Two hundred and nineteen patent applications and a total of six awards were celebrated by the Group’s three hundred inventors who came together for the eleventh Innovators’ Meeting at the Basel Pantheon in Switzerland. “2010 was an excellent year for Endress+Hauser and also our spirit of innovation,” said Michael Ziesemer, COO of the Endress+Hauser Group. “Last year we filed two hundred and nineteen inventions for patents – that is a new record.”
The three ‘Patent Rights Incentive Awards’ for patents with special business relevance, each worth a cash prize of 15 000 euros, went to inventors from the production centres Endress+Hauser Conducta, Endress+Hauser Flowtec and Endress+Hauser Maulburg. The certificates and trophies were presented by Michael Ziesemer and CEO Klaus Endress.
Outstanding inventions
With their invention, Marc Baret, Edgar Schmitt, Dr Dietmar Spanke and Jin Yong of the Endress+Hauser production centre for level and pressure measurement in Maulburg, enhanced the measurement reliability of radar level instruments. “Until recently, the most powerful echo was considered to be the level echo when using level measurements with echo tracking,” explained Baret. “But, since parts such as agitators in the tanks can also generate echoes beside the actual medium, a static decision is not always correct.” The four inventors have now developed a method in which every echo is continuously recorded and identified. The level echo is now determined from the dynamics of the echo and from previously recorded values. This method substantially increases the measurement reliability.
Frank Voigt and Werner Wohlgemuth of Endress+Hauser Flowtec, the flow measurement specialists, have optimised the measuring accuracy of inductive flow meters with their invention. “Our instruments are often exposed to massive fluctuations in temperature when in contact with a process media. To make sure that the instrument reflects the flow accurately over its entire lifetime, the geometry of the measuring tube must remain constant and stable,” explained Voigt. To guarantee this constancy and stability, the two inventors modified the carrier tube and the open-pore sintered bronze support element such that substantially fewer material tensions caused by temperature fluctuations occur in the measuring tube.
Dr Torsten Pechstein, Dr Hermann Straub and Dr Detlev Wittmer of Endress+Hauser Conducta, the competence centre for liquid analysis, have substantially improved the calibration potential of Memosens pH sensors. “We have managed to store essential operational and calibration data in the semiconductor memory of the pH sensor,” explained Wittmer. “Using this memory chip allows calibration to be undertaken in the laboratory and therefore remote from the measuring point. Previously this was impossible in pH sensors. The new method cuts plant downtime substantially, increases the quality of the calibration and allows entirely new maintenance and service concepts. This results in substantial cost savings to users.”
![Making remote calibration of pH sensors possible: [L to R] Dr Detlev Wittmer, Dr Torsten Pechstein and Dr Hermann Straub](articles/SA Instrumentation & Control - Published by Technews/C15143.jpg)
Beside the patent awards, this was also the event where outstanding improvements in business processes were honoured for the first time. The ‘Process Innovation Awards’, worth a cash prize of 10 000 euros, went to teams in the production centres Endress+Hauser Flowtec and Endress+Hauser Process Solutions and to the production site of Endress+Hauser Maulburg near Berlin.
For more information contact Hennie Blignaut, Endress+Hauser, +27 (0)11 262 8000, [email protected], www.za.endress.com
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