Entering the career with fresh ideas

Real innovation coupled with economic production and relevance in everyday life is seldom found. On 10 March seven groups, each with 3-5 vocational students, from the disciplines of automotive engineering and bodywork, and vehicle technology , proved that they have found this special mixture and that too in breathtaking time: From the initial ideas to the construction, the students took just 6 weeks.
As a national supporter indeed of the automotive technology as well as sponsor of the Shell Eco Marathon (which was the subject of a presentation), igus® had been invited, and which we naturally accepted.

After a short speech, the first group began their presentation. Five students tinkered on the first prototype of a roof bow in hybrid construction. The highlight: The need for a panoramic sun and glare protection crystallized through preceding road surveys. An electronically driven, extra light model (keywords: energy efficiency) was then designed in the injection molding process. Dominik Kamman, now a certified technician, presented the last aspect at the front, because in times of skyrocketing fuel prices every innovation must establish itself in this field.

Particularly popular with visitors was a lift and assembly table for car doors, which can be used in workshops to make the disassembling of car doors safer, easier and faster. A presentation on site showed that the prototype worked perfectly.
Messrs. Winkelmann, Starr and Radek certify that the telescopic steering wheel hub designed by them has a strong performance enhancing effect, particularly in amateur racing, due to the now perfect setting of the steering wheel. Unfortunately the project has not obtained a general approval from the TÜV. But it has already been recognized in individual cases.

The group led by Messrs. Janiszewski, Morailidis and Bagulok shared their experiences during participation in the said Shell-Eco Marathon. The rules are basically simple as well as brilliant: Who is the farthest with a liter of fuel at the Lausitzring?
The team of NAOB managed 617 km with a liter (!). It even came close to the record of 679 km.
Also very popular and not socially irrelevant was the design of a driving aid for people with physical limitations. With that, the three students compete with the established Heidelberg systems. Special feature: The group managed to develop a handheld device for left-handers and those who prefer to use the left hand, which is so flexible that it is easy to get in and get out.

A safety relay box for the Mercedes S-Class, which was also injection molded, and a system for detecting the payload of camper vans brought this extremely interesting event to an end.
While the former was strongly associated with the company Mercedes, the latter was again interesting to end users. A system that indicates the total load of the camper van was built using custom-designed draw-wire sensors. The selling price of this system lies far below the usual average.
igus® would like to specifically commend all the students and thank them for a very entertaining evening.
We wish all our technicians a good start to their career and who knows? Perhaps one or the other invention goes into production.