Hungarian automotive industry: week 20 2017 edition
Foundation stone of Zalaegerszeg test track laid, Knorr-Bremse prepare for showcase of automated technologies, robotics on the rise. Let´s recap what the 20th week this year brought in Hungary´s automotive industry.
Manufacturers
The world has witnessed the spread of global ransomware attack in the last two weeks, which seems to have spared Hungarian car manufacturers.
However, experts warn that hacker attacks will constitute a serious challenge with connected vehicles in the future.
Suppliers
Knorr-Bremse will showcase the capabilities of their self-driving lorries on May 27 in Tököl. We interviewed Csaba Horváth, team leader for autonomous vehicle systems at Knorr-Bremse Fékrendszerek Kft.’s pre-development department.
He said the forwarding sector will be interested in autonomous vehicles not to make a “fashion statement”, but out of economic consideration. In the end, automation will emerge as the winner if it is indeed able to increase business efficiency.
Knorr-Bremse handed out HUF 17m (€55,000) in aids to nine different schools or foundations in Kecskemét to support their operation. The aid has been spent on infrastructure development, health promotion, and the procurement of educational tools.
Aventics have strengthened their global market position by acquiring a company manufacturing emission-reduction systems and mechatronic tools
TechTogether
Autopro held engineer student competition TechTogether at Mach-Tech Industry Days Exhibition. Not only were the winners able to take home valuable prizes, the event also provided an excellent opportunity to build valuable business relations.
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Last week we reported from the press conference of SZEnergy Team at Széchenyi István University of Győr. The team is set to participate in Shell Eco-marathon in London, the world’s largest energy efficiency race.
We also made an interview with Gergely Légrádi, head constructor of SZEngine, another student team from Győr. According to Légrádi, patience, commitment and people skills are crucial for a productive everyday environment.
More news from Győr: a vehicle acoustics research group has been formed under the framework of the Lendület (Momentum) programme. 63 percent of the HUF 319m (€1m) project was funded by Audi Hungaria.
Last week, hundreds of primary school students took part in a factory visit at the Győr-based Audi plant. The student had the opportunity to become acquainted with various automotive professions.
Service providers
Every process in any production activity requires some type of wheels. Germany-based Blickle are an essential players in the wheel and roller market. Their Hungarian representative is Roll-N Ipari Kerekek Kft. The company offers more than 30,000 different types of products in the field of materials handling.
They aren’t lacking innovation either: the company’s latest development is an antistatic plastic wheel, which doesn’t leave a mark as opposed to traditional rubber wheels. We interviewed Zoltán Hámori (pictured below), the CEO of the global supplier’s Hungarian representative.
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The consumption volume of non-alloy flat steel products in the Visegrád countries (Poland, Chech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) increased from 8.5m tonnes in 2008 to 10.6m tonnes in 2016.
Consumption volume in the European Union decreased by 0.7 percent from 79.5m tonnes in 2008 to 75m tonnes in 2016.
Waberer’s reported on increasing revenues: compared to the same period in the previous year, the company registered a 9.5 percent revenue increase (€572.4 million) and 12.1 percent growth in their EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and ammortisation) in 2016, signalling a stable performance by the company.
Trend
The foundation stone of the new test track in Zalaegerszeg was laid last week. The government sees the next Silicon Valley in the region. The HUF 40bln (€130m) investment will be built on a 250-ha area.
In related news: state secretary László Palkovics gave a presentation on electric vehicles and Hungarian participation in the development and production of driverless vehicles at the OECD’s high profile breakfast meeting held in Paris last week.
Last week, we spoke with Hungarian robotics expert Szilárd Orovica (pictured below), the CEO of Kuka Robotics Hungária Ipari Kft. He said today, we seldom see robots in production separated by bars or plexi-glass; more often, robots are separated by virtual cells or nothing at all, as they have the ability of sensing human presence.
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Safety is ensured by touch sensors, which shut down the robot if they sense human entry. Work phases in human-robot collaboration are becoming an increasingly important part of the global workflow. With their collaborative and sensitive robots, Kuka are making human-assisted processes more harmonic and optimised.
Smart cities are made complete not by their highly advanced IT systems, but their residents using services to their full potential. As a result, the town of Debrecen is striving to provide the first steps to digital skills and literacy.
We had a look at how smart cities are developed in Hungary’s second largest urban community. László Mátyus, lead expert at the Smart City division of EDC Debrecent City and Economy Development Centre, gave the answers.
