Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E. h. Dr. h. c. Dieter Spath

Mr. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E. h. Dr. h. c. Dieter Spath, Chairman of the Management Board of WITTENSTEIN AG, Iggersheim spoke on the topic of "Customer benefits of Industry 4.0 - perspectives from the perspective of medium-sized mechanical engineering companies".

Wittenstein AG, headquartered in Iggersheim in Baden-Württemberg, is a German developer and manufacturer of mechatronic drive technology. With around 1700 employees in eight German and 60 international subsidiaries and agencies of the Wittenstein Group, the company generated a worldwide turnover of around 230 million euros. The product range includes planetary gearboxes, complete electro-mechatronic drive systems and AC servo systems and motors. The products are used in robots, machine tools, paper and printing machines and many other applications. With the fundamental focus on intelligent drive systems and the merging of micro and macro technologies, the core know-how and core competencies are being successively developed further: In 1983, the first low-backlash planetary gearboxes were presented to the public for the first time. Further developments were made in the areas of linear technology from 1991, electronics from 1992, motors from 1994, sensor technology from 1996 and software from 1998.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E. h. Dr. h. c. Dieter Spathborn in 1952 in Lichtenau, Ansbach, has been CEO of WITTENSTEIN AG since October 2013. After studying mechanical engineering, specializing in industrial and production engineering, at the Technical University of Munich, he completed his doctorate in engineering at the same university. He was appointed full professor at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) at the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Engineering in 1992 and soon became Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Since 2002, he has been Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO) and the Institute for Human Factors and Technology Management (IAT) at the University of Stuttgart. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E. h. Dr. h. c. Dieter Spath was awarded honorary doctorates by the Technical University of Munich and the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania).

Status: Beginning of 2014