Three candidates in the exciting final

At this year's Motek, Norelem once again presented a special highlight in addition to numerous product innovations: the awarding of the "Engineering Newcomer". The winners of this year's competition were announced during an award ceremony.

On Wednesday, 11 October at 2 p.m., the time had finally come: After numerous spectators had joined in the countdown, the Norelem Academy announced the winners of the Engineering Newcomer 2023. The selected teams presented themselves and their project and accepted their prizes. Afterwards, many visitors stayed at the exhibition stand - from experienced buyers to young designers. Both the award ceremony and the Norelem products met with lively interest, also among the international guests.

Engineering Newcomer - the competition

The design competition took place for the 10th time this year. It offers pupils and students of a university, technical school or university of applied sciences the opportunity to have self-developed project or final work in the field of engineering and development evaluated by a top-class expert jury and to present it to the masses. This year there were again numerous project submissions from areas such as automation, food and medical technology, thermoelectronics, traffic and transport. All ideas are examined by experts for their innovative and practical value, their market opportunities, the clever and cost-effective use of standard and purchased parts as well as their very practical handling and function. Last but not least, the technological implementation and the professional presentation, for example in social media, also play a role.

The winning teams - powered by Norelem

The Rudolf-Diesel-Fachschule Nuremberg was particularly convincing this year. Their project "LaWiKran", a mobile lifting solution for beekeeping and agriculture, received 1st place in the competition. The team mastered the challenge of completing the innovative crane within half a year while maintaining its compact design. The LaWiKran can be used to lift different loads weighing up to 200 kg, such as beehives and construction bags, onto a trailer. In total, the team used more than 20 different Norelem products, such as gas springs to make the crane easy to set up, ball lock pins with mushroom handles and slide bearings on the base frame.

2nd place went to the Höhere Technische Bundeslehr- und Versuchsanstalt (HTBLuVA) Wiener Neustadt for their "destacking unit for E2 crates", which can be used in a meat plant. Here it was particularly important to comply exactly with the regulations of the food industry and to ensure the performance of the system so that it can process over 400 crates per hour. Here, too, they relied on Norelem's wide range of products and used several standard parts, including in the pneumatics.

Third place went to the HTL Neufelden with the "Keba Injection Moulding Simulator", a small, desk-size model of an injection moulding machine, which should look as "real" as possible and still be transportable. Standard components from Norelem were used for the drive, especially timing belts, timing belt pulleys and tensioning sets.

Norelem was already known to all the winning teams as a full-range supplier of standard and operating elements. Especially the clear online catalogue, the free download of detailed CAD models and the quick availability of parts facilitated the project work, according to the participants.