With an investment of 10 million euros, the Schunk Group has created optimal conditions for Weiss Technik to develop the products of tomorrow: In the presence of Minister President Volker Bouffier, the new Innovation Center has now been opened in Reiskirchen.
"The Schunk Group is a technology company. For us, innovations are vital because they ensure our success. For this reason, Schunk invests massively in its innovation capabilities. And that is why I am very pleased that we can jointly open the new Weiss Technik Innovation Center here today," said Dr. Arno Roth, CEO of the Schunk Group. The Schunk Group has invested around 10 million euros in the Innovation Center of its subsidiary Weiss Technik at the Reiskirchen site.
The investment is an important part of the company's "Success by Innovation" initiative, with which Schunk is strengthening its innovative capabilities. Just last week, the technology company opened another innovation center in Heuchelheim, which has an investment volume of around 20 million euros. In the past five years, Schunk has invested around 220 million euros in Hesse alone and created 340 new jobs. The Schunk Group currently employs 3,700 people at its sites in Heuchelheim, Wettenberg and Reiskirchen, making it one of the largest industrial employers in the region.
Optimal conditions for products of the future
With the new innovation center, Weiss Technik is creating entirely new spatial and technical possibilities for forward-looking new developments. "Weiss Technik is one of the world's leading suppliers of environmental simulation systems, air-conditioning and pharmaceutical technology," emphasized Peter R. Manolopoulos, Member of the Executive Board of the Schunk Group and responsible for Weiss Technik. "We want to further expand our technological lead in the future. The Innovation Center takes Weiss Technik's product development to a whole new level and offers our developers an optimal working environment and equipment to create the products of tomorrow here."
"Success by innovation"
Hesse's Minister President Volker Bouffier said, "The Schunk Group has been anchored in Hesse for more than 100 years and has always been one of the region's largest industrial employers. As a company that thinks in the long term, it makes a significant contribution to economic growth under the guiding principle of "success by innovation" and makes a decisive contribution to securing the future of Hessen and also Germany as a business location. With the test systems of Weiss Technik, it lays the foundation for the most innovative production as well as research and development in various areas. With technological equipment at the highest level, the new innovation center offers space for inventive talent, for forward-looking developments and for sustainable business, thus providing the best conditions for continuing to march at the forefront of progress."
New opportunities for research and development
The new building, which with its modern architecture occupies a prominent place at the Reiskirchen-Lindenstruth site, has a usable area of 3,600 square meters. The largest part of it is used by Weiss Technik's research and development department. In addition to their offices, the developers now have access to excellently equipped test workshops and test rooms where they can tinker with the products of tomorrow. The building has been specially equipped with two different climate zones to ensure particularly high test accuracy. This provides optimal conditions for the development of Weiss Technik products, which are used around the globe in research and development as well as in the production and quality assurance of numerous products.
Weiss Technik products include, for example, climatic test chambers or climatic chambers. In such test facilities, Weiss Technik's customers test a wide variety of products for their functionality and safety - from cell phone batteries to drive batteries for electric cars. Global megatrends such as digitalization or e-mobility are also increasing the demand for test facilities - excellent prospects for Weiss Technik. Weiss Technik's software department has also found its place in the Innovation Center: This is where the software as well as the cloud applications for Weiss Technik's machines are programmed, thus advancing the digitalization of the company's products.
State-of-the-art rooms for Weiss Technik Academy
Also housed in the Innovation Center is the Weiss Technik Academy: its tasks are to qualify Weiss Technik's global sales and service organization and to train customers on the company's own equipment and systems. For this purpose, the new seminar rooms of the Weiss Technik Academy were equipped with the latest presentation technology and the infrastructure of the practice rooms was designed for real operation of systems - exactly as they are used in the laboratory at the customers. In this way, Weiss Technik machines can be demonstrated in the practice room under real conditions, creating optimal conditions for classroom training. An important topic for the Weiss Technik Academy - and not just because of the Corona pandemic - are virtual events. Here, too, the Innovation Center now offers the best conditions: Its own fully equipped studio now enables the further digitalization of the seminar offering.
