Henry Ford Technology Award for CMT and Laser Hotwire brazing

Detroit: Fronius technologies given the Henry Ford Technology Award

Every year a 64-person committee from the Ford Motor Company gives the Henry Ford Technology Award to employees whose innovative achievements have made extraordinary contributions to the company’s leading technological position. The winners this year: two teams of engineers from the plant in Cologne that impressed the judges with applications based on the Fronius CMT and Laser Hotwire technologies.

On October 18th, Jim Treteault, Vice President of Ford Motor Company in Detroit, handed over the coveted Henry Ford Technology Award to two Cologne engineering teams, a special honour for visionary spirit and professional excellence.

Collaborating with welding experts from Fronius, the developer of the CMT process, the winning team led by Hans-Jürgen Lauer designed the perfect solution for spatter-free soldering joints on auto body shells for the Ford Mondeo and successfully integrated it into the automated assembly line. The workers can now weld the roof crossmember to the sidewalls of the Mondeo using soldering joints.

The second award went to the developer team led by Jürgen Hover. They received the Henry Ford Technology Award for the first-time implementation and successful integration of Laser Hotwire brazing in the roof channel for the new Mondeo. They too use Fronius systems and take advantage of the collaboration with experts from Wels.

The Henry Ford Technology Award was inaugurated back in 1981. Since then the distinction, which comes in the form of a sculpted flame, is given every year to outstanding innovators within the worldwide Ford Motor Company. The idea is that this Olympic symbol be carried over into the construction of automobiles.