LAUDA DR.LAUDA R. WOBSER GMBH & CO. KG, the world market leader for constant temperature equipment and systems, is encouraging innovation within the LAUDA Group. new.degree GmbH, a new, wholly owned LAUDA subsidiary, was founded at the beginning of the year to deal with temperature control-related innovation activities outside the present core business. The new company is managed by Birgit Dillmann and comprises seven employees in Germany and abroad.

new.degree GmbH brings together LAUDA start-up management, the LAUDA innovation laboratory including the branch office in Morgan Hill, USA, as well as the LAUDA Digital Unit, which is responsible for digitalization projects within LAUDA. The LAUDA internal ideas management scheme, which picks up ideas from employees about new products or business areas and possible process improvements, is also supported in the new company. The objective of the merger is to further professionalize and strategically develop the activities which have been developed so far. new.degree GmbH is based at its current location in Lauda-Königshofen. In the medium term, however, it is planned to move to the “Brainstation” innovation center planned by Dr. Gunther Wobser, the Managing Director of LAUDA, at Lauda railway station, the town that gives the company its name, in order to provide the creative space that is crucial to its success.

The core task of the new company is to identify innovation potentials relevant to temperature control outside LAUDA’s current normal business activities, develop them into innovative solutions and test them in the market at an early stage. Potential approaches to this will be systematically generated by the analysis of trends and suitable search fields, uncovering opportunities for future-critical technologies, targeted collaboration with startups or also thanks to ideas provided via the internal idea management instrument. The innovation laboratory quickly and validly evaluates such ideas for their sales opportunities and innovation potential. Promising ideas are developed into so-called Minimum Viable Products using agile development methods such as Lean Startup and Design Thinking with the active involvement of potential users. They are then proposed for further development to market maturity in the event of a successful test.

Support and supervision of young companies

new.degree GmbH supports start-ups in their business development with relevant technology innovations and gives their business ideas the necessary initial momentum through joint pilot projects. In addition, the innovation experts of the LAUDA management recommend strategic investments in promising start-ups on the basis of a comprehensive system. LAUDA has so far successfully invested in three start-ups - watttron, ENER-IQ and Better Basics Laborbedarf.

By integrating the Digital Unit, which was previously part of the IT division, in new.degree GmbH, the new unit is also responsible for driving LAUDA’s digital transformation. The development of customer-centric digital products and services, such as device diagnostics and data-based business models, implemented jointly with the parent company is of particular note here. At new.degree, experts from various disciplines such as marketing strategists, innovation managers, digitization experts, engineers and material scientists therefore work hand in hand at two locations. In addition, they are supported by the knowledge network of the entire LAUDA Group. LAUDA is also part of the Maschinenraum, an innovation ecosystem based in Berlin that brings together German SMEs and family-owned companies to collaboratively drive forward topics of future relevance.

LAUDA, the global market leader for temperature control equipment and systems, will cooperate with Better Basics Laborbedarf GmbH (BBL). The Dresden-based company, founded in 2019, develops, manufactures and sells smart basic equipment for laboratories that simplifies the organization of laboratory workstations and supports laboratory employees in their daily work with individually manufactured organizational systems. The modular systems are produced using 3D printing technology. In addition to an equity investment, LAUDA is primarily focusing on synergies for the jointly addressed laboratory market. For LAUDA, this is already the third successful cooperation with a start-up after watttron and ENER-IQ. This is part of the family-owned company's comprehensive innovation strategy, which, in addition to cooperation with innovative start-ups, is also driving extensive digitization measures or sustainable idea management in the group of companies, among other things.

Cooperation at eye level

Thanks to its in-depth expertise in 3D printing technology and the materials used in this process, the start-up BBL is able to realize individual customer requirements in the field of laboratory equipment. The SmartRack organization system, for example, can be equipped with 3D-printed modules as needed, providing holders for pipettes, round-bottom flasks or waste containers. The modules can be freely combined in terms of quantity and position. In cooperation with BBL, LAUDA can offer customer-centric product solutions. This strengthens the laboratory technology segment, in which LAUDA already successfully markets high-quality laboratory equipment for a wide range of applications.

The cooperation is also intended to expand the technology expertise in 3D printing within the LAUDA Group. »The start-up cooperation with Better Basics Laborbedarf provides further access to innovative technologies, which, in addition to synergies with our research and development department, also provides new impetus directly in sales,« says Robert Tietze, Start-Up Manager at LAUDA. LAUDA is already using 3D printing in the series production of its temperature control units.

»A central aspect of LAUDA's innovation strategy is the targeted cooperation with innovative, young companies that complement and further advance our core competence, temperature control,« explains Dr. Gunther Wobser, President and CEO of LAUDA. »With Better Basics, we have once again made a find and can offer customer-specific solutions to the laboratory market. In addition, we expect to gain valuable insights in the field of 3D printing for the production of our temperature control units,« says Dr. Gunther Wobser.

»We at Better Basics Laborbedarf are very pleased to have gained a strategic partner in LAUDA, who will support us in our further growth. In this way, we can benefit from LAUDA's many years of experience and exploit synergies in sales, among other things«, says Mario Schneider, CEO of Better Basics Laborbedarf.

LAUDA, the world market leader for constant temperature equipment and systems, is expanding its successful range of integral process thermostats with new models. LAUDA has rounded off its portfolio for demanding temperature control tasks with two devices of the new, pressure-blanketed Integral P variant and a new, high-performance device of the T variant, and will also offer models with NRTL certification for the North American market in future. The new products are accompanied by the MID 80 through-flow control unit, which enables reproducible test processes.

LAUDA Integral P: Using pressure to achieve the perfect temperature

The two device types, Integral IN 2050 PW and IN 2560 PW, function according to the pressure blanketing principle. The devices, which are equipped with a stainless steel pressure vessel, significantly expand the temperature range of non flammable heat carriers. For example, the upper temperature limit of water/glycol mixtures, which are commonly used in tests in the automotive industry, can be increased from 90°C to 140°C. Consequently, the new Integral P process thermostats enable testing of drive systems or stress tests under realistic conditions at low operating costs. In the pressure blanketing process, the compressed air supply is used to fill the device with negative pressure, which sucks the temperature control medium into the device with a vacuum of -0.2 bar. Integral P process thermostats can be used within a working temperature range from -40°C to 140°C with a cooling capacity of 20 kW and 25 kW, respectively. The devices are ideal for use in test stations for the testing of electric motors or batteries in the electric mobility sector.

New model in the Integral T product line meets demand for even more powerful temperature control

In response to high demand for powerful temperature control in the pharmaceutical industry, LAUDA is expanding its product line of Integral T process thermostats with the IN 1830 TW, offering 19 kW cooling capacity. The process thermostat is aimed at users who need professional temperature control with a working temperature range from -30°C to 150°C. Thanks to their open hydraulic system, LAUDA Integral T process thermostats are ideal for temperature control processes with frequent changes in the consumer or test object. The new generation of devices features a modular interface concept and ensures maximum connectivity of user processes.

With the MID 80 through-flow control unit, LAUDA has taken an important step from pure temperature control to efficient energy management. A magnetic-inductive flow meter measures the flow rate of the temperature control medium within the application. The temperature difference between the inlet and the outlet is used to accurately determine the transferred amounts of energy. The high-precision measuring unit enables accurate and reproducible results, which are indispensable in battery tests, as used in the electric mobility industry. In order to achieve a high level of quality in production, validated test processes in this field use a defined flow rate.