Briefing 2021

Initial Situation

Proper connection of lines that transport fluids or energy are an essential part of our life. Lots of products we use and processes we daily take part in rely on such line connections. In a car, for example, hundreds of fluidic and electrical lines fulfill safety critical tasks such as operating the brake system. And numerous medical treatments can only have the desired effect if the necessary lines for fluids and energy are connected correctly.

But even today many of the line connection assembly processes we rely on are executed manually and often in difficult conditions such as noisy or dirty environments or time pressure and stress in an emergency. Hence such assembly processes underlie human errors that can lead to dangerous failure of products or harmful results of processes. 

VOSS uses proprietary technology to monitor production processes that involve assembly of connectors. This enables us to ensure that VOSS products are very unlike to fail in customer usage due to line connection errors and cause safety critical situations or anything like that.

This technology has the potential to be applied to numerous other cases where quality and reliability of line connections are crucial.

The Task

The goal of this Industry meets Makers challenge is to find suitable applications for the VOSS click detection technology to insure a safe connection or discover reasonable extension to our technology to other reliable connector systems.

We are therefore looking for inspired lateral thinkers who are motivated to develop with us together suitable ideas and corresponding technical concepts considering the required hardware and software equipment. In the course of this, our focus should be on connector assembly issues in production or in daily life that are safety critical or cause high impact if the assembly is not executed correctly. 

Ideally, we will be able to jointly present a working proof of concept at the end of this track.

Perspectives 

During the entire core period of this year's Industry meets Makers program, we will support with expert know-how. We will provide an overview on state-of-the-art solutions, an introduction into current VOSS technology as well as insights into our existing prototypes and development methods.

Furthermore we can offer advise by an acoustics analytics expert throughout the course of the project and support with required sensor equipment, analysis software, necessary hardware components and development boards within a pre-defined framework.   

We can imagine cooperating also in the long term. The integration of the new technologies into our products is our goal.    

Next steps

Does that sound exciting to you? Great! Then please get in touch with us!

We will present our briefing at the #IMM2021 online kick-off event on April 15th and look forward to going into more depth with you in the breakout session afterwards.

If you already have great and realistic ideas for a possible implementation before or after the event, we would of course also appreciate a few lines from you briefly outlining the approach and letting us know a bit more about your background.

Contact

Your main contact person for this briefing topic on the part of the VOSS Incubator is Thomas Welfers.

About us

The VOSS Incubator

The VOSS Incubator is an innovation lab at the RWTH Aachen Campus. Our team is specialized on developing innovative products based on economic and ecological constraints. In this way, we form new ideas for future business areas of VOSS Automotive GmbH. 

Our innovation projects focus on the topics of green tech, IoT and future mobility. Within these projects, we investigate which innovative customer promises lead to new business ideas and how they can be implemented with the help of new technologies.

Through focused and agile working methods, we create customer-oriented innovations. The innovation process with various iteration loops enables us to incorporate feedback from customers and relevant partners in a needs- and solution-oriented way.

More about the VOSS Incubator

VOSS

VOSS develops, mechanically engineers and produces line and connection systems worldwide for the transportation industry.

The success of the VOSS Group is based on close customer proximity, innovative and quality products and the dedication and commitment of our employees.

With strategic corporate development, a responsible awareness of people, the environment and the region, VOSS has evolved over the past 85 years from a small factory in Wipperfürth producing plumbing fittings into an internationally successful group of companies.

The sole shareholder of the VOSS Group is the Hans Hermann Voss Foundation, which supports numerous projects, facilities and institutions in Wipperfürth and throughout Germany.

More about VOSS

Current main briefings 2021

Additional Future Tech Bootcamp briefing specials 2021

BRIEFINGS OF PREVIOUS YEARS