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"Impressive and highly innovative technical solutions"

A high-tech welding process, intelligent glasses and an AI-based method of surveying the oceans originating from Upper Bavaria: The President of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office congratulates the winners of the 2022 Bavarian Innovation Prize

Press release of 21 November 2022

Munich. The President of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer, has warmly congratulated the winners of the 2022 Bavarian Innovation Prize (Innovationspreis Bayern). "The Bavarian Innovation Prize is an impressive example of how small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, also contribute highly creative technical solutions to our innovative capacity," the DPMA President said and added: "The prize winners from all over Bavaria represent a broad range of innovation activity – from highly specialised industrial manufacturing processes to applications that are of direct help to people."

Congratulations to main prize winner Evosys Laser GmbH

The DPMA President, who is a member of the selection committee, praised the innovation of Erlangen-based Evosys Laser GmbH, the winner of the main prize. The company’s submission for the Bavarian Innovation Prize was an innovative process for laser plastic welding: "The new process of Evosys GmbH takes an established technology to a higher level. It allows manufacturers worldwide to increase the efficiency of their production and offer their customers better products," DPMA President Rudloff-Schäffer said.

In this sequential process, the plastic workpieces to be welded are irradiated one after the other by two alternating laser beam sources. The use of two different alternating wavelengths according to a certain time pattern allows better control of the energy introduced and the entire process. Thus, manufacturers can reduce their process time by up to 60% and improve the stability of their products. Furthermore, the process allows the welding of materials that have so far been impossible or very difficult to weld.

Places 2 and 3 in this category went to the innovations of Simon Möhringer Anlagenbau GmbH from Wiesentheid (machine for the processing of oil palm trunks) and Carl Schlenk AG from Roth (innovative metallic interference pigments), respectively.(Innovative Metallinterferenzpigmente).

Prizes in four additional categories

Apart from the three main prize winners, companies were honoured in four other categories. This year’s "Companies with up to 50 employees" winner is EOMAP GmbH & Co. KG from Seefeld (district of Starnberg). The company has developed Satellite-Derived Bathymetry (SDB), an AI-based method of surveying underwater topography in an effective and resource-conserving manner. This method, which uses satellite data, reduces costs by 95% to 98% compared to conventional shipborne echo sounding.

In the "Start-ups up to 5 years of age" category, the selection committee has recognised Munich-based munevo GmbH, which has developed a control system for electric wheelchairs based on smart glasses. Integrated motion sensors allow users to navigate through a menu in the display of the glasses. The wheelchair is controlled by commands wirelessly transmitted from the glasses to an adapter. Users can also control other devices, such as mobile phones, and activate helpful additional functions in this way.

The winner in the "Business/science cooperation" category is Heinz Soyer Bolzenschweißtechnik GmbH from Wörthsee (district of Starnberg). The company has developed a stud welding system for the welding of aluminium using inert gas, together with a new process. In particular, the system allows industry to reliably handle uses relevant to security. The innovation has been developed as part of the research project “aluminium stud welding using a new process technology – ref.: AZ-1363-18”, funded by the Bavarian Research Foundation (Bayerische Forschungsstifung).

This year’s Special Prize of the Selection Committee goes to Schreiner Group GmbH & Co. KG from Oberschleißheim near Munich. Together with Coldplasmatech, a medical technology company, Schreiner Group has developed a wound dressing for wounds that do not heal due to infection with multi-resistant germs. In printed electronics in the dressing, cold plasma is generated that kills multi-resistant bacteria und promotes cell regeneration.

The Bavarian Innovation Prize

The Bavarian Innovation Prize is awarded every two years by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Federation of Bavarian Chambers of Crafts (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der bayerischen Handwerkskammern) and the Federation of Bavarian Chambers of Industry and Commerce (Bayerischer Industrie- und Handelskammertag). It honours Bavarian companies whose product and process innovations as well as innovative technology-oriented services have been successfully established in the market or whose market success is foreseeable.

The German Patent and Trade Mark Office

Inventiveness and creativity need effective protection. The DPMA is the German centre of expertise for all intellectual property rights – patents, utility models, trade marks and designs. As the largest national patent office in Europe and the fifth largest national patent office in the world, our office stands for the future of Germany as a country of inventors in a globalised economy. Its staff of just under 2,800 at three locations – Munich, Jena and Berlin – provide services to inventors and companies. They implement federal innovation strategies and develop the national, European and international protection systems further.

picture: Innovationspreis Bayern

Last updated: 21 November 2022