VAHLE Automation relies on new research alliance between Schwoich and Sweden

The VAHLE Group, based in Kamen, Germany, has become the world market leader in its more than 100-year company history with systems for energy and data transmission. In 2013, VAHLE Automation was founded as an innovation and development center in Schwoich near Kufstein/Tyrol. To further strengthen international competitiveness, a close research cooperation with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm is now being realized. "We want to further expand our company's top position and, in doing so, we rely on innovative developments, the latest research and state-of-the-art technologies. Therefore, we are now establishing a network between Sweden and Schwoich with the leading experts in Stockholm," emphasizes VAHLE CEO Achim Dries. On the occasion of the visit of Prof. James Gross from KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, the research alliance was now officially sealed by Group CEO Dries, Volker Napiwotzki (CTO VAHLE Kamen) Peter Kohlschmidt and Thomas Streicher (both Head of VAHLE Automation). Innovation center in Tyrol will be internationally networked "The cooperation with Stockholm is long-term, says Dries, and includes, among other things, the assignment of doctoral, master's and bachelor's topics to students in Sweden: "In addition, we will establish a technology advisory board in the VAHLE Group, of which Prof. Gross will be a permanent member." Automation and digitalization are becoming increasingly important, Dries is aware. "Together with our research and development department at the headquarters in Kamen, VAHLE Automation in Tyrol forms a technology axis that will now be even more intensively networked internationally." Cooperation between business & science as a model for success

For KTH Stockholm, the appeal of the cooperation lies above all in the multi-faceted nature of the collaboration: "We will be moving closer together intensively in both research and training, and both our students and the VAHLE Group will benefit from this. The symbiosis of business and science, practice and theory is a successful model that has great potential for the future," Prof. Gross was also convinced during his visit to Tyrol. Research assignments bring students into the company

"Within the framework of the research assignments, students will also gain insight into practice based on our topics. This promises valuable impulses for us at the Tyrol location," VAHLE Automation Managing Director Kohlschmidt is convinced. But it is not only the Schwoich location that will benefit from the partnership, explains VAHLE CTO Napiwotzki, who is responsible for the technical area throughout the group: "The aim is to ensure the ability to innovate and to develop leading-edge technology products in order to secure market leadership for the company in this way." As a system supplier for energy and communication systems, the VAHLE Group's core business today is in rail-guided and freely navigating transport vehicles, which are supplied with contact-free energy as well as data for control and positioning in port, crane, conveyor, and warehouse technology. Other areas of business include customer-specific operating terminals, camera-based sensor technology, rail and elevator technology, and power supply for amusement park rides. Spectacular lighthouse projects from Dubai to Singapore

The VAHLE Group regularly causes a stir with international lighthouse projects. One of the most recent projects was the world's largest and highest observation wheel, the Ain Dubai, which went into operation for EXPO 2021. A few years earlier, the world's second largest Ferris wheel to date, the Singapore Flyer, was electrified. In the past, Felixstowe, the largest port in England, was completely electrified and automated. The same applies to the world's first fully automated container terminal at the port of Laem Chabang in Thailand.