Schaeffler Mechatronics Head Awarded for Innovations

A cause for celebration within the Schaeffler Group came on July 8 when the company’s head of Mechatronics, Bernd Gombert, was awarded the Federal Republic of Germany’s Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon. Gombert earned this impressive sounding award for being, as the Bavarian State Ministry of Sciences, Research and the Arts, Martin Zeil, noted, amongst the “recognised top performers of our country and [is] among those who set a standard in terms of enthusiasm, motivation and cooperativeness.”

In a Schaeffler press statement, the company comments that the phrase “there’s no such thing as no can do” is one of Bernd Gombert’s motivations. The 49-year-old engineer, who took on responsibility the company’s mechatronics corporate unit in December 2008, had already made a name for himself as an inventor and entrepreneur previous to his working relationship with Schaeffler. He has initiated over 180 patents to date, covering a number of inventions that have long become indispensable in our daily lives. For example, instruments for minimally-invasive surgery, x-by-wire systems for the automobile industry or the scroll wheel and numerous innovations such as optoelectronic measuring systems for computer input devices.

Gombert is the founder of various successful companies. These include LogiCad 3D, which is today a subsidiary of Logitech, the world’s largest manufacturer of computer mice, the Seefeld Technology Park near Munich and the Mechatronics Development Center (ezm), which is also based in Seefeld. “Real innovation cannot be held back”, says Bernd Gombert. “This applied to the needle cage invented by Georg Schaeffler in the same way as for several other products developed by Schaeffler that still form the back-bone of the company brimming with innovative force.”

The Federal Cross of Merit is the highest of several awards adorning Mr. Gombert’s trophy cabinet: Other acknowledgements include the JARA Award (an award from the Japan Robot Association) and the Hermes Award as well as the Rudolf Diesel gold medal (the oldest medal for commercially successful inventions and innovations).

Dr. Peter Gutzmer, executive vice president of Technical Product Development at Schaeffler and Bernd Gombert’s boss, is very happy about the award. “We are proud to have an employee with such innovative force among us”. Bernd Gombert is expanding the Schaeffler Group’s expertise in mechatronics. Mechatronics plays a key role for Schaeffler: “Ultimately, networking individual components with each other will become important in future. Bearings are becoming intelligent and part of the information chain”, explains Dr. Peter Gutzmer. “And what applies to bearings applies more than ever to complex modern systems that Schaeffler offers the automobile industry.”