Schaeffler confirms its strength in innovation

The Schaeffler Group is now ranked in the top ten most innovative companies in Germany, according to the latest patent registration figures released by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office.

Schaeffler KG, which includes the INA Group, FAG Group and LuK Group, now stands in eighth place in the rankings with a total of 605 patents granted in 2008, with LuK ranked 21st with 221 patents. This means that together, INA, FAG and LuK is currently the fifth most innovative company submitting patent applications in Germany. Together with its other group companies, including IDAM (INA Drives & Mechatronics), AFT, The Barden Corporation, FAG Industrial Services, etc.), the Schaeffler Group handed in more than 1,250 new patent applications in 2008, which represents an average of more than five 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 strength in innovation 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 transfer our expertise and to introduce this into new solutions. Our customers in the automotive industry benefit from this and so do our customers in other industrial sectors,” he pointed out.