Rittal Innovation Center Welcomes 10,000th Visitor

Aug 8, 2019

In July, the Haiger-based Rittal Innovation Center welcomed its 10,000th visitor three years after its opening. The great interest visitors have shown in live presentations and training courses underscore the high demand for innovations in panel building and switchgear manufacturing. Rittal, Eplan and Cideon showcase consistent implementation of Industry 4.0 concepts located here on a floor space of more than 1,500 square metres. The presentation and training centre, which is unique in the industry, is constantly being further developed and expanded.

Can we apply the concept of Industry 4.0 to panel building and switchgear manufacturing? Which process stages can be become significantly more efficient? Is it possible to manufacture batch sizes of just one efficiently? Panel building and switchgear manufacturers are facing these questions all over the world, as efficiency and cost pressures drive the need for solutions that are practical and quick to deploy.

Hands-on presentation of the value chain

To help achieve this, customers and visitors can see, experience and try out the latest solutions for their own value chains at this innovation and training centre, and discuss them with experts from the Friedhelm Loh Group. In order to give them a hands-on and understandable experience, the Friedhelm Loh Group set up the fictitious manufacturing operation. “This operation gives people a real-world understanding of the solutions we can offer during the individual process stages – starting with engineering, through production planning, goods receipt, machining, assembly, wire processing and wiring to the finished switchgear. Industry professionals can thus quickly recognise the advantages and how they can benefit from them,” explains Jan-Henry Schall.

Visitors will gain an insight into virtual prototyping using the latest software solutions from Rittal and Eplan for electrical design, resulting in a completely digital switchgear system. Interfaces to the commercial processes and in particular to the subsequent production at the switchgear manufacturer represent another important component of the presentation. Visitors can also have a closer look at Eplan and Rittal technology that lends itself to production, i. e. the workshop of switchgear manufacturers, ranging from fully automated to partially automated systems and digitally supported solutions for manual process stages.

Surprise for ProSiebenSat1 employee

A group of visitors from the German satellite broadcaster ProSiebenSat1 Media SE were in for a surprise on 4 July 2019. Gunnar Scharf, one of its members, was the 10,000th visitor to the Rittal Innovation Center. The IT expert received a certificate and a gift from Jan-Henry Schall. “I felt honoured to be the 10,000th visitor of the Rittal Innovation Center. I think Rittal has fully understood the relevance of Industry 4.0 for its customers, ” wrote Gunnar Scharf in the guest book.

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