The Schaeffler Group, with its main brands INA, FAG and LuK, takes a top position in the 2008 ranking of the most active patent applicants, issued by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. Schaeffler KG, with its brands INA and FAG, takes eighth place with 605 patents granted and the LuK brand takes 21st place with 221 patents. This means that the INA, FAG and LuK brands altogether take fifth place among the most innovative companies submitting patent applications in Germany. Together with its other brands and companies (such as IDAM, AFT, Barden, F’IS, etc.), the Schaeffler Group handed in more than 1,250 new patent applications last year. This corresponds to an average of over 5 patents per working day.
Dr. Peter Gutzmer, member of the Schaeffler Group’s Executive Management Board responsible for Technical Product Development and in charge of the group’s worldwide R&D activities, considers this innovative strength to be one of the company’s mainstays. “The Schaeffler Group’s firmly entrenched roots in over 60 different industrial sectors give us the opportunity that hardly any other company has to trans-fer our expertise and to introduce it into ever new solutions. Our customers in the automotive industry benefit from this and so do our customers in all the other industrial sectors,” Dr. Gutzmer pointed out.
For instance, the development efforts at Schaeffler focus on new developments aimed at a more efficient use of resources. One of the latest examples is the fully variable MultiAir valve train. Developed by the Schaeffler Group in collaboration with Fiat Powertrain, it was recently presented to the general public for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show. Compared with conventional motors, the result is an up to 25 percent decrease in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, as well as enhanced driving dynamics at the same time.
With more than 1,250 patent applications annually and some 14,700 patents in force, the Schaeffler Group has always been one of the industrial innovation pioneers. Some 5,200 employees in 30 development centers worldwide are working on new power transmission solutions for machines and vehicles. In the automotive field, the product range comprises components and systems for engines, transmissions and chassis applications, and the application spectrum in the industrial sector spans from wind turbines and production machinery all the way through to medical equipment.
The German Patent and Trade Mark Office disclosed the number of patent applications for the year 2008 on March 16. For more information, please refer to www.dpma.de.