ENGINEERING NEWCOMER 2023: And the winner is…

On 11 October 2023, CADENAS and norelem awarded the title ENGINEERING NEWCOMER to young talents from the fields of engineering and construction for the tenth time. This year, a particularly large number of creative projects were submitted, so it was not easy for the expert jury to agree on three favourites. All those who took part in the prestigious competition received a certificate of participation in advance, which makes an excellent addition to application documents.

The two teams and the lone fighter who won the competition were ceremoniously awarded at Motek and can look forward to prize money of up to 4,000 euros. CADENAS congratulates the winners:

First place went to the so-called LaWiKran by four students in their third and fourth semesters of further education to become state-certified technicians in the field of mechatronics at the Rudolf-Diesel-Fachschule in Nuremberg.

Simon Meyer, Louis Roscher, Christian Weiß and Daniel Wolf have designed a mobile loading crane for agricultural purposes, especially beekeeping, and realised four different prototypes. With a width of only 40 cm and a height of 1.20 m in the transport state, the compact construction fits on a trailer and can move loads weighing up to 200 kg from there.

For this purpose, the crane has an arm with two joints that cover a working range of 360° and a radius of 5 m. The automatic levelling of the crane frame, a brake unit, a remote control or control panel and a spotlight additionally facilitate working with the LaWiKran. The project team has already registered the brand at the German Patent and Trademark Office.

David Strasser, who attends the Höhere Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt Wiener Neustadt with a focus on automation technology, secured second place. He developed a system that destacks and transports stacks of E2 meat boxes.

These boxeses are 60 cm wide, 40 cm long and 20 cm high and are used in butcher shops. Therefore, the destacking unit must comply with high hygiene regulations, so only selected materials may be used for it. Strasser developed two concepts and combined elements from both designs for his submission.

His system takes all specifications into account and distributes 400 boxes per hour by removing one out of every ten boxes from the bottom of the stack and taking them away on a conveyor belt. Then it is the turn of the next stack.

Third place also goes to Austria: Viktoria Mahringer, Tobias Mittermaier, Thomas Rabeder and Elias Reisinger from the Höhere Technische Bundeslehranstalt Neufelden with an education focus on automation technology applied for the KEBA company as ENGINEERING NEWCOMER with their diploma thesis.

As part of the project, the team developed a functional, electrical model of an injection moulding machine for KEBA so that the company can use it for training purposes. For this reason, the simulator must illustrate the mould movement, the movement of the ejector, the linear and rotational movement of the screw and the movement of the plasticising unit.

The resulting transportable model is suitable for training employees at the injection moulding machine and also simulates the injection pressure and the heating of the heating zones. In addition, it can be operated via the KePlast i3000 control system. Thus, the students have more than fulfilled all of KEBA's requirements.

The ENGINEERING NEWCOMER has been honouring committed young people and their constructions for a decade now. Accordingly, many winners have already emerged from the competition. In addition, the educational institutions of the participants continuously collect points in the perpetual list, according to the ranking of their pupils and students. Each year, the educational institution with the most points in the overall ranking receives 500 euros. Here you can see how successful the individual schools are in the comparison.

Do you want to become ENGINEERING NEWCOMER 2024, secure the prize money and make valuable contacts in the industry? Then apply now with your project for next year's competition! On the website you will also find the inspiring winners of the past years