bauma-Innovation Prize 2010 winners announced

The bauma-Innovation prize winners have been announced at a special award ceremony organized by the VDMA (Verband Deutscher Maschinen-und Anlagenbau).

The innovation prize received more than 200 entries in the five categories, with 15 "world premieres" making it to the final round.

The award-winning innovations are:

SL 750 EiControlPlus shearer loader
Eickhoff Bergbautechnik (category machinery)

Energy storage cylinder
Liebherr (category component)

Boring wells with the help of glass beads
Ochs Bohrgesellschaft
(category construction process/construction work)

Acoustic geo scanner
Clausthal University of Technoloy, Chair of Civil Engineering and International Mining
(category research)

New drilling procedure
Technical University of Dresden, Chair of Construction and Conveying Machinery
(category research)

Liebherr LH 120 C materials handling equipment
Liebherr (category design)

According to the jury, the six winners fulfilled the criteria according to which they had evaluated the innovations: being future-compliant, being of high practical use, being a further development as regards protection of the environment and making the workplace more favourable to the human being; and their being economical and productive and, at the same time, energy and cost efficient.

Commenting on the awards, Dr Christof Kemmann, chairman of the VDMA, said the competition proved in particular, what German mechanical engineering had to offer in terms of innovations. "It reflects the performance of the entire industry."

Besides the VDMA, the competition is sponsored by the HDB (Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie), ZDB (Zentralverband des deutschen Baugewerbes), BBS (Bundesverband Baustoffe, Steine + Erden) and bauma.

The award winners

SL 750 EiControlPlus shearer loader
Eickhoff Bergbautechnik

With this shearer loader, it is possible - for the first time ever - to operate underground long-walling fully automatically, with the operator only having to monitor the machine's performance while remaining safe and comfortable.

Equipped with linked infrared cameras and newly developed sensors, the system constantly monitors the machines surroundings, while a navigation system that uses radar screening and a couple of video cameras enables the machine to avoid obstacles, detect and follow deposit boundaries and run the entire haulage and extraction process automatically.

In turn this avoids unneccessary extraction of the surrounding rock, helps save energy and reduces CO2 emissions.

Energy storage cylinder
Liebherr

This energy storage cylinder is, in fact, an energy regeneration system designed especially for hydraulic excavators used in material handling work.

Every time a load is lifted, a huge amount of energy has to be exerted. When lowering the equipment, some of that energy, created by compressing gas, can be stored in an additional external gas cylinder.

When lifting again, the energy stored in the gas cylinder helps the action of the two boom lifting rams, which means less fuel consumption and less pollutant, as well as lower noise emissions.

Boring wells with the help of glass beads
Ochs Bohrgesellschaft

This new technique by Ochs applies glass beads for well boring, which marks a totally new supporting material between the bore hole wall and the well filter drill.

The purpose of the supporting material is to support the layers of soil particles at the wall of the bore hole in such a way that clear and sand-free water is able to pass through the free pore spaces to the well filter pipe with as little resistance as possible.

Sand and gravel are normally used in this process. Compared to sand and gravel, glass beads are four to ten times stronger and have an optimal roundness with all beads having nearly the same size.

This results in a greatest possible free pore space through which the water can flow unimpeded. Dissolved lime, iron or manganese is far less likely to be found inside the well - also requiring less cleaning intervals. This ensures a longer, better and more economic service life of water catching wells.

Acoustic geo scanner

Clausthal University of Technoloy,
Chair of Civil Engineering and International Mining

The geo scanner is a new acoustic scanning device used for surveying ground and deposits as well as detecting unconsolidated rock.

The principle is that different materials have a different "sound behaviour". Its body sound vibrations make for the typical fingerprint of a mountain range and the new device enables us to make it visible.

A visual evaluation of the material is no longer necessary. With this method, raw materials can be obtained efficiently, which avoids extracting unwanted material.

New drilling procedure
Technical University of Dresden
Chair of Construction and Conveying Machinery

Drilling based on the electro-impulse procedure that makes use of the destructive effect of the high energy electrical changes which are produced inside the material which is to be loosened. This loosening process is totally different from the ones commonly used. Instead of its compressive strength of the rock, its tensile adhesive strength must be overcome here. At the university, a down-hole-tool was developped.

This is a device which can be integrated into the drilling process just like a conventional drilling tool. The advantages of this new method: nearly no wear out as no mechanical forces are working on the device and a higher drilling speed of 4 m/hour in granite, leading to a 30% cost saving.

Liebherr LH 120 C materials handling equipment
Liebherr

With its totally new design, Liebherr developped a new, "functionally optimized" machine shape with its Liebherr LH 120 C.

Its newly developed comfortable cabin offers optimal ergonomy and vision; operating and control elements are located within easy reach for the driver. The new cubic body allows for new panel shapes also and makes the engine compartment easy to access.

It provides a roof under which maintenance work can be carried out even under poor weather conditions. Servicing points are neatly laid out and the fuel tank is exceptionally large requiring refuelling less frequently.

Additionally, some innovative safety instruments were integrated into this new machine.