Innovation Award Recognises Innovative Product Developments

4th Innovation Award at Powtech 2011 Innovation Award Recognises Innovative Product Developments

18.10.2011Editor: Sonja Beyer

Clear the stage for innovative developments: at the Powtech 2011 fair, PROCESS, PharmaTEC and Schüttgut chose the winners of the Innovation Award for the fourth time in a row, which spotlights firms for clever new products. Find out which developments particularly convinced the jury and brought their inventors the trophies in Nuremberg.

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Publisher Gerd Kielburger (Picture: PROCESS)

Nuremberg, Würzburg — The response ahead of the Powtech was vibrant, the jury of the specialist media PROCESS, PharmaTEC and Schüttgut had to evaluate around 70 entries for this year’s Innovation Award. An important criterion for getting onto the short list: the solutions, systems and components must be not older than twelve months, but must already be available on the market. As in previous years, the jury again judged all entered new products according to the degree of innovation and their practical usability, as well as quality, efficiency and economy for the user. “Innovation is often a balancing act,” emphasised chief editor and publisher Gerd Kielburger. The task is to find the middle way between cost considerations and creativity. The first evening of this year’s Powtech saw the official prize ceremony, and in the festive setting the awards were given for the following six different categories:

Innovation Award for Filling/Packaging Technology

The winning product in the category Filling/Packaging Technology is the Flecozip docking system by Andocksysteme G. Untch, which enables zero-contamination docking, contents transfer and undocking — particularly for flexible containers with toxic or fragile bulk solids. The core is a two-part zip sealer whose parts provide a dust-tight closing of container and docking adapter onto the process unit. A separate slider docks the two matching zip sealer parts onto each other before the contents transfer starts. Closing and undocking are initiated by the retraction of the slider. A neat feature of this docking system: the sealer halves come in all lengths, and are therefore not just available in pre-assembled form on containers and adapters, but allow user-friendly fitting to almost all LDPE containers on the market.

Shortlisted for the final round in this category were the following products:

The modular filling system Easy Fill by Ebbecke Verfahrenstechnik, with which refilling from Big Bag containers into almost any kind of receiver containers is possible.

A ceiling-mounted Big Bag transport system with automated sack hooks by Derichs, enabling almost entirely automated transport of filled Big Bags, even without pallets.

Innovation Award for Plant Engineering and Processing Components

Traditionally especially fiercely contested, the category Plant Engineering and Processing Components attracted in 2011 again the most entries. Here Aerzener led the field with the Delta Hybrid rotary lobe compressor unit, which combines rotary lobe blower and screw compressor technology and unites constructively the advantages of both systems. As a result, new possibilities open up in vacuum and high pressure production. At the Powtech 2011, the firm presents the Delta Hybrid for the first time in a vacuum version. The new range enables energy-savings of up to 15%, offers extended application areas and pressure ranges, and also reduces life cycle costs. Simple handling and lowered maintenance costs combine with long service life and reliability to make the unit economical and user-friendly.

Also on the shortlist were:

The BFM connector by Walter Gerätebau: it replaces the hose clamps used for fixing flexible connections to pipe ends in powder and bulk solid processing. The new connector includes an incorporated clamping ring with a specially formed seal with which it closes off connections from inside.

The connecting systems with integrated ring filters by Hecht Technologie: due to its integration into the connecting system for filling and emptying different bulk solid containers, product loss as well as time and cost-intensive cleaning work for an external filter unit are saved.

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