Hannover. The winner of this year's HERMES AWARD, one of the world’s most prestigious industry awards, is Endress+Hauser Messtechnik GmbH + Co. KG . The award was presented by German’s Federal Minister of Education and Research, Anja Karliczek, at the official Opening Ceremony for HANNOVER MESSE on Sunday, 22 April.

"’From small business to global player’ is the success story behind many of the exhibitors at HANNOVER MESSE, and this also applies to Endress+Hauser," said Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Managing Board at Deutsche Messe. The HERMES AWARD is the latest accolade earned by this family-owned company of global renown thanks to its tremendous innovative spirit. "The award-winning product makes a major contribution to the deployment of Industry 4.0 throughout the process industry."

Endress+Hauser received the HERMES AWARD for a hygienic compact thermometer featuring a self-calibrating sensor for process temperature measurements that meet stringent safety and quality specifications. These are required in sectors such as the food and pharmaceutical industries. The temperature of the sensor is calibrated automatically using a physical fixed point based on the Curie temperature (which is material-specific and has long-term stability) of an internal reference sensor integrated in the sensor. The fully automated inline calibration of the temperature sensor is audit-proof and facilitates regular recalibration without additional processes or system downtime.

The jury and its Chairman, Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster, CEO of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), were particularly impressed by this product due to the fact that – despite the existence of various self-monitoring temperature sensors on the market – there has so far been none for process-industry applications that is comparably precise and lends itself to automatic, completely traceable self-calibration based on the Curie temperature.

Explaining the jury’s decision, Dr. Wahlster remarked: "Smart sensor technology is a major driver in the next stage of Industry 4.0. With the number of sensors increasing dramatically in a smart factory, audit-proof self-calibration of sensors without system downtime will become a key factor for economic success. This is where Endress+Hauser’s innovative product comes into play, making an important contribution to the continuous process verification and quality control during production that we are aiming for with Industry 4.0."

Along with the winner Endress+Hauser Messtechnik GmbH + Co. KG (based in Weil am Rhein), the following companies were nominated for the award: Alpha Laser (Puchheim, Germany), GBS German Bionic Systems GmbH (Augsburg, Germany), TH Ingolstadt/Continental AG (Ingolstadt/Hannover, Germany) and Upskill (Washington, DC / USA).

The award-winning and nominated products and processes will be on display at the respective companies’ stands during HANNOVER MESSE 2018 (23 to 27 April). In addition, the innovations showcase called "tech transfer – Gateway2Innovation" in Hall 2 will provide extensive information about all the entries nominated for the HERMES AWARD 2018 as well as on the companies involved, who will receive due honors by German Research Minister Karliczek and Dr. Wahlster on Monday, 23 April.