuse Com­mit­tee and the IEC TC 32 Fuse Com­mit­tee.
 

The new PLANET DIN rail power supplies from PULS feature active load sharing in parallel operation. Thanks to this technology, high-power systems can be realised more quickly using fanless power supplies. The precise control balances the load between power supplies, ensuring even thermal distribution and thus optimal system reliability. The family currently includes single-phase and three-phase models with 960 W. An efficiency level of 97 % reduces energy losses and heat generation, lowers operating costs, and contributes to CO₂ reduction. The reduced heat generation makes the compact design of a three-phase 960 W unit with a width of just 79 mm possible, creating more space in the control cabinet.

Highly flexible and reliable

For applications with dynamic loads – such as motor control in intralogistics and robotics – the devices offer Dynamic BonusPower, which automatically adapts to the changing demands of the application. With this technology, the three-phase TP960 can provide power reserves between 120 % (continuous) and 200 % (12 seconds), depending on the duration. This enables reliable handling of acceleration processes without the need to use oversized power supplies. 

With an MTBF of up to 325,000 hours and a minimum service life of 100,000 hours, the new power supplies are designed for long-term operation. The sophisticated convection-cooled design supports reliable continuous operation without a fan. The optimised HiccupPlus protection mechanism increases system safety in the event of overload or short circuit.

Convenient for installation and maintenance

Quick-connect terminals and a voltage selector with preset values ensure fast installation of the three-phase variants. An LED load indicator, AC-OK/DC-OK signals and documentation accessible via QR code make installation and maintenance easier. The innovative DIN rail power supplies help users to save space, energy and overall operating costs at the same time.

The SCHURTER  EDC (Electronic Direct Current) switch is specifically designed for the reliable switching of direct current in compact systems. It combines the mechanical precision of a microswitch with integrated power electronics. The result of the development is completely arc-free.

Arcing is one of the greatest safety risks when switching direct current. These are completely eliminated by an intelligent switching architecture.
When the contact is opened, the integrated electronics detect the disconnection process at an early stage and interrupt the current in a controlled manner before an arc can occur. This protects both the system and the environment from damage caused by sparking or EMC interference.

Long-lasting, reliable and compact

The EDC achieves well over a million switching cycles, as there is no arc-related erosion of the contacts. This extends the service life and reduces maintenance costs. Thanks to its compact design, the switch can also be integrated in confined installation situations. This is ideal for onboard systems in electromobility, compact power distribution systems in the aerospace industry or mobile robot solutions. The EDC also scores highly in industrial control systems with battery-buffered DC supply thanks to its high level of safety, energy efficiency and ease of installation.

Two versions available

The new SCHURTER EDC is available in two versions: as a stand-alone version (EDC 02) for universal actuators and as a SCHURTER-specific version for the MSM II switch as an actuator (EDC 01). Both versions are designed for a rated current of 10 A at 48 VDC. The EDC switch meets the growing demands for safety, miniaturization and reliability in modern DC applications – a robust solution for future-proof designs.

IEN Europe: Could you please de­scribe the main char­ac­ter­ist­ics of your new sensor and give a gen­er­al de­scrip­tion of the pro­duc­tion pro­cess to our read­ers?
Dr. Malte Köhler: The sensor is small (e.g. 1 µm edge length or even less, which is likely the smal­lest sensor in the world) and can solve man­i­fold prob­lems. One is that con­ven­tion­al sensors typ­ic­ally come with re­quire­ments that might hinder or even pro­hib­it the in­teg­ra­tion like sensor size, thermal re­ac­tion time for tem­per­at­ure sensors or creep­ing ef­fects for strain gauges with un­matched ma­ter­i­al para­met­ers. Our tech­no­logy has low re­quire­ments as the sensor is ad­dit­ively man­u­fac­tured and dir­ectly prin­ted to the sur­face. This means that the in­teg­ra­tion of our sensors will (in most cases) not hinder the ori­gin­al use case of the product: Hence we call our tech­no­logy mal­le­able.

We can pro­duce two dif­fer­ent types of sensors:

Tem­per­at­ure: We can meas­ure ab­so­lute tem­per­at­ures, heat fluxes and even tem­per­at­ure fields (with sensor ar­rays).

Forces: Our sensor is strain sens­it­ive and re­acts nat­ur­ally to mech­an­ic­al load­ings of the sub­strate. By care­fully de­cid­ing on the sensor po­s­i­tion on the part and po­ten­tially re­de­fin­ing the geo­met­ric­al con­fig­ur­a­tion of the part (minor geo­met­ric­al ad­just­ments that do not re­duce the part’s mech­an­ic­al sta­bil­ity) vir­tu­ally all forces can be meas­ured. For ro­bots we can meas­ure nor­mal and tan­gen­tial forces (with re­spect to the sur­face), we can meas­ure torque, com­press­ive and tensile forces and with a small MEMS chip even ab­so­lute pres­sures.)

The pro­duc­tion pro­cess is fully auto­mated and fea­tures qual­ity con­trol as well as trace­ab­il­ity per sensor (or per part). It in­volves three pro­cess steps:

• Sur­face Pre­par­a­tion with thin film elec­trodes: Thin film elec­trodes are ap­plied to the sur­face. Here we use stand­ard pro­cesses found in the in­dustry like PVD (phys­ic­al va­por de­pos­ition), sput­ter­ing etc. The elec­trodes are defined in their geo­met­ric­al con­fig­ur­a­tion by means of mi­crostamp­ing/mi­cro im­print, litho­graphy or by means or dir­ect struc­tur­ing meth­ods (e.g. laser ab­la­tion). 
• Fab­ric­a­tion of our Sensor: With the elec­trodes in place, di­gid ap­plies its nano­sensor. This is a litho­graphy pro­cess that provides a sensor ele­ment. The spe­cif­ic pro­cess is a trade secret. However, the pro­cess does not al­ter the sub­strate and can be even ap­plied on poly­mers. Es­tab­lished ma­ter­i­als are: Metals, Ceram­ics, Glass, Poly­mers and Semi­con­duct­or ma­ter­i­als. 
• Con­tact­ing the sensor with wires: The sensor now sit­ting in between the elec­trodes and be wired with the fol­low­ing pro­cesses: wire bond­ing, pogo pins, ul­tra son­ic wire weld­ing, sol­der­ing or glu­ing (con­duct­ive epoxy). The meth­od for con­tact­ing must not be pre­cise as the base res­ist­ance of the sensor can be tuned to high val­ues (Mega­ohms).
   

The pro­duc­tion pro­cess is pat­en­ted and in­dus­tri­al­ized so that mass pro­duc­tion is avail­able to our cus­tom­ers. 

The Nano­sensors are de­veloped un­der the med­ic­al device QMS ISO 13485 and can be also used in med­ic­al products after cer­ti­fic­a­tion. At the same time not every product di­gid is de­vel­op­ing is a med­ic­al product. The nano­sensors can be ap­plied also out­side the norms of ISO 13485.

IEN Europe: What are the main ap­plic­a­tion fields at the mo­ment? Which in­dus­tri­al ap­plic­a­tions could be­ne­fit from in­teg­rat­ing your sensors and is there an in­her­ent tech­nic­al lim­it?
Dr. Malte Köhler: We have cus­tom­ers in auto­mot­ive, med­ic­al and the pre­vent­ive main­ten­ance (aerospace) in­dus­tries at the mo­ment. 

Vir­tu­ally no tech­nic­al lim­its ex­ist, since the sensor is usu­ally smal­ler than the device. For too large ap­plic­a­tions we usu­ally use sub-as­sem­blies as this in­creases pro­duc­tion speed. The size lim­it for the sensor usu­ally arises from the struc­tur­ing meth­od used to fab­ric­ate the two sep­ar­ated elec­trodes and not from the sensor print­ing it­self. We can use litho­graphy or step­per litho­graphy as well as laser struc­tur­ing, mi­cro im­print or nano im­print litho­graphy for com­plex sub­state geo­met­ries. Our sensor is ul­tra-loc­al­ized (e.g. for force meas­ure­ments) and re­lies on ho­mo­gen­ous ma­ter­i­als (that are typ­ic­ally used for force sens­ing ap­plic­a­tions).

We can­not pro­duce our sensors on li­quid or gel-like ma­ter­i­als. So, the sensor al­ways re­quires a sub­strate.

IEN Europe: From the per­spect­ive of a po­ten­tial user: How could a com­pany in­teg­rate such a small com­pon­ent, and which in­ter­faces would be used?
Dr. Malte Köhler: We al­ways re­com­mend our cus­tom­ers to print the sensor dir­ectly on the sur­face of their product, or on a suit­able sub­assembly. This cir­cum­vents pos­sible prob­lems arising from pack­aging, like the need for glue­ing the sensor on the product as this in co­oper­ates ad­di­tion­al ma­ter­i­als with dif­fer­ent ma­ter­i­al prop­er­ties like thermal ex­pan­sion coef­fi­cients. The sub­assembly can be wel­ded or clamped to keep the matched ma­ter­i­al prop­er­ties. In ad­di­tion, the dir­ectly prin­ted sensor fea­tures best coup­ling to the sur­face and there­fore min­im­izes thermal re­ac­tion time or mech­an­ic­al dampen­ing. In either way, the prin­ted or glued sensor is con­tac­ted via thin film elec­trodes or bond wires and can be meas­ured with readout elec­tron­ics fea­tur­ing an elec­tric­al res­ist­ance or voltage meas­ure­ment.
 
IEN Europe: Can you see any pos­sib­il­ity of mak­ing the sensor units even smal­ler in the near fu­ture, and to what ex­tent?
Dr. Malte Köhler: Yes, we can cer­tainly go smal­ler than the cur­rent sensors with 1 µm edge length. The way to go is to use more ad­vanced struc­tur­ing meth­ods (nano-im­print-litho­graphy or step­per litho­graphy) for elec­trode defin­i­tion which are cur­rently more ex­pens­ive than reg­u­lar tech­no­lo­gies (UV litho­graphy, laser struc­tur­ing). However, all these struc­tur­ing meth­ods are in­dus­tri­ally ap­proved, ma­ture and read­ily avail­able to use. If we see the need we can eas­ily switch. The low­est we think we can go is so sev­er­al 10th of nano­met­ers. 

IEN Europe: Thank you for shar­ing these in­ter­est­ing in­sights with us.
 

Lika Electronic offers a comprehensive range of housed and unhoused absolute modular encoders. These encoders excel in their miniature size, minimal weight, and high resolution. Furthermore, both the readheads and the rings can be fully customized to meet the specific requirements of each application.

The SMAB off-axis encoder is designed for the harshest environments. Its electronics are fully overmolded and protected with an IP69K rating, allowing it to withstand dust, liquids, and contaminants. The MRAB ring features a large hollow bore up to 95 mm in diameter. It provides absolute position data via the SSI interface, with a resolution of up to 18 bits.

The AKS17 excels in compactness and versatility. It can be installed in both rotary and linear applications and paired with radial and axial rings. Despite its miniature size, it is IP67-rated and temperature-resistant, making it suitable for the most demanding industrial applications. The rotary resolution reaches up to 24 bits, while the linear resolution is as fine as 156 nm. The SSI and BiSS interfaces can be complemented with incremental and UVW signals.
 

Megatron offers compact rotary encoders to ensure flexibility for design engineers.The compact MBA magnetic absolute encoder has a housing diameter of just 12.7 mm, and shaft diameters are available in 3.175 mm, 6 mm, and 6.35 mm. The encoder can be easily installed in the application via a central thread and cap nut. Thanks to the MOLEX plug connection, the signal cable can easily be connected to the evaluation unit during installation or disconnected from the application during maintenance work. The MKA absolute Hall effect encoder has a very similar design to the MBA, with the only difference being that the MKA is a kit encoder (bearingless). It consists of an encoder unit, a mounting ring, and an appropriate slip-on magnet for the shaft. Thanks to its modular design, engineers can integrate the rotary encoder optimally into their application. MEGATRON offers the MKA for shaft diameters ranging from 3 mm to 6.35 mm. The key technical data is the same as that of the MBA.

Wide operational temperature range 

Both absolute encoders offer absolute, analogue (0–5 V) or pulse width modulation (PWM) output signals, and operate at an operating voltage of 5 VDC with a resolution of 12 bits. The update rate of the position value is 0.14 ms for analogue output. The MBA and MKA can be used in operating temperatures ranging from -40°C to +125°C and can withstand vibrations of up to 20 g (10 Hz to 2 kHz). The MBA features IP40 protection on the shaft side and is available with either sleeve or ball bearings.

With the new SIEDS multifunctional sensor, Indu-Sol is expanding its product portfolio for efficient digitization of industrial facilities. The focus is on data acquisition for preventive maintenance and providing information from the production environment. The multifunctional sensor is both a reliable assistant for maintenance personnel and an indispensable provider of information for maintaining high production quality, to the extent that it is almost perceived as a "colleague". It captures up to ten physical parameters at its installation location, including temperature, humidity, air quality, pressure, vibration/shock, brightness, acoustics and other variables such as magnetic fields. The latter can be an important indicator for identifying EMC influences.

No Software, No Parameterization

Thanks to the self-learning teach function on the integrated web server, the sensor automatically adapts its alarm behavior to different assets. It requires no separate software, no parameterization and is therefore fully operational immediately after installation. Irregularities are detected early at specific points and entered into an alarm list. The clear display makes it easy to identify trends and, due to the ten values, correlations can also be readily recognized, enabling measures to be derived for optimal operation and maintenance as well as for production.

For Maintenance and Optimization

Through the open industrial interfaces MQTT, OPC UA and REST API, the multifunctional sensor is an integral component of a modern, future-oriented OT digitization architecture. This means that integration into higher-level process optimization or CM systems is possible at any time if long-term time-related representation is required. Thanks to its rugged design with IP65 protection rating, it is particularly suitable for installation in harsh environments.

The multifunctional sensor is ideally suited for maintenance applications as well as providing indicators for process optimization. These include, for example, bearing and motor monitoring, detection of pipe leaks, monitoring of storage and facility conditions, vibration and acoustic analyses of critical components, as well as identifying influencing factors for quality assurance in the manufacturing process. 
 

Prescale from Fujifilm is an advanced material that can be used to visualize pressure and pressure distribution at various sensitivities. The Prescale film consists of two layers that react with each other when pressure is applied. As force is exerted, a red coloration appears, with its density corresponding to the pressure level. The film can be cut into any shape or size, making it suitable for a wide range of applications such as pressing processes, joining operations, or thermal laminations.

The film is simply cut to the required size, placed at the desired measurement point, and then exposed to pressure and heat. The resulting color development indicates the intensity of the applied pressure. Evaluation can be performed visually using a color chart or digitally via the FUJIFILM Prescale Mobile app.

For temperatures up to 220 °C 

With the new series for use at high temperatures, there is now a film available that has been specially developed to make pressure distributions visible under the influence of heat. This product line is designed for applications where both pressure and heat are present. Two temperature categories are available High Temperature 100, suitable for temperatures from 35 °C to 150 °C and High Temperature 200 for temperatures from 150 °C to 220 °C.

Compared to conventional Prescale films, the high‑temperature versions offer significantly improved stability. Unwanted coloration, deformation of the base material, or peeling of the coating are greatly reduced, even during extended exposure to heat.

Both product lines are available on rolls in three pressure sensitivity levels: (0,2- 0,6, 0,5 – 2,5 und 2,5 bis 10 MPa).
 

One of the latest ad­di­tions to the ex­tens­ive range of Baumer sensors is the Nex­Son­ic UF300, an ul­tra-com­pact 18mm flat ul­tra­son­ic sensor with a 3-meter sens­ing range and ideally suited to in­t­ra­lo­gist­ics ap­plic­a­tions. In ad­di­tion to the sens­ing range oth­er key fea­tures in­clude a blind range of just 50mm and a short re­sponse time up to 56ms. The min­im­al in­stall­a­tion depth will be ex­tremely help­ful in sens­ing ap­plic­a­tions where space is re­stric­ted.

The Nex­Son­ic tech­no­logy is de­signed to max­im­ise ul­tra­son­ic sensor per­form­ance and is based on an ul­tra­son­ic pro­cessor (AS­IC) de­veloped and pat­en­ted by Baumer. In Nex­Son­ic ul­tra­son­ic sensors the piezo elec­tric ele­ment with AS­IC con­nects dir­ectly to the sensor mem­brane. The res­ult is a short­er sig­nal path and im­proved elec­tro­mag­net­ic com­pat­ib­il­ity, while the com­pact eval­u­ation elec­tron­ics boosts sig­nal pro­cessing time and re­li­ab­il­ity. Ad­di­tion­al be­ne­fits of the tech­no­logy are the ad­apt­ive son­ic cone which is ideally suited to de­tect­ing ob­jects through nar­row open­ings along with smart fil­ter func­tions, which can sup­press in­ter­fer­ing ob­jects.

More ver­sat­il­ity with less vari­ants

UF300 with Nex­Son­ic tech­no­logy is avail­able in both meas­ur­ing and switch­ing op­tions and should prove to be ex­tremely ver­sat­ile as a sensor which re­duces the num­ber of product vari­ants typ­ic­ally re­quired in pro­duc­tion and ware­hous­ing ap­plic­a­tions. Thanks to the unique fea­tures of the new UF300 sensor makes it ideally suited to sens­ing ap­plic­a­tions in­clud­ing pal­let de­tec­tion, par­tic­u­larly on long fork arms, for mon­it­or­ing pal­let stacks and gates in cold stor­age fa­cil­it­ies, as well as oth­er sens­ing ap­plic­a­tions in the pack­aging and elec­tron­ics in­dus­tries.
 

Mi­cro-Ep­si­lon has ex­ten­ded its range of con­focal chro­mat­ic dis­tance and thick­ness meas­ure­ment sensors with a new High Tem­per­at­ure (HT) series of sensors that with­stand op­er­at­ing tem­per­at­ures up to 200 °C. Due to their com­pact, ro­bust design and vari­ous meas­ur­ing range op­tions, the con­focalDT IFS2047-xHT/VAC series of high pre­ci­sion con­focal stain­less steel sensors are ideal for meas­ure­ment tasks in very lim­ited in­stall­a­tion spaces. The in­stall­a­tion space depth can be fur­ther re­duced by us­ing the op­tion­al 90-de­gree beam path ver­sion. This gives flex­ib­il­ity in sensor mount­ing for dif­fer­ent in­stall­a­tion scen­ari­os.

The HT sensors can also be used in clean rooms and ul­tra-high va­cu­ums (UHV). Due to their pass­ive com­pon­ent design, the sensors do not emit any heat ra­di­ation in­to the en­vir­on­ment. In ad­di­tion, an ad­hes­ive-free design keeps out­gass­ing to a min­im­um. Primary fields of ap­plic­a­tion there­fore in­clude elec­tron­ics, semi­con­duct­or, glass, med­ic­al tech­no­logy and pre­ci­sion ma­chine build­ing.

Re­flect­ive and dif­fuse sur­faces

The con­focalDT IFS2047-xHT/VAC is avail­able in three meas­ur­ing ranges of 0.8 mm, 2 mm and 4 mm. The sensors can be used for high pre­ci­sion dis­place­ment and dis­tance meas­ure­ments on strongly re­flect­ive and dif­fuse sur­faces, as well as for thick­ness meas­ure­ments. Due to their ex­cel­lent lin­ear­ity (max. < ±0.18 µm for dis­tance and < ±0.36 µm for thick­ness meas­ure­ments), res­ol­u­tion (max. < 6 nm) and thermal sta­bil­ity (from < 0.005 % FSO/K), the sensors also provide high re­peat­ab­il­ity.

All con­focalDT sensors are com­pat­ible with the IFC Con­focal con­trol­lers and va­cu­um ac­cessor­ies from Mi­cro-Ep­si­lon. This en­ables meas­ur­ing rates up to 30 kHz for fast and re­li­able pro­cess mon­it­or­ing.
 

In re­sponse to the re­cent glob­al short­age of Ger­mani­um, an es­sen­tial ma­ter­i­al for op­tic­al com­pon­ents in long-wavelength in­frared cam­er­as, Optris has en­gin­eered and launched a new op­tic­al design that com­pletely re­moves the need for Ger­mani­um. Ger­mani­um has long been the main ma­ter­i­al for lenses and win­dows in thermal ima­ging sys­tems. However, is­sues like sup­ply short­ages, ex­port re­stric­tions, and rising prices have cre­ated un­cer­tainty. Des­pite these chal­lenges, Optris con­tin­ues to provide re­li­able product avail­ab­il­ity by lead­ing the way with a new gen­er­a­tion of in­frared op­tics.

Ad­vanced op­tic­al en­gin­eer­ing without Ger­mani­um 

The new Optris op­tics util­ize a unique com­bin­a­tion of spe­cially de­signed in­frared glasses to take the place of rare earth ele­ments such as Ger­mani­um.
These op­tics of­fer im­port­ant be­ne­fits for thermal ima­ging ap­plic­a­tions:

• Achromat­ic design — Oth­er man­u­fac­tur­ers have suc­cess­fully used in­frared glass tech­no­logy for years, but suffered from size of source ef­fects and col­or ab­er­ra­tions, de­grad­ing op­tic­al res­ol­u­tion and ac­cur­acy. Optris nov­el com­bin­a­tion of glasses al­lows min­im­al chro­mat­ic ab­er­ra­tion, en­sur­ing pre­cise thermal ima­ging across the long-wavelength in­frared spec­trum.
• Athermal­ized con­struc­tion — the fo­cal point re­mains stable and nearly in­de­pend­ent of tem­per­at­ure changes. This al­lows the same fo­cus set­ting to be set in­de­pend­ently of op­er­at­ing tem­per­at­ures.
• Ger­mani­um-free ma­ter­i­als — com­pletely free from Ger­mani­um or oth­er re­stric­ted ma­ter­i­als, en­sur­ing long-term sup­ply se­cur­ity.
   

Stable per­form­ance, seam­less trans­ition 

With these new op­tics, Optris is not just ad­dress­ing the is­sues caused by Ger­mani­um short­ages but also set­ting a new stand­ard for the in­dustry. Cus­tom­ers can now count on the same pre­ci­sion and re­li­ab­il­ity of thermal cam­er­as, without wor­ry­ing about ma­ter­i­al avail­ab­il­ity. For cus­tom­ers, only min­im­al changes res­ult. Field of view (FOV), F-num­ber, and im­age sharp­ness are fully com­par­able to tra­di­tion­al Ger­mani­um op­tics. The launch of Ger­mani­um-free in­frared op­tics shows Optris’ agile com­mit­ment to in­nov­a­tion, sup­ply chain sta­bil­ity, and tech­no­lo­gic­al in­de­pend­ence. 

It­er­at­ively, most lenses are re­placed by this new op­tic­al design. Optris has com­pleted the merge of the first lenses. Most op­tics will be swapped to the new design by the end of the year.
 

The focus is on AI-supported security monitoring, digitalised lockout-tagout processes and energy optimisation tools. The combination with augmented reality (AR) makes safety plannable and tangible - planning becomes visually tangible, investments transparent and costs clearly calculable.

Digital planning meets real implementation

"We are showing how digitalisation is redefining machine safety," explains Anton Ivanov, Head of Sales & Operations at tec.nicum GmbH. "By combining CAD technology, AR visualisation and AI-based analysis, we are increasing plant safety and minimising downtimes." The company relies on a turnkey approach: customers receive everything from a single source, from consulting and engineering through to implementation. Practical examples from real projects illustrate how companies can benefit in the long term - technically, organisationally and economically - from the combination of digital tools and security expertise. "Our goal: to make your processes more secure, efficient and future-proof - and to relieve our customers as much as possible in the process."

One highlight is the integration of CAD technology with augmented reality (AR). This means that safety concepts and system layouts are not only visualised, but can also be experienced interactively. Investments become transparent and costs can be clearly calculated - even before the first move is made. The AR overlay on machines provides a glimpse into the future of safety and makes complex interrelationships intuitively understandable.

Turnkey approach for maximum relief  

tec.nicum offers manufacturers and operators a comprehensive service: from consulting and engineering to implementation. Whether innovative engineering tools, 3D visualisations or customised processes - all services come from a single source. The result: safe, efficient and sustainable production solutions with minimal effort for the customer. The range of services offered by tec.nicum comprises six areas: Academy (knowledge transfer), Consulting (advice), Engineering (technical planning), Integration (execution and implementation), Digitalisation (software solutions and new digital technologies) and Outsourcing (complete solutions).
 

NXD is the surface treatment from NORD Drivesystems for gear units, smooth motors and frequency inverters in the company's flexibly configurable aluminium portfolio. It provides the users with an economic and effective alternative for the surface protection of drive solutions, which are heavily stressed by extreme environmental conditions. With NXD, NORD increases the durability of these drive systems and thus prolongs the system availability. The surfaces are free from chromates and PFAS.

Two variants for effective protection

With NXD, aluminium surfaces are galvanised, making them particularly corrosion-resistant and durable. The latest generation of surface protection is available in two variants. NXD BASIC® consists of the galvanically-produced base layer with an additional varnish. Corrosion protection is also ensured in case of damage to the varnish. The variant is suitable for use under demanding environmental conditions such as offshore areas. 

The second variant is the food-safe NXD tupH®. Here, this galvanised base layer is treated with a sealer. This process prevents flaking or microcracks prone to germs. NXD tupH® offers safe surface protection for extreme conditions in wash-down applications. It makes drive solutions resistant to acids and alkalis from the regular cleaning and disinfection processes. Even if damage occurs to the galvanised base layer, no particles will flake off due to the sealing, which makes NXD tupH® surfaces hygiene-friendly and thus suitable for use in hygienically critical industries. NXD tupH® is food-safe according to FDA and according to EU Regulation 1935/2004. This makes components with an NXD tupH® surface suitable for the processing of hygienically sensitive products in almost every important market worldwide. 

Aluminium offers numerous advantages

With NXD, NORD reveals the advantages of aluminium for demanding environments and hygienically sensitive production areas. Aluminium is lightweight, economical and fully recyclable. Furthermore, aluminium housings provide better heat conductivity, thus reducing their maximum surface temperature.NXD is available for all NORD drive components made of aluminium, including the integrated DuoDrive geared motor system, the energy-efficient IE5+ smooth motors as well as NORDBLOC.1® helical in-line gear units and NORDBLOC.1® bevel gear units. With the NORDAC ON PURE, a decentralised frequency inverter with an NXD tupH interface will also be available soon. 

Baumüller co­oper­ates with Con­trolEng Cor­por­a­tion to have IPMSM mo­tor mod­el of the DS4 series in­teg­rated in­to siz­ing soft­ware SER­VOsoft. The DS4 mo­tor series fea­tures in­teri­or mag­nets, is very com­pact, and of­fers an ex­ten­ded nom­in­al torque range. This makes this In­teri­or Per­man­ent Mag­net Syn­chron­ous Mo­tor (IPMSM) suit­able for ap­plic­a­tions in nu­mer­ous in­dus­tries. 

The siz­ing soft­ware SER­VOsoft of Con­trolEng Cor­por­a­tion has been the mar­ket stand­ard for the ef­fi­cient siz­ing of elec­tric drive sys­tems for many years. Baumüller and Con­trolEng Cor­por­a­tion have been work­ing to­geth­er very closely for many years and have now jointly de­veloped an IPMSM mo­tor mod­el. This al­lows the new DS4 series to be op­tim­ally sized. 
The mo­tor has a high ef­fi­ciency of over 97 per­cent and a low car­bon foot­print. This is due to the re­duced use of ma­ter­i­al res­ult­ing from the very com­pact struc­ture. It also re­duces the over­all size of the ma­chine. The im­proved dy­nam­ics also in­crease pro­ductiv­ity and en­sure that ma­chine move­ments can be car­ried out more quickly.