Magnet-Schultz has been lauded by top-tier automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen for its innovation in electromobility technology. The award comes as the company marks its 111th year and continued growth with an emphasis on supporting new mobility and technology-open transformation — including products in hydrogen valve technology.
As part of its group-wide Global Supplier Summit, a virtual conference held in November that this year focused on sustainability, ZF honored seven suppliers worldwide for particularly excellent performance. ZF has a purchasing volume of around €26 billion annually and 36,000 suppliers worldwide. Magnet-Schultz was the only company nominated in two categories. During the ceremony, CEO Dr. Albert W. Schultz (left above) received the Innovation Award for the Electric Mobility field virtually from Jorrit Kraus (right above), Vice President, Head of Global Commodity Chemicals, ZF Group, who paid tribute to the long-standing partnership with MSM, highlighting operational performance, excellence and innovation.
“They have been working very hard together with our engineering group to come up with an innovation that deviates from the mainstream technical solutions for EVDs (electric vehicle drives),” said Kraus. “Using their extensive knowledge on hydraulic pressure regulation and leveraging existing investment and equipment, they have developed an EVD parking lock that takes advantage of the cooling and lubrication needs of EVDs to use existing hydraulic features such as pumps or oil.”
“The solution is a cost competitive package with further potential with small modification to develop also into an axle disconnect unit,” noted Kraus. “We are already planning to integrate this technical solution in our upcoming new e-axle. This is one of the nice examples where a supplier is managing the industry transformation from sunset to sunrise products through innovation to ensure re-use a trophic system investment and know-how and offering from day one a competitive solution in terms of technology, cost and upfront investment.”
Schultz commented that MSM felt particularly honored to receive an award for a hydraulic system in the field of electric mobility, highlighted its technical advantages such as the high power density in particular, and thanked ZF for its integration into the latest generation of its electric axles.
A specialist for electromagnetic and sensory solutions including an extensive lineup of solenoid products for multiple industries, MSM also serves the growing market for hydrogen valve technology. At the close of its latest financial year at the end of June 2023, the company reported a consolidated group turnover of 444 million Euros. This corresponds to a slight increase of more than 3% compared to the previous year, the company reported, due in particular to the strong American market with fewer disturbances in the supply of energy and raw materials than in Europe and Germany.
“Our strong team continues to push product and process innovation internally forward and new applications in electromobility, commercial vehicles and hydrogen valve technology will bring future growth,” noted Schultz. “The production starts for various large orders with double-digit million sales in the next few years are being prepared at full speed. The global market demand in the automotive industry has recovered parallel to the global supply situation, but there is currently a slowdown in automation technology and hydraulics and the cost situation remains difficult.”
Headquartered in Memmingen, Germany, and with six other companies in Germany, USA, Switzerland, China, England and Italy, the MSM group currently has 2700 employees worldwide. For more info, see www.Magnet-Schultz.com.
