Voith wins the Focus Open 2022 Baden-Württemberg International Design Silver Award for the refiner InfibraFiner

Last year, Voith introduced the long-standing and visionary design study "Papermaking Vision." The holistic concept takes into account all aspects of papermaking and aims to simplify maintenance and operation of the equipment, reduce interfaces through a higher degree of networking, and further increase efficiency, safety and sustainability. An attractive design supports the functionality and at the same time ensures a uniform appearance.

Compared to conventional refiners, the award-winning InfibraFiner has an additional capacity of up to 28 percent and is designed to be extremely energy-saving. The refiner is characterized by clear structures, high-quality surfaces and modern materials. The new design combines the modern appearance with numerous technological advantages that enable a significantly more constant and energy-optimized refining process. For optimum user guidance, Voith experts developed SmartLights that are mounted on the cover of the refiner. With the help of three-colored illuminated segments, the SmartLight provides information at any time and at a glance about the machine status, performance and current maintenance status of the refiner. For this purpose, numerous parameters such as temperature, pressure and vibration profile are recorded and evaluated. All relevant information is also displayed in the control room by the system’s Maintenance Manager and on a monitor on site. This enables the operating personnel to intervene quickly in the event of a malfunction. Another focus of the development was a very high level of occupational safety and particularly user-friendly maintenance by means of a compact design. The smooth outer surfaces allow easy cleaning. All electronic components and cabling are well protected and integrated into the machine in the control cabinet, which was specially designed for the InfibraFiner. Thanks to the gearbox, which is also integrated, the space requirement is additionally reduced and the ease of maintenance is improved.

Learn more about our Papermaking Vision design study at Papermaking Vision | Voith and about the award here.

In times of oversaturated markets, the importance of good design continues to increase. Against the backdrop of this challenge, design is being used as an innovation driver and impulse generator across many industries. Under the banner "from practice for practice," the Design Center Baden-Württemberg has been promoting the dialogue between industry and the design sector for many years. A special offering is the annual international design award Baden-Württemberg Focus Open.