General Meeting VDMA Fluidtechnik in Augsburg

Frankfurt, September 18, 2017: As part of the General Meeting of the professional association Fluidtechnik in the VDMA on 14 and 15 September in Augsburg, Christian H. Kienzle, Managing Director of the ARGO-HYTOS GmbH, was confirmed as chairman in his office for a further four years. Heribert Rohrbeck of the Christian Bürkert GmbH & Co. KG was re-elected as vice chairman for the pneumatic sector and Ingrid Hunger from the Walter Hunger GmbH & Co. KG for the hydraulics sector.

"The trust in my person and my commitment to the interests of the fluid industry is a great honor. Together with my colleagues on the board of directors and the management of the specialist association, it is important to position the fluid technology as an important key industry for the key trends in machine and plant engineering," said Kienzle after the election as chairman.

Strong position of the German fluid technology
With a view to the months January to August of this year, the German hydraulics can record a turnover plus of six percent compared to the previous year's period. With regard to German pneumatics, sales in this period are ten percent higher than in the previous year. In particular, the strong demand from the field of automation strengthened the development and there was a great interest in Germany and abroad in top technologies and fluid products made in Germany.

Strategic topics offer opportunities
In addition strategic topics are on the agenda of the German fluid industry, which must be actively involved. These include energy efficiency and Industry 4.0, which can clearly be identified as central topics in mechanical engineering and, in particular, fluid technology.

"Fluid technology delivers smart Industry 4.0 solutions. Hydraulics and pneumatics already provide the key building blocks, the service life, the power density and the energy efficiency of the customer's products. Now the fluid technology as an Industry 4.0 component is also a source of data, enabling new solutions and business models such as predictive maintenance," says Hartmut Rauen.

"This new role also explains the switch to the annual event at the Hannover Messe with the fusion of MDA and IA to the IAMD - Integrated Automation, Motion & Drives. Our products are the building blocks of the most innovative digital transformation, here two years are a small eternity," says Christian Kienzle.

In this context, the VDMA is committed to the handling of current research topics that are of relevance for the member companies of the German fluid technology. To this end, the professional association Fluidtechnik is concentrating on pre-competitive industrial joint research (IGF), organized by the research fund Fluidtechnik.

In this way, companies of all sizes can work together in a network of the best minds from industrial research and science and then use the results for their own company context.

"For the success of German fluid technology, innovation and technological development are essential in competition. For this to continue to do well, investment and intensive work in the areas of education, science and industrial community research are important," says Christian Kienzle.