More than 1,200 companies applied for the prize in 2013. The prize is awarded mutually by Huber Verlag für Neue Medien (a publishing house) and the Initiative Mittelstand (an SMB initiative). The Künzelsau industrial company participated in the competition for the first time and presented the 30-man jury an energy-saving fan in bionic design. It impressed the judges greatly, meaning that it was short-listed and eventually won, in a group comprising more than 1,200 submitted applications.
The form of a water droplet provided the developers at Ziehl-Abegg with the ideal shape for constructing fans that run quietly and that need distinctly less energy than conventional products. The problem was that due to the enormously high loads, until then it was only possible to manufacture fan impellers using metal. Trials at the start of the century with plastics failed because the plastic was not able to withstand the tip speeds of up to 70 meters per second (circumferential speed). So the chemists managed to develop a composite material (ZAmid) which allows the technical implementation of the ideal form of a fan impeller. Even during manufacturing process, the new material consumes significantly less energy than that required for comparable steel fans. That the new composite material is 100% recyclable fits perfectly into the concept of sustainability.
Ziehl-Abegg managed to put together a total package in which the new material is unified with bionic insights: Material characteristics similar to steel, combined with optimised shapes. That achievement lets the air glide through with nearly no resistance. The Cpro fan impeller is full of promise for the future in two respects: on the one hand because of the reduced resource and energy consumption during manufacturing, on the other because of the 15-percent lower power consumption during operation. So the market – also in the interest of savings during on-going operations – readily received the product.