The award-winning products revealed a clear focus on digitalisation, new mobility and sustainability

The winners of the coveted Automechanika Innovation Awards were announced on the first day of the Automechanika Frankfurt trade fair on 13 September 2022.
In addition to those eight awards, which were presented in categories such as E-Mobility; Workshop and Service Solutions; and Data and Connectivity, a Green Award was given to the product judged to be especially sustainable.
The winners of the Innovation Awards were chosen from a total of 133 candidates. The products and solutions submitted were evaluated by an international panel of 14 experts, including Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association Chief Executive Officer, Stuart Charity.
The judges examined various criteria, including the degree of innovation, cost effectiveness, user-friendliness, functionality, relevance to the aftermarket, safety and quality, as well as contributions to environmental protection and sustainability. This year’s award-winning products revealed a clear focus on digitalisation, new mobility, and sustainability.
This was the third time that the panel presented the Green Award to honour the most ecologically sustainable innovation among the submitted products. This year’s Green Award went to GelKoh for ‘LiBaRescue,’ a recovery system for e-cars that helps to conserve resources. This innovation also won the Innovation Award in the Workshop and Service Solutions category.
Companies from the automotive aftermarket were able to submit their innovations in the following categories: E-Mobility; Data and Connectivity; Workshop and Service Solutions; Parts and Technology Solutions; Body and Paint; Car Wash and Care; Accessories and Customising; and Commercial Vehicles.
The winners and finalists were also featured in a special area of the Automechanika Frankfurt trade fair, located in the new Innovation4Mobility showcase in Hall 3.0.

The 2022 Automechanika Innovation Award winners
• E-mobility: Autel Europe, MaxiCharger DC FAST – a direct current (DC) fast charging station for battery electric vehicles. It has a maximum output power of 240 kW.
• Data and Connectivity: Herth+Buss Car Parts, Herth+Buss Product Detector – this app quickly and easily identifies spare parts. The desired item can be scanned into the app and then found thanks to image-recognition capability and even ordered in-app.
• Workshop and Service Solutions: GelKoh GmbH, LiBaRescue – an innovative recovery system for electric vehicles which is heat-resistant up to 1,500°C and works in much the same way as a fire blanket. In a fire incident or as a preventive measure, the damaged vehicle is pushed on top of the recovery system, after which the recovery system is wrapped around the vehicle.
• Parts and Technology Solutions: Knorr-Bremse Systeme für Nutzfahrzeuge GmbH, Braking Torque Reduction System – helps to reduce CO2 emissions, lowers fuel consumption, and lessens the level of fine particulates by lowering brake pad wear. It will be possible to retrofit all standard Knorr-Bremse brake systems on the market with this system in future.
• Body and Paint: Celette France S.A.S., Eagle – Electronic Car Body Measurement System – a laser-assisted electronic measurement system to ascertain the distortion of chassis, for example following collisions. The results are then compared with the CAD coordinates supplied by the vehicle’s manufacturer, and the system is able to reliably detect deviations of ± 1.5 mm. An entire vehicle can be measured in no more than ten minutes.
• Car Wash and Care: Lederzentrum GmbH, ColourScannerPRO Colour Scanner including Formula Database – a novel new type of mobile digital tool that is able to quickly and affordably determine the colour of leather for leather repairs. The colour scanner is connected to the smartphone via Bluetooth using the COLOURLOCK app.
• Accessories and Customising: Dropracks AS, Dropracks – Elevating Roof Racks – an innovative roof rack system for cars in which the loading surface (ie. the rack) is not permanently attached to the base rack on the vehicle’s roof. Instead, a clever kinematic mechanism makes it possible to pull out the rack and lower it to chest level.
• Commercial Vehicles: ZF Friedrichshafen AG, ZF Aftermarket Turning Assistance System CV Retrofit Solution – a novel new turning and lane change assistant that rises above other systems thanks to the fact that its sensor system combines radar with optical sensors. In poor weather conditions when the camera is unable to supply reliable information, the radar is supplemented by a second sensor system.

Also awarded at Automechanika Frankfurt was the winner of the Automechanika Body and Paint Competition, with five participants making it extremely difficult for the nine-member international awards panel. In the end, the panel awarded first prize to Sebastian Schunder from Eckental (Bavaria), sponsored by SATA.
The next Automechanika Frankfurt will take place across the 10th to the 14th of September 2024 on the Frankfurt exhibition grounds.

For more information, visit www.automechanika.messefrankfurt.com