Sectors
German industry is characterized by its diverse sectors. Mechanical and plant engineering is one of the largest industrial employers and unites a large number of small and medium-sized companies. In addition to mechanical and plant engineering, Germany is known for the automotive industry and its numerous suppliers.
In the Smart Automation Lab of the Machine Tool Laboratory WZL at RWTH Aachen University, research and industry projects are carried out on a wide range of sectors. Solutions for sector-specific issues are developed and presented. Automation and control technology provide interfaces to numerous industries beyond classical mechanical engineering and machine tools. Due to the versatile applicability of the investigated technologies, research results from industry fields such as life science, environmental economy, automotive or assembly can be found in the SAL.
By transferring the developed solutions to different industries, synergy effects can be generated, since often an identical or similar problem exists in a merely different context. For example, insights from Industry 4.0 can be applied in industries such as life science or environmental economics.