The winners of the German Innovation Award were honored for the first time on the evening of June 6, 2018 as part of a festive gala in the Berlin Museum of Technology. With this award, the German Design Council honors product innovations, products and services that have a market effect. Decisive for the award of the prize is the lasting effect and the demonstrable added value for the user. The focus is on the customer and so it is only logical that there is also a special award in the Design Thinking category.

3i Print came out on top in the Excellence in Business to Business category. 3i-PRINT is an open partner platform for the rapid implementation of innovative ideas in the automotive sector. Partners of the cooperation under the direction of csi development technology are ALTRAIR, AIRBUS APWORKS, EOS, GERG and HERAEUS. The front end concept shown in the figure clearly shows the use of additive manufacturing with metal: free choice of materials, flexibility, no tools, functional integration, media storage, thermal management, load path and crash-compatible topology, design freedom.

Heraeus is a family-owned technology group based in Hanau that was founded in 1851. The company supplies components and specific material systems for various industries such as steel, electronics, chemicals, automotive and telecommunications. At Heraeus, innovation is not just understood as product development. A fundamental goal of Heraeus is to work holistically and to convince our customers with new system solutions, services and business models. It is therefore obvious that Heraeus uses IP design in its innovation process along 360 ° IP strategies. IP design as a management tool allows IP to be designed as required to protect customer-centric business models. By thinking through the customer journey and actively shaping user experiences in the early phases of the innovation process, the company becomes faster and more agile in its innovation efforts.

As a technology company, Heraeus has continued to develop for more than 165 years, adapting its own structures with the development of technologies. Innovative strength is a key factor in the company’s success. The industrial birth of the company was in 1851. At that time, developments often took place through communicative exchange and the sharing of knowledge. Developers of their time created innovations by trying out, discarding or jointly testing new methods. Over the years, structures and organizations have grown and more and more islands of knowledge have emerged. With the construction of the fiftyONE building, Heraeus is going back to its roots and promoting cross-departmental collaboration. Regardless of the organizational affiliation, developers work together on innovative projects. The new building promotes the exchange and cooperation of different disciplines. New communication and work opportunities on five levels offer the space to think about new things. Whether in the office or in the laboratory, open areas or quiet zones – the employees decide for themselves about their workplace, according to their needs. Heraeus is actively working on further optimizing its own innovation culture – read more here.