Klöckner DESMA Elastomertechnik GmbH has received an award from the state of Baden-Württemberg for its innovative SmartConnect 4.U machine program.

As part of the “100 Places for Industry 4.0 in Baden-Württemberg” competition organized by the Industry 4.0 Alliance, the state government honored the Fridingen-based mechanical engineering company as a company that has been particularly successful in implementing digitization solutions in its day-to-day operations. The winners receive a certificate of honor and a glass plaque for their location and are presented on the website “Allianz Industrie 4.0 Baden-Württemberg”. In addition to DESMA, 27 other institutions and companies received awards.

In selecting the award winners, particular emphasis is placed on the practical relevance of the technologies. In addition, the expert jury looks for products or projects with a high degree of innovation. They saw both realized in SmartConnect 4.U.

The program for the intelligent networking of data sources and analysis results makes it possible to develop new products, services and business models and thus make processes in operations more efficient. In this way, production quality can be increased. The system is also already geared to future developments. Networked collaboration between people, machines, robots and computers will be increasingly simplified by SmartConnect 4.U.

“Addressing opportunities”

“Industry, SMEs and startups in Baden-Württemberg are well on their way to a digitized future, as the projects awarded prizes today impressively demonstrate. With the award ceremony, we want to make tangible solutions from the state that create added value even better known. In this way, we want to motivate small and medium-sized enterprises in particular to actively tackle the real opportunities presented by Industry 4.0,” said Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister of Economic Affairs and Labor for Baden-Württemberg, at the award ceremony in the Old Palace in Stuttgart.

About the Industry 4.0 Alliance

The Industry 4.0 Alliance is a network initiated and funded by the state of Baden-Württemberg, whose coordinating office is located at the VDMA Baden-Württemberg state association. Its primary goal is to pool expertise in production technology and information and communications technology and to support small and medium-sized industrial enterprises as they move toward Industry 4.0.