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Pictures of the Future 

The Magazine for Research and Innovation | Fall 2007 

www.siemens.com/pof 

Materials for the 

Environment 

New materials hold the key to an 

efficient energy supply 

Seamless 

Communication 

Making information available 

when and where it’s needed 

Virtual Production 

Testing Products and Their Production Processes Before They Exist

Pictures of the Future | Editorial 

Contents 

Pictures of the Future | Contents 

The second half of the 19th century was 

an era of technical, economic, and social 

transformation. New nations were 

formed, the middle and working classes 

demanded their rights, and technical 

achievements permeated every aspect of 

daily life. Electric lighting came to cities, 

which were connected by railroads, and for 

the first time in history messages could be 

transported within minutes by telegraph 

across continents and oceans. One of the 

driving forces behind all these developments 

was a man who established a small 

factory in a courtyard in Berlin exactly 160 

years ago, in October 1847: Werner von 

Siemens. 

still focused on answering the big questions, 

one of which is: “How can we power 

a planet hungry for electricity while minimizing 

our impact on climate and the environment?” 

You can find our answers in this 

issue of Pictures of the Future (pp.44 – 77). 

They range from special coatings for huge 

gas turbines to new drive systems for 

trains, and from highly efficient light 

sources, solar-thermal and geothermal 

power stations, to processes for making 

one-piece, 52-meter blades that are so 

robust they can generate electricity from 

wind even when located far out at sea. 

Equally important are questions resulting 

from the megatrends of urbanization 

Answering the Big Questions 

Factories of the 

Future 

Materials for the 

Environment 

Seamless 

Communication 

Peter Löscher is President and CEO 

of Siemens AG. 

Cover: The intelligent factory 

combines the virtual world of product 

and process development — in 

this case, the design of a high-speed 

train at a Siemens plant in Germany 

— with the real world of automated 

manufacturing. Customers benefit 

from faster and more flexible 

production and lower costs. 

2 Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007 

His recipes for success are still valid today. 

He came up with answers to the big 

questions of his time. For example, politicians 

and businessmen needed a way to 

communicate messages quickly. Werner 

von Siemens invented the pointer telegraph, 

which he described as “ridiculously 

simple and easy to use.” Today we would 

say it’s user-friendly. What’s more, he 

thought globally and mastered challenges 

that nobody else had dared to face in his 

day. For instance, his company used a specially 

designed ship to lay transatlantic cables 

from Europe to the U.S.A. 

But the greatest revolution of all was 

triggered by his invention of the dynamo, 

which laid the foundation for electrical engineering. 

The dynamo made it possible to 

convert mechanical energy into electrical 

energy and thus make electricity widely 

available, whether for lighting or new 

types of motors. Siemens built the first 

electric railroad in 1870, the first electric 

elevator in 1880, and the first electric 

streetcar line in 1881. What’s more, he predicted 

the development of power stations. 

“Small machines that get their power from 

large ones will become possible and useful,” 

he wrote to his brother Wilhelm. “This 

field has a lot of potential.” 

And it’s true. Electric power is the basis 

of our modern society — and technologies 

for the clean and efficient generation, 

transmission, and utilization of electricity 

are still one of the pillars of Siemens’ success. 

Today, as 160 years ago, research, development, 

and innovation at Siemens are 

and demographic change — questions 

such as, “How can we achieve sustainable 

development and the highest possible 

quality of life in cities?” and “How can we 

detect and treat diseases long before they 

strike?” Here too, Siemens can offer solutions, 

as shown in Pictures of the Future, 

Fall 2006 and Spring 2007. 

Yet another question is posed by the 

global distribution of labor and by growing 

consumer demands — the question of 

how production methods can help us to 

make products faster, more flexibly, in 

higher quality, more cheaply, and in ways 

that more effectively conserve resources. 

Our answer is the “intelligent factory” 

(pp.10 – 41). We develop the solutions 

that make it possible to design products 

in the virtual world and to design and test 

their associated production processes there 

as well. Through international collaborative 

work, we examine new products in the 

virtual world along their entire life cycles 

and value chains before a single screw is 

tightened in the real world. This enables 

us to optimize products and production 

processes while reducing their environmental 

impact right from the very start. 

And let’s not forget that as we answer 

all of these questions — whether they 

have to do with energy supplies, health, 

or industry — we’re also working on 

an important cross-sector technology: 

powerful information and communication 

systems (pp. 78 – 105). In 1847, Werner 

von Siemens laid the groundwork for this 

development as well. 

10 Scenario 2020 

Surprisingly Realistic 

13 Trends 

Rebirth in the Virtual Universe 

16 UGS and Siemens 

Journey to a Unified World 

19 Facts and Forecasts 

The Buzz about Automation 

20 Factory Planning 

Blending Realities 

23 Product Development 

Prototype for Perfection 

26 Europe’s Best Factory 

Simply the Best 

29 Beijing Airport 

Designing the Belly of the Beast 

30 Rail Systems 

Trains of Bits and Bytes 

33 Facility Simulation 

Optimizing Throughput 

35 Metal Making 

Smarter Smelting 

37 Energy-Saving Technologies 

Practice what You Preach 

39 Interview with Roddy Martin 

General Manager, AMR Research 

Rethinking Manufacturing 

40 Interview with Prof. Günter Voß 

Wanted: Workers with Broad 

Qualifications 


Invisible Revolutionaries 

47 Trends 

Promising Particles 

50 Optimizing Turbine Blades 

Taking the Heat 

53 Ceramic Heat Shields 

Precision-Made Protection 

54 World’s Largest Gas Turbine 

Unmatched Efficiency 

57 Recycling 

Circuit Boards Go Green 

58 Renewable Materials 

Plastics: A Growing Field 

60 Wind Turbines 

Catching the Wind 

63 Lighting 

Light-Emitting Developments 

64 Analytical Chemistry 

Catching Contaminants 


The World Turns to Renewables 

68 Interview with Prof. Wan Gang 

China’s Minister of Science 

70 Transportation 

Road to a Lighter Future 

72 Energy Demand 

Pinpointing Costs 

74 Energy Storage 

Piggybanks for Power 

Features 

4 In Brief 

Brainy Solution / Palm Reading / 

New Era of Power in China / 

Mission with Vision / 

Higher Resolution CT 

6 Siemens Venture Capital 

All-in-One Chip 


Hot Tip 

181 Trends 

New Social Network 

182 Interview with Jarkko Sairanen 

Nokia’s Head of Strategy 

184 Nokia Siemens Networks 

Billions Online 

186 Networked Living 

Welcome to the Smart Home 


Broadband Technologies Booming 

190 Power Plant Management 

Networked Power 

192 Production 

Factory Data Democracy 

194 Security 

Raising the Bar for Hackers 

196 Healthcare 

Data that’s Always There1 

98 Buenos Aires 

The Music is Back 

100 Transportation 

Trouble-Free Travel 

103 Control Centers 

On Call Around the Clock 

1 7 Siemens Worldwide 

Building a New Hungary1 

8 Energy 

Powerful Idea in the Bronx 

142 Particle Accelerator at CERN 

Solving the World’s Mysteries 

176 Solar and Geothermal Plants 

Pictures Power of the from Future Heaven | Fall 2007 and Earth 3 

106 Feedback / Preview

Pictures of the Future | In Brief 

Brainy Solution 

Aprototype medical scanner from 

Siemens combines magnetic resonance 

tomography (MR) and an imaging 

process from nuclear medicine, providing 

entirely new insights into the human brain. 

Experts believe this unique tool will improve 

the diagnosis of early-stage 

Alzheimer’s disease and enable physicians 

to more quickly assess the condition of 

stroke patients and propose treatments. 

The device combines MR (top) and positron 

emission tomography (bottom). MR contributes 

by displaying images of soft tissue 

in high resolution and sharp contrast, while 

PET highlights regions that display increased 

metabolic activity in very fine detail. 

Up until now, neurologists using PET 

could not conclusively differentiate between 

low-grade cognitive disturbances 

and the early stages of Alzheimer’s. They 

have also been unable to simultaneously 

measure the reduction of brain volume associated 

with Alzheimer’s. With MR-PET 

(center), this examination can now be conducted 

in a single step. Physicians can also 

use the prototype scanner to better monitor 

and investigate the progress of other neurological 

disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, 

epilepsy, depression, and schizophrenia. 

For a PET examination, a patient is 

injected with a very small dose of a shortlived 

radioactive liquid, which accumulates 

in cells with an elevated metabolic rate and 

releases positron radiation. When the 

positrons collide with electrons, they are 

annihilated, thus releasing gamma ray 

quanta, which are registered by a detection 

device that uses the data to generate a tomographic 

3D image. Engineers at Siemens 

Medical Solutions used extremely fast and 

sensitive avalanche photo diodes (APD) to 

serve as a PET detector. These diodes are 

not affected by the magnetic field generated 

by the MR system, which operates in 

tandem with the PET unit at a field strength 

of three teslas, enabling it to deliver a resolution 

of approximately 0.2 millimeters. The 

images created by the two systems are then 

superimposed on one another by a computer 

to produce images containing an unprecedented 

level of information. na 

A hand scanner supplements Siemens’ biometric 

access authorization software. 

Palm 

Reading 

Siemens now offers a palm reading device 

for biometric access authorization. The 

new version of Siemens’ ID Center biometric 

software supports the PalmSecure hand-surface 

reader produced by Fujitsu, as well as all 

major fingerprint scanners on the market and, 

of course, SmartCards, making it a uniquely 

versatile solution. The system is equipped with 

an infrared scanner that reads palms within 

seconds when a person’s hand is held at a distance 

of a few centimeters. The unit scans the 

pattern of veins under the skin, after which a 

computer compares the data with stored palm 

samples, granting access to restricted areas 

once an exact match has been made. The palm 

reading device is generally used in conjunction 

with a SmartCard. Unlike fingerprint reading 

techniques, which require the finger to be 

pressed onto, or dragged across, a special 

surface, the reliability of the palm reader is 

not affected by dirt or skin injuries. The system 

can even “see” through gloves, making it particularly 

useful for sterile hospital areas, as it 

does not require hand contact to identify an 

individual. 

na 

Non-contact identification. The scanner is suitable for 

use in sterile hospital environments. 

The TerraSAR-X radar satellite offers a resolution of 

one meter from 514 kilometers above the Earth. 

Mission 

with Vision 

Since June 2007, the TerraSAR-X satellite 

has been delivering images with a resolution 

of up to one meter as it orbits the Earth. 

During its five year mission, the German satellite 

will scan the entire planet with radar from 

an altitude of 514 kilometers, unaffected by 

clouds, weather, or lighting conditions.Terra- 

SAR-X will increase the mapping detail of 

roads, railways, and buildings, providing important 

information for planning infrastructures. 

In addition, the satellite will measure 

changes to the Earth’s ice caps, thus providing 

data on climate change. Siemens developed 

key components of the satellite’s mission control 

center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. 

The control system, which was originally developed 

for the European Space Agency (ESA), 

was adapted and expanded for the TerraSAR 

mission by Siemens. The system controls and 

monitors a five-meter-long, 1,200-kilogram 

satellite on its mission. As part of the system’s 

modification, experts from Siemens IT Solutions 

and Services PSE in Austria installed a 

special database solution, which documents 

the satellite’s entire history and compiles all 

data concerning the control, propulsion, positioning, 

and configuration of the satellite. The 

database, which records every signal sent to 

or received from the satellite, is set to grow to 

seven terabytes over the next five years — 

that’s equivalent to the information contained 

on about 1,000 DVDs. Even before the Terra- 

SAR-X lifted off in June, a consortium consisting 

of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and 

the space technology company Astrium used 

the control system to test the satellite. 

na 

New Era of Power 

Siemens is building China’s 

highest capacity long-distance 

direct current power line. 

The link will transport power 

1,400 kilometers to the Pearl 

River delta in the province of 

Guangdong, where it will supply 

Hong Kong, Shenzen, and 

Guangzhou — megacities with 

a total population of about 30 

million. The high voltage direct 

current transmission (HVDC) 

system that Siemens and its 

Chinese partners will build will HVDC lines transfer power from rural areas to urban centers. 

usher in a new era of power 

transmission. It will be the first system to achieve a capacity of 5,000 megawatts and 

reach 800 kilovolts. The high voltage makes it possible to transmit more power with 

lower losses. The HVDC lines that Siemens previously installed operate at 500 kilovolts 

and deliver up to 3,000 megawatts. As the energy for the HVDC line is generated by 

hydroelectric plants in the province of Yunnan, no carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) will be emitted. 

Without the new line, it would have been necessary to generate the energy using new 

fossil fuel-fired power plants. And that, according to predictions, would have meant 

more than 30 million tons of CO 2 emissions every year. 

na 

Higher Resolution CT 

Engineers at Siemens’ Roke 

Manor research center in 

Romsey, UK, have developed a 

new method that allows computer 

tomographs to generate 

data much more quickly. The 

process enables an optical 

transmission unit in the rotating 

part of a tomograph to 

transfer the measurement values 

contained in the rotating 

section to a stationary optical 

receiver without making contact. 

Siemens plans to use the Sharper medical images thanks to fast optical transmission. 

new method for its next generation 

of CT scanners, which will achieve a data rate of 8.5 gigabits per second, compared 

to the current rate of five gigabits per second. “This innovation makes it possible 

to transmit larger amounts of data in the same amount of time, enabling the generation 

of higher resolution cross-sections and ultimately improving data quality,” says 

Roke Manor Marketing Director Paul Smith. The Roke Manor research facility was established 

50 years ago and has been owned by Siemens for the past 17 years. The center’s 

approximately 400 employees are among the world’s leading specialists in the fields of 

communications technology, acoustics, image processing, and sensor systems. na 

4 Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007 Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007 5

Siemens Venture Capital | Combining RFID, WLAN, and Sensor Systems 

| Siemens in Hungary 

All in One 

Building a New Hungary 

G2 Microsystems has 

developed a chip that can 

locate and identify objects. 

It has interfaces not only 

for WLAN and RFID but 

also for special sensors. 

Back in 2004, a team of experts with many 

years of experience in identification and 

tracking applications met in Sydney, Australia. 

Their objective was to develop a chip 

capable of dealing with both technologies. 

One of the participants, G2 Microsystems 

chairman John Gloekler, believed such a chip 

could offer huge potential. Before moving to 

G2, Gloekler had spent many years analyzing 

and optimizing global supply chains as a 

partner at Ernst & Young, an international 

consulting firm. So, by the time he joined G2 

Microsystems, which is based in Campbell, 

California and has an R&D center in Sydney, 

he already knew the main questions that 

companies were asking: “Where is our merchandise?” 

and, “What condition is it in?” 

Identification systems are now an indispensable 

part of logistics. They use reading 

devices to track the contents of trucks passing 

through factory gates. Real-time locating 

systems such as Moby R from Siemens use 

RFID tags to find a specific automobile in giant 

parking lots for cars. The tags send radio 

waves to reading devices, which take runtime 

measurements of the signal in order to 

calculate the location of the car in question. 

In addition to such systems, many companies 

also have WLAN. Tags that are equipped 

with a corresponding chip can communicate 

their position via a WLAN access point. The 

advantage here is that an existing infrastructure 

can be used, thus eliminating the need 

to purchase reading devices. 

In some cases RFIDs and WLAN operate in 

the same environment. However, this has required 

the use of two separate tags. To get 

around this, researchers have explored the 

idea of combining these. “But,” says Gloeker, 

“The WLAN tags that were used until recently 

consumed too much energy, and their batteries 

died after just a few weeks or months.” 

But a new chip from G2 systems known as 

the G2C501 allows users to set up systems 

that reduce total lifecycle costs by up to 75 

Testing the G2C501’s sensors during development. The chip integrates a number of sensing technologies. 

percent. The chip switches from standby to 

active mode very quickly, power consumption 

in the standby mode has been reduced 

considerably, and the entire power regulation 

process has been optimized. 

In order to support tracking, the G2C501’s 

system platform consists of a processor with 

radio interfaces for RFID and WLAN. But a G2 

chip can do more. “In many cases, customers 

not only want to know where their assets 

are, but also how the local environment is affecting 

them,” says Gloekler. They need to 

know about temperature, humidity, and 

lighting conditions, for example, and also require 

data on whether merchandise is stationary 

or in motion. All of this data can be 

provided by sensors linked to the system. 

Text Messages from Containers. Although 

only recently introduced, early birds such as 

Finland-based Ekahau, are already working 

with the chip. Siemens also plans to get in on 

the action. “By merging RFID, positioning 

systems, and the properties of wireless sensor 

networks on a mobile platform, the new 

chip makes it possible to create applications 

that go far beyond simple identification and 

asset tracking,” says Marcus Bliesze from 

Siemens Automation and Drives. 

Consider, for example, a container housing 

refrigerated items in a storage building. 

Equipped with a G2C501 tag, the container 

can be located in real time via WLAN. The tag 

in the refrigerated container is equipped 

with a temperature sensor — and the 

G2C501, with its integrated processor, can 

be programmed in such a way as to enable it 

to send a message via WLAN if the temperature 

exceeds a predefined level. By linking 

the chip with a GSM module, it could in the 

future even send a text message. 

The idea of integrating several technologies 

onto one chip was so convincing that 

Siemens Venture Capital (SVC) decided to invest 

in the start-up. “We expect the market 

for identification and positioning systems to 

grow rapidly,” says Dr. Uwe Albrecht from 

SVC. New applications are already being created, 

such as employing WLAN-enabled 

transponders to make it easier to locate mobile 

machines in hospitals. Frost & Sullivan, a 

market research company, expects the assettracking 

market to grow at an annual rate of 

23 percent over the next five years, reaching 

a volume of $1 billion by 2010. For his part, 

Gloekler firmly believes that the G2 chip will 

form the core of many of the systems in this 

market. 

Katrin Nikolaus 

Siemens can look back on 

a 120-year history in 

Hungary. Back in 1887, 

Siemens & Halske established 

a company in 

Budapest to build the city’s 

first streetcar line. Today, 

Siemens has 2,100 employees 

in Hungary who generate 

annual sales of approximately 

€420 million. Their 

work focuses on providing 

innovative product 

solutions for all Siemens 

business areas. 

Siemens has traditionally been a pioneer 

in Hungary, having built the first subway 

on mainland Europe in Budapest in 1896. It 

also provided the Hungarian capital with its 

first electric street lighting system in 1911 

and its first PET/CT imaging system in 2005. 

Twelve years ago, Siemens also participated 

in the implementation of a forwardlooking 

lighting concept designed by lighting 

planner Christian Bartenbach for 

Budapest’s southernmost Danube bridge, 

the Lágymányosi. There are no lamps above 

the bridge that directly light the road; instead, 

light emitted from below reflects off 

mirror systems mounted 35 meters above 

the ground on five poles. 

Each light reflector consists of two wings, 

one of which is equipped with around 50 

small mirror components. Each mirror wing 

is illuminated by a one-kilowatt metal halogen 

lamp from Osram. The advantage of this 

lighting system is that the mirrors are positioned 

in such a way that light is reflected 

onto the road in a completely even manner. 

Additional light sources for pedestrians are 

installed in the bridge parapet. 

Siemens is also helping Hungary with 

parking. Back in 1999 and 2000, the company 

initiated a pioneering program to net- 

Elegant lighting. Mirror systems 35 meters above the ground evenly illuminate the road. 

work parking meter vending machines in Budapest 

and other Hungarian cities in order to 

enable remote monitoring. Siemens delivered 

and installed nearly 1,250 advanced 

vending machines, which are linked via GSM 

modem with the operator’s control center, to 

which they send information on proceeds, 

battery power status, the amount of paper 

left for printing, and functional defects. The 

data is processed at the center with the help 

of “Sity Control” software, which is able to 

identify each machine based on the SIM card 

in its GSM modem. The data enables operators 

to efficiently plan staff routes for collecting 

money, refilling paper, and replacing batteries. 

LED Traffic Lights. Siemens’ pioneering 

spirit is still alive and well in Hungary. In particular, 

the company is now participating in a 

financing concept for new traffic light systems 

in Budapest that could become a model 

for many cities around the world. Traffic 

lights in the Hungarian capital are not only 

set to get brighter in the future; they will also 

be saving the city money and helping to protect 

the environment. 

Together with Hungarian signaling system 

manufacturer Vilati, Siemens will be 

equipping all the city’s traffic lights with 

light-emitting diodes (LEDs) between now 

and 2008. In all, some 33,000 LED systems 

are to be installed at more than 815 traffic 

light intersections. The new light sources 

consume about 80 percent less electricity 

than the conventional 230-volt light bulbs 

they will be replacing. What’s more, the LEDs 

also have an operating life of up to 100,000 

hours — much longer than current light 

bulbs. As a result, they only need to be replaced 

once every ten years or so. 

Despite the large investment required, Budapest 

won’t face a financial crunch with the 

traffic lights, as system costs will be paid off 

in monthly installments that are lower than 

the savings the system will achieve through 

reduced power consumption and maintenance 

costs. “According to calculations by 

the city of Budapest, more than €800,000 

can be saved each year on electricity alone 

because the LED traffic lights use 7.6 million 

kilowatt-hours less energy than normal 

lights,” says Péter Üveges, head of Intelligent 

Traffic Systems at Siemens Hungary. “Maintenance 

costs for the lights will also decline 

by around ten percent.” The project has a total 

volume of €34 million and includes a 

maintenance contract that runs until 2013. 


Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007 7

Siemens Worldwide | Siemens in Hungary 

| Energy Economics in New York City 

The former PSE (Program and System Engineering), 

which became a part of IT Solutions 

and Services in January 2007, is another 

major Siemens outpost in the region. 

With the help of its 500 employees in Budapest 

and Szeged, the company focuses on 

worldwide information technology services 

for Siemens sales and service organizations. 

Projects are spread across several locations. 

In addition to its offices in Hungary 

and Vienna, Austria, the company has 

branch offices in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, 

Romania, and Croatia. “A typical project 

involves three or four countries,” says Martin 

Nedved, the company’s managing director 

in Hungary. “In Szeged, for example, we 

New LED traffic lights (left) save power; parking ticket vending machines (right) can be remotely monitored. 

worked with colleagues from China, who 

came to learn about our system solutions.” 

Electronic Authorities. Siemens develops 

solutions for industrial automation, information 

and communication systems, the energy 

sector, traffic and transport applications 

(including toll collection systems), building 

systems technology, medical systems, space 

programs, and biometric applications. More 

than 90 percent of its project volume is accounted 

for by Siemens Groups, with the remainder 

consisting of services for local companies, 

government authorities, and various 

public facilities. In February 2007, Siemens 

delivered an IT system to the city of Szeged 

(population: 200,000) that now enables 

authorities to carry out administrative 

processes more efficiently. Local residents 

who register with the city government can 

take advantage of things like online forms 

and tax returns that save them time and 

money. By the spring of 2007, about 10,000 

Internet subscribers in Szeged had signed up 

to use the new electronic services offered by 

the city government. 

Another project — this one with the European 

Space Agency (ESA) — focuses on the 

analysis, storage, and processing of data collected 

by earth-monitoring satellites. 

IT Solutions and Services archives all software 

tools and expert knowledge in detail on 

its intranet, access to which is open to all 

employees. Staff can log in and discuss new 

technologies, ideas, and concepts with colleagues. 

The platform is also used to recruit 

experts to new projects, which is how developers 

from Szeged found themselves supporting 

colleagues in Jakarta, Indonesia, for 

example. 

The company has also been working with 

Budapest University of Technology for many 

years. One joint project is the Mobile Innovation 

Center established two years ago. The 

center — a consortium of companies, universities, 

and research and development institutes 

— is working on a cross-system mobile 

radio infrastructure. 

Siemens contributes its expertise in communications 

here, giving Nedved reason to 

be optimistic about the future. “The integration 

of PSE offers us the possibility to globally 

market our expertise in areas such as embedded 

software. We expect this to result in numerous 

business opportunities, which we 

plan to exploit,” he says. Sylvia Trage 

Powerful Idea in the Bronx 

With help from Siemens, a 

residential community in 

New York City’s northern 

borough has increased the 

capacity of its power plant 

to such an extent that it 

will be able to sell surplus 

energy to the local utility 

at market prices, thus generating 

substantial profits. 

Future revenues will be 

channeled into improvements 

for the complex’s 

16,000 housing units. 

On June 27, 2007 — a scorching, humid 

day with temperatures topping 32 degrees 

Celsius — parts of Manhattan and the 

South Bronx lost power for 45 minutes. 

Many New Yorkers recalled the epic blackout 

of four years ago, when their city and large 

parts of the northeast and midwest were 

without power for days. 

Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), which provides 

power to 3.2 million customers in New 

York City and surrounding areas, is fighting 

an uphill battle. Its infrastructure is in decline 

while load and demand are up. Correspondingly, 

Con Edison is encouraging its major 

customers to consider independently installing 

power stations to support their own 

demand. 

Co-op City, a large residential complex located 

in the northeast of the Bronx, will soon 

become an independent customer because 

Siemens is providing the equipment for the 

re-powered power plant, which will have a 

capacity of 40 MW. The $65 million plant will 

provide some 16,000 housing units with 

electricity, heat, hot water, and air conditioning. 

And in addition to meeting the needs of 

all 60,000 residents, it will also provide a surplus 

that can be sold back to the grid. 

The Bronx’s Co-op City wants to use its power plant as a spring board to local economic renewal. 

The facility is scheduled to go online in 

December 2007 — two months ahead of its 

original target. When it does, it will be more 

efficient, more powerful, and less polluting 

than its predecessor. “You put a dollar of gas 

into an average gas turbine, and it produces 

35 cents of electricity; the other 65 cents is 

wasted,” explains Co-op City power plant director 

Brian Reardon, using his favorite 

metaphor. “In our system, we’re getting 76 

cents out of every dollar.” 

That’s because the steam produced by the 

waste heat of the combustion turbine exhaust 

is used to power a steam turbine that 

generates additional electricity. Part of that 

turbine’s waste heat is then used to create 

hot water for the entire complex. 

Additional steam produced by the combustion 

turbine exhaust will also be used to 

power the plant’s “steam drivers” and 

“chillers,” which create heat and air conditioning 

for the entire complex. 

At maximum capacity, the plant can produce 

40 megawatts of electricity, about 

twice the amount needed at Co-op City on 

an average day. 

If it chooses, Co-op City can sell its excess 

electricity back to Con Edison at the prevailing 

market rate. Between efficiency upgrades 

and potential sales, RiverBay Corporation, 

the company that manages Co-op City, 

expects to save $15 million to $25 million a 

year. At the same time, it hopes to pay off 

the cost of the plant in three to five years and 

create a new revenue stream for future improvements. 

As a bonus, the modernization allows Coop 

City to use cleaner-burning fuels, meaning 

that despite the expansion, the complex 

plant will wind up emitting fewer pollutants. 

Siemens is the main equipment supplier 

for this challenging project. The scope of 

supply for Siemens PG comprises two gas 

turbines, a steam turbine, and the control 

system. In addition, Siemens is supplying 

medium voltage controllers and turnkey 

manufacturing and installation of medium 

voltage switchgear. 

One of the reasons Reardon is extremely 

satisfied with this project is that Siemens is 

able to provide the customer with a single 

point of contact for all commercial negotiations 

as well as coordinating support from 

different Siemens divisions. 

“I am the primary contact who provides 

the customer with a seamless Siemens interface, 

allowing the customer more time to focus 

on more important issues” says John 

Sprance, Siemens’ key account manager for 

New York City. “Projects like this require 

many talented people from many Siemens 

divisions and contractors. In order to stay on 

schedule, such a project needs to be well orchestrated 

and it all starts with careful planning 

and experienced project managers.” 

“There’s no doubt about it, this is one of 

the best run projects I know,” confirms Jeff 

Torbitt, who is the contractor project leader. 

Torbitt is also convinced that completing a 

project of this size ahead of schedule is a rare 

achievement. 

Twice as Much Power as Needed. The idea 

of over-sizing the plant came up after the 

first calculations were completed and everyone 

was asking, “Where should this money 

come from?” 

One big item on the list was Con Edison’s 

back-up power. “The information showed 

that we would have to spend a lot of money, 

not for electricity, but just for the assurance 

that we might get it if we were in trouble,” 

recalls Reardon 

He came up with the great idea of not 

spending money for Con Edison but selling 

power instead. “Building a plant twice as 

large as needed and selling the surplus electricity 

was the break-through idea,” he recalls. 

With this, the project became not only 

feasible, but also profitable. In a few years, 

after paying back the current debt, the plant 

will provide a comfortable stream of revenue 

for further enhancements of the whole complex, 

and with electricity prices on the rise, it 

may become profitable much sooner than 

originally expected. 

”As established mega cities like New York 

continue to expand, the revitalization of 

their critical infrastructure helps residents 

and businesses function optimally. This 

unique infrastructure improvement project 

not only supports the future power needs of 

Co-op City residents, but also provides a 

mechanism by which lower income citizens 

can be empowered to improve their quality 

of life,” says Randy Zwirn, president and CEO 

of Siemens Power Generation USA and member 

of the PG Group Executive Management. 

RiverBay management agrees. “Years ago, 

when we looked at the plant and the condition 

it was in, we knew we had to put money 

in it and had to do major work,” says Herb 

Freedman of Marion Scott Real Estate, which 

manages Co-op City for RiverBay. “And if 

you’re going to do major work, why not do it 

right?” he asks. 

Harald Weiss 



Factories of the Future | Scenario 2020 

Highlights 

13 Rebirth in the Virtual Universe 

Translating virtual products into 

their real-world counterparts is 

still a challenge. But as Siemens 

closes this gap, a universe of 

possibilities is materializing. 

16 Journey to a Unified World 

Siemens’ acquisition of UGS has 

given its Automation and Drives 

Group the tools to merge the real 

and virtual worlds of production. 

23 Blending Realities 

Simulated factories contain 

thousands of parameters for real 

machines. Their models are being 

used to calculate optimized 

arrangements and ergonomics. 

26 Simply the Best 

Siemens’ components plant in 

Amberg, Germany, has been 

named Europe’s Best Factory. The 

keys to its success are innovation 

and highly motivated employees. 

30 Trains of Bits and Bytes 

Siemens and its international 

partners are using virtual reality 

to design, assemble and test 

entire trains. 

33 Optimizing Throughput 

Workflow simulation learned 

from developing factory 

environments is helping to optimize 

a radiation therapy center. 

39 Rethinking Manufacturing 

Interview with Roddy Martin, general 

manager of AMR Research. 

2020 

A company that specializes in producing virtual 

prototypes of products and their related 

production processes is asked to design a car 

seat that can double as an independent, autonomous 

vehicle. Working closely with the 

customer, machine manufacturers and suppliers, 

engineers design and test every aspect 

of the new product and its production 

line in the virtual world — right to the point 

that it is ready to be translated into reality. 

Surprisingly Realistic 

By 2020 manufacturers will be able to move from idea 

to finished product in a fraction of the time that is now 

required. The reason: even the most complex products 

— and their associated production processes — will be 

designed and tested to perfection in the virtual world. 

I 

f you can describe it, we can design it.” That’s 

our motto. We’re a mid-sized company that 

specializes in industrial simulations. Example: 

Two months ago a major automotive manufacturer 

came to us with a request that forced us 

to put our thinking caps into high gear. They 

wanted us to come up with a robotic car seat 


Factories of the Future| Scenario 2020 

that could detach itself with the user in it, plot 

a course through a mall or airport, be operated 

based on verbal or internet commands and/or 

joystick controls, be capable of traveling up to 

ten miles and, if necessary, be able to return to 

its home vehicle on its own or be sent on independent 

errands. Deadline: 60 days for a production-compatible 

virtual prototype. 

When my boss asked me to take charge of 

the project, all I could say was “Wow!” Our engineers 

were on the road — Dubai, Paris. You 

name it. But hey, what else is new? I assembled 

a team of specialists and alerted everyone to 

the new file I had opened in our online project 

database. The file, which I called “XtraSit,” included 

all of the customer’s specifications, as 

well as 3D interactive models of the vehicles it 

would be an option on. 

No sooner was the file activated, than a program 

automatically began scouring all of our 

suppliers’ databases for everything from self-inflating, 

luminescent tires to special-order 

scooter wedge brake systems. Within minutes a 

list of potentially-applicable components, complete 

with specs, prices, availability, earliest delivery 

dates, and 3D interactive models had 

been assembled. This information, along with 

everything each team developed, was instantly 

available to everyone on an interactive basis 

using a secure data backbone. 

Design was divided along classic lines: mechanical 

engineers, electrical engineers and 

software and automation experts, plus of 

course production planners. But as the design 

took shape, a mechatronic program integrated 

the data from these specialists into a holistic 

functional object. When a few lines of software 

were altered, for instance, the guys working on 

related mechanical and electrical systems 

could see how the change affected their work. 

Of course, a lot of the stuff was strictly offthe-shelf-easy. 

The vision, radar and navigation 

components, for instance, were standard issue 

for every shopping cart on earth. After all, why 

go to the trouble of pushing a heavy cart if you 

can get one to follow you? But airports, for instance, 

are more complicated. The customer 

wanted XtraSit to be able to take users through 

millimeter wave security checks without even 

having to stop, meaning that every part had to 

be wave transparent — in other words, made 

of bio-plastics, composites, etc. 

As design of the virtual prototype proceeded, 

programs automatically assembled a 

corresponding virtual prototype of the production 

process that would produce it. Photographically 

realistic functional digital models of 

robotic arms and weld guns, complete with 

hardware and software specifications, could be 

called up on each engineer’s display device and 

interlinked. Our production planners supervised 

this, cross-checking the programs’ suggestions 

with plant energy requirements, as 

well as scheduling, cost, service, and product 

lifecycle management considerations. Analyzing 

the simulations of the seat’s production 

line, the designers were guided by expert programs 

that helped them to choose the machines 

and software that would best fit the 

process as a whole in terms of its lifetime value 

for the customer. 

Production machine manufacturers got involved 

in the process too, as did suppliers of 

parts for the seats. Specialized nozzles for 

spraying self-cleaning coatings on parts, optical 

analyses of machined surfaces, audio analyses 

of mini-motor sound levels...one company 

after another optimized parts or programs by 

tapping into our centralized file, conducting 

simulations and upgrading their respective 

data to the point that it could be flawlessly reproduced 

in the real world. What’s more, every 

part was designed to be recycled, and every alteration 

was automatically documented. 

Virtual prototypes of mechanical assemblies 

were tested, as were the machining steps required 

to produce them. Nothing was left to 

chance. After 60 days — just as the customer 

had requested — virtual prototypes of the seat, 

its production process, and its supply chain, including 

packaging and delivery schedule, were 

ready for simulation. The prototypes were, for 

all practical purposes, identical in every detail 

to what would ultimately be built. 

The customer’s project manager, a smoothtalking 

fellow by the name of Carson who had 

been involved in the product and production 

development process from the word go, visited 

our walk-in Website — a prototype service in its 

own right that uses 3D virtual presence software 

to create the illusion of real time interactivity 

in a simulated environment. 

Once in the “site,” Carson examined the 

seat’s appearance in one of his company’s topof-the-line 

cars; he walked along the production 

line studying the rapid movements of robotic 

arms, noting the hum of conveyer belts, 

the crisp sounds of components being snapped 

together by avatars in the distance. Stopping 

next to the thick acrylic cover shielding a powerful 

press, he distractedly slid his hand along 

its corner as he watched the machine’s arm 

hurtle downwards, exhaling a muted pneumatic 

hiss. A pale sheen of red appeared where 

his hand had passed along the translucent surface. 

“Ouch,” he exclaimed, suddenly looking 

down at his index finger where a bead of blood 

was forming. “Surprisingly realistic,” he murmured, 

almost to himself. “Yes,” I said, “more 

so than one might expect.” Arthur F. Pease 

| Trends 

Rebirth 

Virtual worlds allow planners to visualize and 

test future production processes. The same goes 

for individual products – such as a Siemens’ 

overload relay (small image). 

Products and manufacturing processes are already being developed and tested 

in virtual environments. But translating them into their real-world counterparts is 

still a challenge. As Siemens draws closer to bridging this gap, new possibilities 

are materializing, including factories that design themselves and walk-in 

Websites in which consumers build their own products. 

Tiny components proceed relentlessly down 

automated production lines. One line assembles 

circuit boards for automation systems. 

Another produces the contactors that will 

switch motors on and off. A third manufactures 

that most emblematic of automation devices: 

the push button. 

The devices are produced around the clock 

in three shifts at a plant operated by Siemens 

Automation and Drives (A&D) near Amberg, an 

autobahn-hour east of Nuremburg. The plant is 

one of 23 similar Siemens installations around 

the world that produce components for the 121- 

billion-euro-per-year automation market. It is a 

market that — thanks to its ability to save time, 

money and energy — is virtually insatiable. 

fore making changes in our physical plant (see 

p. 20). This will save time and money as it will 

allow us to optimize our actual production 

processes while minimizing down time. What’s 

more,” he adds, “engineers in all 23 facilities 

will be able to tap into the same product and 

production database to develop and test individualized 

solutions for their own customers 

(see p. 23) regardless of where they are.” 

Joining Lifecycles and Supply Chains. The 

advanced technology that is allowing plants 

like the one in Amberg to transition from oldfashioned 

paper diagrams, excel documents 

and localized CAD (computer aided design) solutions 

to databases that allow interactive, 

multi-site use of 3D functional images is built 

on a concept called product lifecycle management 

(PLM). 

PLM involves the integration and documentation 

of all the information associated with a 

product — from raw materials and suppliers to 

design and manufacturing, and from customer 

delivery to maintenance and disposal — into a 

in the Virtual Universe 

To meet demand for current and future 

products, the Amberg plant is creating a digital 

copy of itself. Ten engineers led by Project 

Manager Holger Griesenauer are using sophisticated 

process and plant simulation and optimization 

tools from UGS — now a division of 

A&D known as Siemens PLM Software (see 

p.16) — to digest the specifications of every 

product produced in the plant, every machine 

used in production, and every connection between 

those machines. 

“When we’ve completed this process at the 

end of 2007,” says Griesenauer, “we’ll be able 

to assemble production processes in the virtual 

environment, test them in detail, and ensure 

that we can respond to customer requests besingle, 

seamless database. Today, this process 

is gathering steam. According to A&D Group 

President Helmut Gierse, “formerly isolated, 

stand-alone solutions in product design, 

production and service software are being 

molded into what will eventually be an integrated 

system.” 

But to be comprehensive, a product’s PLM 

view must be supplemented by its supply chain 

management (SCM) view. SCM provides a corresponding 

overview of a product’s financial 

and logistical data. Siemens’ vision — according 

to Gierse — is that by 2020 the software 

needed to produce a product’s PLM-SCM view 

will be so holistically integrated that “every 

facet of its lifecycle can be simulated, thus 



Factories of the Future | Trends 

Meeting the Mechatronic Challenge. Before 

Siemens’ collective vision of a fully 

integrated virtual / real production-information 

landscape can be realized, however, it will 

have to overcome what experts call the 

“mechatronic challenge” — a kind of technological 

Mount Everest in which the data coverleading 

to virtual commissioning and the automatic 

generation of a production solution in 

the real world.” 

Although PLM-SCM-based simulation technology 

is still young, it is profoundly changing 

the way companies do business. Already, according 

to AMR Research, the leading advisor 

on the optimization of supply chains, about 20 

percent of all product and production changes 

are performed in the virtual world (see p. 39). 

And with good reason. Studies by Germany’s 

Fraunhofer Institute indicate that 

advanced simulation technologies such as 

those being implemented in Amberg and at 

Siemens Transportation Systems in Krefeld, 

Germany (see p. 30) result in a 15 percent reduction 

in product ramp-up time, a 10 percent 

improvement in productivity, a 20 percent cut 

in the cost of planning new production facili- 

locomotives and windmill turbines that are produced 

in relatively small lots. “Since every project 

order is unique, simulation plays an important 

roll in terms of minimizing ramp-up time,” 

comments Dr. Robert Neuhauser, who heads 

key parts of Siemens’ Corporate Supply Chain 

and Procurement and is a leader in the company’s 

Innovation and Manufacturing Joint Initiative 

(see sidebar). 

As these trends take shape, Siemens foresees 

that today’s production plants will evolve 

into intelligent digital factories. “Digital representations 

of plants will make it possible to 

modernize their physical counterparts much 

more quickly and accurately than is now possisolution 

so accurately that it will automatically 

generate the software to alter a machine’s behavior 

to meet the new specification. We see 

this becoming a single, integrated process requiring 

very few manual interactions. That is 

our vision, and we expect it to be realized 

within the next 10 years.” 

Already, approximately 20 percent of all product and 

production changes take place in the virtual world. 

virtual world. “The result of the interactions 

between such forces is an explosion in 

complexity,” say Dr. Albert Gilg, who heads 

Siemens CT’s Virtual Design Department. 

Will Siemens be able to meet these challenges? 

Already, major pieces of the company’s 

integrated vision are coming together. Without 

a doubt, the biggest of these is the recent 

addition of Siemens PLM Software to A&D. In 

addition, the new division’s extensive product 

offering will soon be complimented by Simatic 

Automation Designer, a multifaceted tool suite 

from A&D that will, according to Project Leader 

Dr. Wolfgang Schlögl, “allow mechanical, electrical 

and automation engineers to work collaboratively 

on the same planning and engineering 

activities.” When added to simulation tools from 

Siemens PLM Software, this technology could 

result in a new way of developing products in 

which manufacturing information is automatically 

generated from a product’s specifications. 

“For example,” explains Schlögl, “if a designer 

specifies a product’s surface characteristics, 

the system will automatically choose the 

right production process to meet the requirement. 

Put it all together and you could eventually 

have a technology that, based on extremely 

accurate product and production 

simulations, automatically generates the factory 

layout as well as the processes needed to 

produce the product exactly as simulated.” 

Simulations will become precision copies of reality 

– but with virtually limitless production flexibility. 

models as people. Well, it’s the same with the 

software used by our business units. But if we 

can standardize the semantics, then communication 

will be much more efficient,” says Lo. 

Where will all these developments take us 

over the next twenty years? “What we’re moving 

toward is a virtual representation of the entire 

value chain — everything from raw materials 

to lifetime maintenance, remote service and 

product and production planning in a holistic, 

seamless product lifecycle and supply chain management 

environment,” says Paul Camuti, president 

of Siemens Corporate Research. “In twenty 

years the real and virtual worlds will be seamlessly 

integrated. Our simulations will duplicate 

reality down to the last detail. The result will be 

virtually limitless manufacturing flexibility.” 

The result could also be a revolution in retailing 

and consumer purchasing. Already, 

some clothing stores provide “mass customized” 

personalized items. But as simulation 

technology matures, high-tech kiosks and 

“walk-in Websites” that link us to manufacturers 

and their suppliers may allow us to profoundly 

and realistically individualize, test and 

even experience the appearance and personalities 

of everything from phones and scooters to 

clothing and the design and decoration of our 

homes. We may even venture into virtual 

worlds ourselves. 

Arthur F. Pease 

Manufacturing Matters at Siemens 

Whether applied to visualizing automotive production lines (left) or planning entire factories, (right), simulation can optimize virtually every aspect of production. 

ties, and a 15 percent improvement in product 

quality (see p. 19). 

Not only is simulation attractive because of its 

economic advantages, but because it represents 

the only realistic response to the major trends affecting 

most businesses. These trends include 

increasing product individualization, increasingly 

distributed value chains, rising product 

complexity and functionality, and the relentless 

pressure to move from product idea to market 

introduction in the shortest possible time. 

Self-Configuring Factories. In addition, as it 

has moved away from commodity businesses 

in communications and automotive parts, 

Siemens has witnessed another trend that demands 

enhanced use of simulation: a sharp increase 

in project-related business — items like 

ble,” says Ralf-Michael Franke, president of 

A&D’s Industrial Automation Systems Division. 

“Then, when components are installed in the 

physical plant, they will configure themselves 

and establish communication with each other, 

thus eliminating start-up time. Once in operation, 

production processes will optimize and 

even heal themselves. The key point is that the 

virtual and real worlds will be increasingly 

intermeshed.” 

Dr. Gerd Ulrich Spohr, head of Strategic 

Technology at A&D, explains just how intermeshed 

these worlds are likely to become: “We 

want machines and processes on the factory 

floor to generate information that will precision 

tune their counterparts in the virtual 

world. Then, when an alteration in the real 

world is required, we will be able to simulate a 

ing the mechanical and physical characteristics 

of objects is combined with their electrical and 

software functions in real-time, dynamic, 

virtual prototypes. 

Achieving this will involve overcoming the 

fact that mechanical, electrical and software 

engineering “grew up as separate disciplines, 

each with its own set of design tools,” points 

out Dr. Bernhard Nottbeck, head of Siemens 

Corporate Research and Technology’s (CT) 

Production Processes Division. “But if we can 

combine these three disciplines, it will be a 

major breakthrough.” 

In addition to the challenges of combining 

systems into a holistic prototype, developers 

must deal with the real-time interactions of 

multiple physical parameters such as temperature, 

pressure, and magnetic fields in the 

Answers in the Making. Many more pieces 

are coming together to build Siemens’ vision. 

At CT’s Software and Engineering (SE) Division, 

for instance, researchers are exploring how 

manufacturing-related information can be 

structured so that it can be seamlessly transferred 

without having to be input more than 

once. “As a result of our research, we can now 

determine how well different software tools 

will work together,” says Dr. Ulrich Löwen, who 

heads SE’s Systems Engineering Department. 

And at Siemens Corporate Research (SCR) in 

Princeton, New Jersey, Dr. George Lo and 

coworkers are examining how centralized software 

hierarchies in manufacturing systems can 

be reconceptualized to make them survivable. 

“What we are developing,” says Lo, “is a system 

that is characterized by highly distributed controllers 

that are capable of reconfiguring themselves 

after a catastrophic event in order to 

maintain critical operations.” 

In addition, with a view to creating open, 

yet seamless information environments in 

which simulations and real machines can interact, 

SCR and A&D are testing a software platform 

based on common semantic models. 

“Suppose everyone in a room was asked to 

draw a picture of a house; you’d have as many 

With over 300 large factories, each of which has sales above 50 million euros, Siemens is one 

of the world’s largest manufacturers. Indeed, at Siemens, over 150,000 people (55% in Europe, 22% 

in North America, and 23% in Asia) are involved in producing everything from LEDs to lithotriptors. In 

view of this, the company recently established an “Innovation and Manufacturing Joint Initiative” that 

interfaces with representatives from all company Groups. “Working with the Groups, we are identifying 

the hot topics, the best practices, and the best ways of sharing results,” says Reinhold Achatz 

(photo), head of Corporate Research and Technologies, who leads the Initiative. “Our goal is to drive 

technology-related and process-related innovation in manufacturing.” That makes a lot of sense, considering 

the fact that improvements in manufacturing productivity at Siemens translate into about 

one billion euros in savings per year, according to Dr. Robert Neuhauser, who works closely with 

Achatz on the Initiative and heads key parts of Siemens’ Corporate Supply Chain and Procurement activities. 

“Manufacturing has changed fundamentally in recent years,” he says. “Ten years ago longterm 

planning was everything. Today, the secret to success is flexibility. As a result, we are training a 

new crop of factory managers who understand R&D, supply chain management, and of course 

manufacturing.” 



Factories of the Future | UGS and Siemens 

With simulation technology, even the most complex 

production processes can be visualized in detail, 

resulting in optimized configurations and the ability 

to rapidly adjust to customer demands. 

Developed from the ground up in the virtual world, 

Eclipse Aviation’s very light jets are flying high 

thanks to product and production optimizations that 

allow them to be produced at half the cost of others. 

Journey to a Unified World 

Siemens’ recent acquisition of UGS has given its Automation and Drives Group — 

the leader in the 121-billion-euro world automation market — the tools to merge 

the real and virtual worlds of production. 

The real and virtual worlds of production are 

morphing into one. Long before they see 

the light of day, many of the parts, products, 

production facilities and entire supply chains 

that are the progenitors of everything from 

PDAs and airplanes to power plants and bottling 

processes are conceptualized, visualized, 

tested, operated and maintained in the virtual 

world. 

Driven by advances in computing and simulation, 

virtual representations are drawing ever 

closer to accurately duplicating their real world 

counterparts. Meanwhile, in the real world, the 

machine tools, robots, programmable controllers 

and communication systems used by 

production facilities are becoming increasingly 

digital, intelligent, and software-driven, making 

them easier to be accurately represented in 

the virtual world. 

On May 4, 2007, these two worlds moved 

significantly closer to forming a single, seamless 

information and communications environment. 

That was the day that UGS of Plano, 

Texas — a leader in product lifecycle management 

(PLM) software — became A&D PL 

(Siemens PLM Software), a division of Siemens 

Automation and Drives (A&D), “the world market 

leader in the 121-billion-euro automation 

market,” according to Group President Helmut 

Gierse. Including the new Siemens PLM Software 

division, A&D now employs over 80,000 

people, and has annual sales of well over 14 

billion euros. 

The new Siemens PLM Software division, 

with 7,750 people in 62 countries, 3,000 of 

whom are in R&D, has 47,000 customers and 

4.3 million licensed users — more than its top 

ten competitors combined. Siemens PLM Softchines 

and their associated control systems. 

“The combination of the PLM Software portfolio 

and A&D’s hardware and software will provide 

our customers with the decisive benefit of 

making the design and production of their 

products more efficient,” says Gierse. “In technological 

terms, this combination requires 

seamless integration between data from product 

design, plant design and physical production. 

This was exactly what we had in mind 

when we acquired this leading software company: 

To make our Totally Integrated Automation 

portfolio more powerful by reducing the 

number of system interfaces.” 

To this end Siemens A&D has launched Project 

Archimedes, an initiative designed to develop 

new software solutions that unify the 

product and production lifecycles and thus enable 

Siemens to realize its software vision. Says 

Siemens PLM Software Chairman and CEO 

Tony Affuso, “Our customers are really excited 

about having brought Siemens and UGS together 

because they know we have the horsepower 

to close the loop between what the engineering 

and marketing people want to 

design and what the production team is actually 

capable of manufacturing.” Adds Siemens 

PLM Software President Dr. Helmuth Ludwig, 

“The good thing about all this is that although 

we were not the ones to invent the idea of how 

to close the loop, we are — given A&D’s leading 

position in automation technologies and 

our leading position in PLM — the only company 

that’s actually able to do so.” 

Rapid Growth. According to a consensus of 

research organizations, including Frost and Sullivan 

and AMR research, the world market for 

PLM products such as those produced by 

Siemens PLM Software and its competitors is 

expected to increase to $24 billion by 2012 

from its current level of around $13.4 billion. 

That market, according to Siemens PLM Software 

Executive Vice President of Global Marketware 

is a leader in technologies such as UGS 

NX — its digital product development solution 

— and UGS Tecnomatix — its digital manufacturing 

solution — products that allow users to 

design and dynamically simulate the functions 

of everything from a sunroof on a new car to 

the design and operation of an entire factory, 

complete with vibration, stress, heat and flow 

dynamics, to name a few parameters. And they 

can do so collaboratively, securely, in 3D and in 

real time from any PC using the unique UGS 

Teamcenter digital lifecycle management software, 

the de facto standard in collaborative 

product data management (cPDM) — the enterprise 

backbone for all other products. 

By plugging UGS into A&D, Siemens has set 

its sites on closing the loop between the virtual 

world of product and production design and 

the nuts and bolts world of factory floor maing 

David Shirk, is divided into three segments. 

The first segment, computer-aided design, 

manufacturing and engineering (CAx), where 

Siemens PLM Software is number two and 

holds 18 percent of the market with NX software 

and other products, is expected to grow 

from $8 billion to about $12 billion between 

2005 and 2012. The second product category 

is cPDM. This market, which includes Teamcenter 

portfolio and where Siemens is the market 

leader, is set to move from $5 billion per year in 

2005 to approximately $11 billion by 2012. 

Here, Siemens holds 14 percent of the market. 

The third segment, “which is particularly attractive 

because of our Tecnomatix line,” according 

to Shirk, is the digital manufacturing market. 

This market, which is growing at about 20 percent 

per year and where Siemens, with a 31 

percent share of the market, currently holds 

the number one position, is expected to move 

from its current level of around $400 million 

per year to over $1.3 billion in 2012. 

Demand in these three markets is strong 

across the board. For instance, between 2006 

and 2012, says Shirk, European demand for 

PLM products is expected to average about 7 to 

level PLM to mid-size manufacturers in an easyto-use, 

preconfigured portfolio with a low total 

cost of ownership. 

Considering the size and scope of the PLM 

market, there’s plenty of competition. But 

what’s different about Siemens PLM Software’s 

portfolio is that the company has taken its experience 

in 3D computer-aided product and 

factory design (NX and Tecnomatix software) 

and tied it to its Teamcenter collaboration data 

management system, thus plugging information 

from a multifaceted virtual world into a 

collaborative development environment. 

“Thanks to Teamcenter technology we tie these 

elements together better than any of our competitors 

can,” says Ludwig. “Its multi-site capability 

is something no one else offers, and it’s 

the core of our tremendous advantage.” 

For major companies such as GM — a 

Siemens PLM Software customer — multi-site 

collaboration capability means that they can 

work with 3D dynamic data in real time at their 

own sites while accessing supplier sites to get 

updates on evolving products. As a result, they 

can see what’s going on at all of their sites 

every single day. “When changes are made to a 

Siemens is closing the gap between product 

design and production design experts. 

8 percent per year, moving from $5.6 billion to 

about $8.7 billion. Growing at about the same 

rate, the Americas are expected to head from 

$6.3 billion to $9.7 billion during the same period. 

And Asia, which is growing at 13 to 14 

percent, is expected to move from $3 billion to 

about $5.6 billion per year. 

In addition, Siemens PLM Software offers 

the UGS Velocity Series, a portfolio of software 

products that specifically addresses the requirements 

of mid-size companies. The Series is the 

first software solution to provide enterprisedesign, 

they can see them in real time thanks 

to Teamcenter,” says Affuso. 

For instance, if a problem is discovered in a 

product, the original data — say from a supplier 

in Japan — can be called up immediately 

and revised collaboratively by designers, production 

people and the supplier. “This can cut 

downtime compared to conventionally-run operations 

from weeks and months to days and in 

some cases hours,” says Ludwig. 

But the real beauty of collaborative simulation 

technology is that it helps to keep costly 



Factories of the Future | Product Lifecycle Management 

| Facts and Forecasts 

errors from ever seeing the light of day. At 

Caterpillar, for instance, Siemens PLM software 

produces functional virtual prototypes. “They 

try everything out on a virtual level before going 

to production,” says Affuso. What’s more, 

thanks to Tecnomatix production simulation 

software, the development and testing of a virtual 

production line in Teamcenter to produce a 

new or upgraded product reduces errors and 

saves time and money. “This knocks 30 to 50 

percent off the time-to-market part of a product’s 

lifecycle costs,” says Affuso, who points 

out that this has helped Nissan significantly 

slash average vehicle development time. 

Engineering the Future in China 

UGS entered the China market in 1987, established its first representative office in Beijing in 1990, 

and set up an R&D center in Shanghai in 2004. Today, Siemens PLM Software employs about 250 people 

in China, about 100 of whom are based at the company’s Shanghai R&D center. The center focuses 

on user interface design for the Chinese market; product lifecycle management (PLM) for Asian customers, 

computer aided design for customers in the automotive, aviation, and shipbuilding industries; 

research in computer aided engineering, and collaborative research projects with Chinese universities. 

On June 4, 2007 the company opened a number of PLM training centers at leading Chinese universities 

through its in-kind software grants. The centers will certify thousands of students annually, thus enabling 

universities to support local manufacturers with engineers trained in the latest industrial software. 

Siemens PLM Software’s Global Opportunities in Product Lifecycle Management initiative provides 

PLM technology to more than 915,000 students annually at nearly 9,000 educational institutions. 

Real Presence in the Virtual World 

Siemens PLM Software (A&D PL) recently announced 

the launch of its “Innovation Connection” 

within Second Life, a 3D virtual world entirely 

built by its residents. Second Life is 

inhabited by more than four million representations 

of real people. The launch makes Siemens 

the first pure PLM company to establish a presence 

in the mainstream online virtual world. 

Siemens will use its Second Life presence to 

collaborate with customers and partners, host 

virtual conferences and provide a more immersive 

way to experience its solutions as they are 

used by customers. Siemens PLM Software customers 

and partners showcased in Second Life 

include Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) - the only 

NASCAR racing organization to win a Cup Series 

championship for four straight years, and 

the JCB DIESELMAX — a car that, in 2006, 

achieved a stunning average speed of 350.092 

mph (563 kph) to break the land speed record 

for diesel-powered cars. Siemens PLM Software recently launched updates for its NX, Tecnomatix and 

Teamcenter product portfolios in Second Life. To join the action, visit www.ugs.com/secondLife 

Flying High. Eclipse Aviation is another great 

example of why Siemens PLM Software is flying 

high. The Albuquerque, New Mexico-based 

company has introduced a revolutionary new 

category of products called “very light jets.” In 

an industry in which selling 100 planes per 

year is considered successful, Eclipse is aiming 

for 1,000 planes per year — a goal that is 

clearly within reach given the fact that it has 

more than 2,600 orders. To accomplish this 

while selling its six-place, twin-turbofan aircraft 

for one-half the cost of similar small jets, 

Eclipse designers modeled the entire aircraft, 

down to the last rivet, in NX software, managed 

all product information, from digital models 

to the last scrap of paper documentation, 

on Teamcenter, and designed and optimized 

their factory in Tecnomatix. Says Dr. Oliver 

Masefield, senior vice president of engineering 

at Eclipse, “Our ability to meet our targets depends 

on digital mock-up and validation.” 

What’s the technology secret to Eclipse’s 

success? “Using NX, Teamcenter and Tecnomatix, 

the user can bring in data from multiple 

suppliers, roll it up into an integrated system, 

create 3D visualizations, and ask questions in 

the virtual world about how a new product will 

perform and how it can be manufactured,” explains 

Chuck Grindstaff, executive vice president 

of products, who heads research and development 

at Siemens PLM Software. “With 

Teamcenter, users can take 3D models, crosssection 

them, analyze distances between parts, 

and perform interference detection to see if all 

the parts fit together properly.” 

Siemens PLM Software simulation tools not 

only allow users to visualize the components 

that go into an assembly, but to dynamically interact 

with them. “For instance,” says Grindstaff, 

“we can run a vibration analysis on components, 

assemblies, entire power trains, the 

body of a car or the structure of an aircraft. So 

this technology is ideal for comparing models, 

analyzing them in terms of stress, vibration, 

heat and fluid dynamics, and integrating the 

results to make informed engineering decisions.” 

Capturing Knowledge. What all such simulations 

have in common is that they represent 

virtually unfathomable quantities of information. 

But to make that information useful it has 

to be distilled into knowledge. With this in 

mind, Siemens PLM Software researchers in 

the U.S., England, Israel, and China are expanding 

Teamcenter’s capabilities in the area of 

knowledge-based engineering. “By this we 

mean that Teamcenter will increasingly be focused 

on learning about and adapting to each 

customer’s requirements,” says Grindstaff. 

“Teamcenter will also improve in terms of capturing 

knowledge, searching databases, and 

reapplying knowledge to new designs. Over 

the next two decades, we will capture each industry’s 

best practices and inject the resulting 

knowledge into the design process.” 

For the resulting designs to be meaningful, 

however, they will have to exactly duplicate 

their real world counterparts — a challenge 

that will demand the seamless integration of 

data from hardware, software and electronics 

between the virtual and real worlds — a challenge, 

in short, that Siemens’ combined offer 

in automation and PLM is uniquely suited to 

fulfill. 

Arthur F. Pease 

The Buzz About Automation 

Depending on who’s doing the arithmetic, the world 

market for electronic automation technology is valued 

at between €120 billion and €230 billion. In 2006, according 

to the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ 

Association (ZVEI), it grew six percent. 

According to the ARC Advisory Group, a consultancy 

specializing in manufacturing and supply chain solutions, 

globalization is the driving force behind this increase. Indeed, 

globalization demands that manufacturing companies 

live by the motto “faster, cheaper, better.” In order to 

survive in such a competitive environment, manufacturers 

need to respond to market demands in an agile and flexible 

manner. They also have to cut their costs, boost their 

productivity and performance, and shorten product lifecycles. 

All of the above require standardized platforms and 

protocols. What’s more, production lines must not only be 

scalable and adaptable, they also need to be characterized 

by the lowest possible maintenance costs. 

The automation industry’s key market segments are 

motor systems consisting of a drives, controllers and motors; 

numerical controllers; and programmable logic controls. 

According to ARC, global sales of motor systems 

added up to $5.2 billion in 2005, with an expected increase 

to $6.9 billion by 2010. Yaskawa is the leading 

Source: ZVEI-Fachverband Automation, 2007 

Demand for shorter product lifecycles 

Globalization of markets and / or supply chains 

More complex design or a decentralized design environment 

More complex products 

company supplying motor systems, with a global market 

share of 13.9 percent, followed by Mitsubishi Electric with 

9.7 and Siemens with 9.3 percent. 

Computer numerical controllers (CNCs) control fast, 

high-precision working steps on machine tools. According 

to ARC, the global market volume for such controllers is 

around $4.5 billion, with Siemens holding a leading market 

share of 33.3 percent, followed by Fanuc and Mitsubishi 

Electric with 32 and 12.4 percent respectively. 

Thanks to their robust and reliable nature, programmable 

logic controllers (PLCs) play a key role in factory automation. 

These products undergo continuous improvement in 

terms of functionality, communications, diagnostic capabilities, 

scalability, and software. 

ARC expects sales of programmable logic controllers 

to rise from $7.5 billion in 2005 to $10 billion by 2010. 

This area’s leading supplier of hardware, software, and 

services is Siemens, which holds a 28.7 percent market 

share, followed by Rockwell with 21.8 percent and Mitsubishi 

with 14.9 percent. 

Demand for information technology (IT) that not only 

synchronizes production processes, but also simplifies 

such processes and increases their flexibility is rising in 

parallel. Users plan to efficiently link all product-relevant IT 

Four forces driving the installation of PLM solutions 

Key technologies 

for automation 

2020 

Sensors 

Networking & 

communications 

Lab on a chip 

Sensors for 

microorganisms 

Sensors for 

image processing 

Sensors for 

process 

parameters 

Software & modeling 

RFID 

Complete vertical 

integration 

Assistance systems 

Wireless sensor for automation 

networks 

Simulation 

systems 

MES 

Cooperative robot 

Open software 

systems 

Open architecture 

standards 

Data processing for 

proactive ideal/real 

control 

Ethernet 

Sensors for 

plant administration 

Control & 

management layer 

Virtual 

traffic 

Virtual power 

plant 

Asset 

management 

Intuitive user 

interfaces 

34% 

31% 

Virtual 

factory 

Remote-readable electricity meters 

2015 2010 2005 2010 

2015 

2020 

43% 

49% 

Source: Aberdeen 

Group, 2006 

Food, beverages 

Human-robot 

and tobacco 

interaction 

9% 

Human-machine 

interface 

Pharmaceuticals 

6% 

solutions by means of PLM (product lifecycle management). 

According to a study by consulting company AMR 

Research, the worldwide market for PLM products 

amounted to around $11 billion in 2006 and is forecast to 

hit $16 billion by 2010. 

With a market share of 13 percent, Cadence, which 

specializes in CAD systems, was the number one company 

in the PLM market in 2005, followed by Dassault Systems 

and UGS — now part of Siemens — both with 11 percent. 

The largest PLM market is the U.S., which accounts for 47 

percent, followed by Europe (36 percent) and the Asia-Pacific 

region (15 percent). 

The objectives of PLM are product and process optimization, 

reduced time-to-market, lower costs, higher flexibility, 

and improved planning and process quality. The 

U.S. National Institute of Standards & Technology supports 

the Aberdeen Group’s conclusion that manufacturing 

companies have a lot to gain from PLM. Implementation 

can cut development time and boost productivity by at 

least 20 percent. 

According to the Aberdeen Group’s study, companies 

that implemented PLM solutions, enjoyed a 19 percent increase 

in sales, while their production and development 

costs fell by 16 percent. 

Evdoxia Tsakiridou 

World PLM market 

Sales (in billions of dollars) 

10.5 11.3 

12.6 

13.5 

14.7 

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 

World process automation 

market 

Machine manufacturing 

Iron and steel 

5% 

Paper and cellulose 

16.0 

Source: AMR Research, 2006 

Other users 

4% 2% Mining, stone, earths 

9% 

6% 

Energy 

sector 

15% 

Total world market: 

€61 billion 

Chemicals 

19% 

Petroleum 

processing 

11% 

Petroleum 

and 

natural gas 

production 

14% 

Source: ZVEI-Fachverband Automation, 2007 



Factories of the Future | Factory Planning 

A virtual depiction of a future production location 

enables planners to optimize manufacturing 

processes and ergonomics. Pictured here is the 

Siemens motor plant in Tianjin, China. 

The best 3D tools are useless if you don’t 

understand factory processes in detail. 

The more realistically a factory can be depicted 

in the planning phase, the more rapidly errors 

can be detected and avoided when actual construction 

begins. 

Siemens specialists have been producing 

digital versions of factories for around 20 years 

now, and if they’ve learned one thing it’s that 

the best digital tools are useless if planners fail 

to understand factory processes in detail. “You 

first need to thoroughly review the entire planning 

process before you can begin using virtual 

tools,” says Dr. Bernd Korves, head of the Production 

Networks & Factory Planning competence 

center at CT PP. The key here is to completely 

understand the entire lifecycle, from 

design all the way to suppliers and production. 

Experts refer to this as product lifecycle management 

(PLM). 

The result of the design process — a digital 

product — is the bridge to the digital factory 

(see p. 23). “Extensive interlinking of these two 

process blocks offers huge potential,” says Dr. 

Albert Gilg, head of the Virtual Design competence 

center. “That’s because product design 

ultimately determines whether you create obstacles 

to production or enhance the efficiency 

of the manufacturing process.” 

Design data is thus the point of departure 

for the extensive analysis of a future production 

system. Specialists determine which proout 

this process, planners make extensive use 

of digital libraries to visualize individual workstations, 

machines and processes. 

With the Tianjin plant, virtual models enable 

planning teams around the world to “fly 

into” the factory halls at the push of a button. 

Large gray tubes can be seen in the halls — the 

motor stators. Next to them are avatars — simulated 

humans who grab copper wires and insert 

them into the tubes. The virtual flight allows 

employees at SEDL to quickly identify 

whether each workstation has enough space to 

move large motors around in, for example. 

Changes can be incorporated at any time, and 

their impact is immediately shown in the simulation. 

One special challenge in the Tianjin 

project was the fact that the virtual facility 

went through a simulated development of 

more than five years, which means production 

capacities had to be expanded as time went by 

and changing demand for products had to be 

taken into consideration. 

Degrees of Abstraction. The art of simulation 

mainly involves being able to figure out 

which locations require detailed information 

from the real world. “A lot of beginners try to 

precisely reproduce reality, which is a mistake,” 

says Korves. It’s also counterproductive because 

it requires way too much effort and expense. 

Success here depends on determining 

the proper degree of abstraction. “If you’re simulating 

material flows to come up with a layout, 

you don’t need to have everything down 

to the smallest bolt — but you do need this 

kind of information for complex assembly simulations,” 

Korves explains. 

Korves did in fact have to get very detailed 

in another project he worked on with Siemens 

VDO that involved production of a new vehicle 

dashboard. The job required detailed depictions 

of manufacturing cells as a means of simulating 

their ergonomic properties. Here, CT 

used software from UGS, which is now part of 

Automation and Drives (A&D) and is known as 

Siemens PLM Software (A&D PL — see p. 16). 

The software utilized standard values to record 

the size and stature of a worker and the number 

of times he or she repeated certain movements. 

This made it possible to optimize work- 

Blending Realities 

Siemens experts simulate new factories on computers long before anything is 

built. These 3D virtual models contain thousands of parameters, most of which 

are from real machines. The models are used in calculating optimal machine 

arrangements, component transport routes, the risks associated with transferring 

production to another location, and even the strain on a worker’s back. 

Siemens A&D’s SmartAutomation system 

allows new components and all of their 

parameters to be tested in a virtual model 

(left). The resulting optimized data are then 

downloaded to a real-world copy of the 

model (right), which includes a 

robotic arm (center), to be used for quality 

control in a future bottling facility. 

With eight factory halls, each as big as a 

soccer field and as high as a five-story 

building, the Siemens Electrical Drives Ltd. 

(SEDL) motor production facility in Tianjin, 

China (a two-hour drive from Beijing) is extremely 

imposing. Electric motors the size of a 

grown man are built here, as are wind turbines 

as big as small trucks, switching cabinets, and 

control units. Plans call for the Tianjin plant to 

be expanded even further and take its place as 

the leading facility for electric motor production 

in China. 

But when the facility was originally built, it 

posed a major challenge because it had to be 

planned and built from the ground up within 

only two-and-a-half years. And, of course, you 

can’ t simply design a production location of 

such magnitude on the drawing board. 

Because of the tremendous scope of the 

project, the Production Processes (PP) department 

at Siemens Corporate Technology (CT) in 

Munich was called in to help. The department 

specializes in creating three-dimensional factory 

computer models. 

Long before the first bulldozer broke 

ground, components were moving along virtual 

assembly lines. The objective was clear: 

duction steps will be necessary and the optimal 

sequence and speed of those steps. They determine 

the kinds of workstations needed for 

each step and how a factory should be laid out. 

Planners then work with the relevant Siemens 

Groups, often coming up with several alternatives. 

Each proposal is depicted on a computer 

as a 3D factory whose operations, including 

material flows, is simulated in detail. Throughstations 

by adjusting things like bench heights 

and arm-length distances to neighboring machines. 

Most virtual models today are created using 

objects from digital libraries. The CT team’s expertise 

lies in its ability to come up with the 

best solution for each application, even employing 

its own user interfaces in some cases. 

For instance, in cooperation with Munich Tech- 



Factories of the Future | Factory Planning 

nical University, the team came up with Plant 

Calc, a sophisticated planning tool. Plant Calc 

software can compare production locations using 

a systematic assessment of various alternatives, 

which also takes into account planning 

uncertainties. In a study conducted by CT for a 

Siemens plant in northern Germany, Plant Calc 

determined that under certain conditions, expanding 

production in Germany would be better 

than transferring it to Eastern Europe. The 

study found that although wage costs in Germany 

are higher, the potential for optimization 

in the country made it a more economical production 

location. 

True-to-life Virtual Testing. Reality and the 

virtual world are moving closer together at 

A&D, which operates two “SmartAutomation” 

research centers in Nuremberg and Karlsruhe 

that will be used to develop automation solutions 

virtually and in real life. Researchers have 

set up a bottling facility in Nuremberg and a 

chemical processing unit in Karlsruhe, both of 

which enable new ideas to be rapidly implemented 

in actual equipment for the first time. 

Among other things, researchers are now 

building a robot that grabs bottles as they pass 

by, takes them to a quality control station, 

exmines them, and returns them to exactly the 

right spot on the production line. 

All of this was planned and tested in the virtual 

world. To do so, A&D developers inserted 

the virtual robot into its future real position in 

an image of the existing facility. All bolts, 

measurements, electrical connections, data 

communication and pressure systems were 

The Factory that Comes to You 

The planning of a factory by 

no means ends when the keys 

are handed over to the client 

— after all, new product generations 

replace older ones and 

machinery has to be upgraded 

or replaced at some point. As 

time goes by, factory halls often 

take on a different appearance, 

as new cables are laid 

and machines are repositioned. 

It is therefore difficult 

for planners to gain an 

overview as a means of comparing 

the real situation with a 

virtual model, especially when 

facilities are located far away from research centers. The Visual Service Support system (VSS) developed 

by Siemens Corporate Technology (CT) in Munich can greatly simplify the factory modernization 

process. VSS is a mobile remote data transmission system (see Pictures of the Future, Spring 2005, p. 

54) that sends live pictures and sound to service centers via mobile radio. To this end, a worker at a factory 

wears a headset equipped with a camera and microphone. VSS is currently being used as the first 

commercial application of its kind for maintenance activities at a Finnish steel plant. The service center 

for the factory is able to view the facility live if a machine fails, and specially trained service technicians 

can then guide a worker wearing the headset to the best location for viewing the machine. It’s like being 

there yourself — and the technician can even take a photo of the machine, mark areas where the 

worker should move to next, and then send the photo to the worker’s portable PC. Among other things, 

the system can be used to quickly evaluate the situation at a factory from afar before rebuilding work 

commences. “Our experience has shown that after several years, you can hardly depend on a factory’s 

original plans anymore,” says Joachim Häberlein, who is responsible for the development of customerspecific 

VSS solutions at I&S in Erlangen. The virtual model doesn’t help much here either. “It’s only as 

good as the original information, after all,” Häberlein explains. “But VSS makes it possible to quickly validate 

the model on site and register any changes made in the interim.” The system works with the international 

GSM mobile radio standard, and tests carried out in Egypt, China, and other countries have 

shown that VSS functions reliably in different regions. Specialists therefore no longer have to take long 

trips to distant plants. Thanks to VSS, the factory comes to them instead. 

verified before actual implementation. The researchers 

even ran a realtime simulation of the 

robot’s operating parameters. On the other 

hand, the initial data entered into the system 

for simulating the bottle-picking robot came 

from the physical bottling unit. “The fascinating 

thing about SmartAutomation is that you 

can directly link reality and a simulation,” says 

project manager Bernd Opgenoorth. 

Despite the excellent performance of the 

simulation system, there is still room for improvement, 

especially with regard to the comprehensiveness 

of the planning process. That’s 

because data from the entire process chain 

does not pass seamlessly from the first draft 

design to the finished factory model. In many 

cases, data has to be transferred manually from 

one program to the next — for example, from a 

3D drawing to the visualization software, or 

from a virtual model to the language used by a 

computer controlled CNC milling machine. 

“What we need to do now is eliminate the 

discontinuities and automate the transfer of 

data from the beginning to the end of the 

process,” says Opgenoorth. Researchers from 

his team are working with A&D PL to solve this. 

Lego for Factories. A similar approach is employed 

by the “SmartFactoryKL” project managed 

by the German Research Center for Artificial 

Intelligence (DFKI) in Saarbrücken. The 

center is a consortium of companies and research 

institutes that is also working on a 

miniaturized version of a real production facility. 

A founding member of the consortium, 

Siemens A&D also provides funding for the 

SmartFactory, which, like SmartAutomation, 

simulates production in the virtual world. One 

of the factory’s purposes is to demonstrate 

how components from different manufacturers 

can be combined. It’s a visionary idea that foresees 

having factories built from standard modules 

much like giant Lego blocks. This would require 

that each producer’s modules be 

equipped with standard interfaces. 

In addition, all SmartFactory plant components 

for the miniaturized production facility 

are to be equipped with radio frequency identification 

labels (see p. 92), thereby making it 

possible to automate inventory registration 

and precisely pinpoint machine locations. This, 

in turn, will make it easier to expand or convert 

existing factories. Machine locations could be 

fed into virtual models to enable planners to 

determine exactly where new equipment 

should be installed. “A lot of work — and information 

— goes into virtual factory models,” 

says DFKI project coordinator Eric Pohlmann. 

“So it makes sense to use this great variety of 

data over and over again.” Tim Schröder 

| Product Development 

Simulations developed by Siemens researchers at 

the Virtual Design Center show how to build an 

instrument for measuring the stiffness of 

letters in mail sorting machines. 

Prototype for Perfection 

Planning and designing technically sophisticated products was, until recently, a 

long, drawn-out process. Today, however, Siemens relies on digital product development, 

which involves planning all steps — from the first model sketches to prototypes 

— in virtual reality. This makes it much easier for experts to coordinate 

their activities and often shortens the product development process by months. 

Mail sorting machines have an insatiable 

appetite. In just one hour, they can 

process up to 40,000 items, which fly through 

their sorting gates at lightning speed, whereby 

soft pressure is applied at each gate to send envelopes 

along on their proper track. A rigid envelope, 

for instance, one with a CD inside, can 

do great damage in such a high-speed system, 

as it can get stuck in one of the gates, causing a 

huge backup of hundreds of letters in just a 

few seconds. The machine then has to be shut 

off, resulting in costly downtime. 

Giant sorting units are therefore equipped 

with precision mechanical instruments for 

measuring letter stiffness. Like a small finger, 

such instruments briefly tap each letter to 

measure its resistance. Envelopes deemed to 

be too rigid are removed before they can cause 

damage. The stiffness measuring instruments 

have to be both sensitive and fast in order to be 

able to touch each envelope as it flies past 

without damaging it. 

Around a year ago, engineers responsible 

for the production of sorting machines at 

Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services’ (I&S) 

Postal Automation division in Konstanz, Germany, 

found that they needed a particularly 



Factories of the Future | Product Development 

fast module that could measure stiffness in just 

five milliseconds. What was required here was 

a high-tech device whose electric motor would 

move the sensor probe back and forth very rapidly 

and with extreme precision. 

Siemens specialists in Konstanz knew that 

developing such a a sophisticated piece of 

equipment would be a tricky assignment, 

which is why they called in experts from 

Siemens Corporate Technology’s (CT) Virtual 

Design Center in Munich to work with them on 

the planning process. The Center designs complex 

products on computers and brings them to 

life in the virtual world, where they are then 

tested before even one prototype is built. 

Among other things, you can hear the sound of 

Munich refer to this design model as FINE 

(functional and integrated engineering of 

mechatronic systems). FINE is used to simultaneously 

develop mechatronic components, 

whereby specialists from many fields, such as 

mechanical, electrical and software engineers, 

work together on virtual models. Such activities 

make it clear at a very early stage whether, 

for example, motors and control units will operate 

together harmoniously. 

“In the past, mechanical components were 

built first, then the electronics were added, and 

Detailed simulations of gas turbines such as this one can uncover errors before anything is built. 

washing machines running at the center, even 

before any such machines have been built. 

Concurrent Engineering. The ability to bring 

products to life as realistic 3D computer models 

is nothing new. Computer-aided design (CAD), 

for example, has long been a workhorse in industrial 

design departments, and the simulation 

of flows and acoustic oscillations is standard 

technology today. “What we’ve done here 

at CT is to link all these virtual modeling and 

simulation tools to create an integrated approach,” 

says Bernd Friedrich, head of the Virtual 

Design Center. 

Friedrich’s work focuses on mechatronics 

systems development — i.e. designing and 

linking mechanical components and electronic 

control systems in parallel. Engineers in 

quests can be taken into account right up until 

shortly before the conclusion of the development 

process. “We’ve found that this approach 

cuts development time by about one-third,” 

says Friedrich. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s 

automotive components or power plants — 

new products can be brought to market more 

rapidly, and this shortening of time-to-market 

is crucial for sales success.” 

The stiffness measuring model for postal 

automation systems was developed less as an 

effort to cut development time than to achieve 

Fully functional simulated models are making 

physical prototypes practically unnecessary. 

at the very end the control system was tested 

with the finished hardware,” Friedrich explains. 

“But that approach simply takes too long.” 

That’s because errors such as a motor with insufficient 

power or a slow control unit generally 

aren’t discovered until all the components 

are operating together in a finished machine — 

by which time it’s too late. “It was often the 

case that several prototypes were built and 

tested before a production-ready design was 

ready,” says Friedrich. The new parallel — or 

“concurrent engineering” — approach has engineers 

from all disciplines working together 

from the beginning, which means a fully functional 

product model is stored on a computer 

before anything is built. The computer can thus 

be used to simulate and run through several 

product variations. Moreover, customer re- 

the necessary dynamic performance of the 

product in question. Engineers in Munich were 

able to demonstrate this performance with 

their virtual model, in which all components 

worked perfectly with one another at the required 

speed and precision. “What’s really remarkable 

is the linkage between the various 

mechatronics aspects,” says Dr. Thomas Baudisch, 

who is responsible for Mechatronics Product 

Development at CT. “Ultimately, it was our 

interdisciplinary approach that enabled us to 

design the unit in an optimal manner.” 

Multi-Physical Construction. All of this integration 

is backed up by mathematical knowledge, 

because an approach as complex as the 

one pursued here is only possible if you are capable 

of developing the necessary algorithms 

yourself. That’s why the Virtual Design Center 

team includes several mathematicians who developed 

the so-called “multi-physical approach” 

together with engineers. The concept takes 

into account many different physical properties, 

such as temperature distributions within 

materials, oscillation characteristics, and 

strengths. Parameters that determine a real 

product’s future functionality and quality are 

therefore incorporated into its virtual model. 

This is the only way to determine in advance 

whether, for instance, a washing machine will 

actually spin quietly after it’s built. 

The multi-physical approach even goes beyond 

the product itself, as it takes into account 

the entire process chain from the first design 

drafts all the way to future production. It therefore 

starts with CAD and CAE (computer-aided 

engineering), moves through simulations and 

modeling of the products, and ends with CAM 

(computer-aided manufacturing). For example, 

when planning the production of turbine 

blades, CT experts calculated the amount of 

force the milling and cutting tools apply when 

machining the blade surfaces. This cutting 

force calculation enabled engineers to accurately 

design the dimensions of the clamps that 

hold the blade in the milling machine while it’s 

being processed. 

CT mathematicians are also looking at natural 

fluctuations — conditions in a gas turbine 

combustion chamber, for example, that are not 

always the same. Changing gas compositions, 

temperatures, and component tolerances have 

a major impact on the optimal geometry of the 

blades. The mathematical optimization approach 

takes into account precisely these fluctuations, 

including all uncertainties in the calculation, 

thereby enabling an optimal design. 

Mathematicians refer to this as Robust Design 

Optimization — or RoDeO (see Pictures of the 

Future, Spring, 2006, p. 75). “This probability 

approach borders on pure mathematics,” says 

Friedrich. “That’s something that’s never been 

done before in product development.” 

Videoconferences supported by virtual reality 

tools are replacing sketches sent by courier. 

Global Turbine Development. Work carried 

out by experts at Siemens Power Generation 

(PG) in Berlin involves turbine blades for complete 

gas turbines. These machines, which are as 

heavy as several locomotives, consist of thousands 

of components, including several hundred 

precision blades that must be joined together 

exactly. Recently, engineers in Berlin 

used virtual planning tools for the first time on 

a major scale while developing the brand-new 

340-megawatt turbine for a new gas and 

steam facility in Irsching, Bavaria (see p. 54). 

The most important goal here was to reduce 

development time through better coordination 

of staff working in departments housed at several 

locations, such as designers in Orlando, 

design engineers in Mülheim, Germany, and 

production specialists in Berlin. 

Up until recently, design drawings were 

sent back and forth by courier, with engineers 

writing down comments on the documents. In 

other cases, sketches were scanned and sent 

electronically. Experts also frequently had to 

travel to meet with colleagues in other locations. 

Today, development project participants 

conduct videoconferences. In the case of the 

Berlin-based turbine project, each of the three 

locations was equipped with a Powerwall VR 

system, which was used for presenting the virtual 

turbine model, and which was linked via 

data connections. This enables participants to 

view and discuss the same model simultaneously. 

“Development discussions have improved 

tremendously as a result, and the entire 

process has been accelerated,” says Michael 

Schwarzlose, who introduced virtual turbine 

development at PG. Unlike abstract design 

sketches, virtual models enable joint communications 

that enhance understanding of the situation 

at hand. Component installers, for example, 

recognize very quickly whether some 

components might collide during the assembly 

process. Virtual models also make the entire 

development process more vivid and dynamic, 

says Schwarzlose. 

The product development process for a new 

turbine is generally a difficult undertaking that 

consists of many different steps. It basically begins 

with a draft design in 3D-CAD programs. 

These 3D models are created before detailed 

2D drawings are made and mainly serve as a 

means of assessing the availability of required 

components, and the feasibility of production 

and assembly processes. Production sketches 

are not drawn up until later on in the product 

development process. “We don’t need this redundancy 

in producing drawings or sketches 

anymore,” says Schwarzlose, “because we can 

now go directly from CAD to a virtual model.” 

The virtual reality (VR) software used here is 

from ICIDO, a spin-off of the IPA Fraunhofer Institute 

in Stuttgart that specializes in planning 

Robot Sharpens Medical Images 

As computed tomography scanners provide images characterized by higher spatial and 

temporal resolution, they rely on ever more sensor boards — assemblies of components that 

detect X-rays and convert them into electrical signals that are reconstructed into anatomical 

images. It has therefore become impractical to manually insert sensor boards in related test 

facilities. Indeed, the newest Siemens computed tomography scanner family, which will be 

introduced by the end of 2007, will have up to 150 sensor boards. Now, however, with the 

help of Siemens Corporate Technology (CT), Siemens Medical Solutions (Med) has come up 

with an automated sensor board testing technology that, according to Project Manager Dr. 

Marcus Wagner from Med’s Computer Tomography Detector Center, “achieves a placement 

accuracy of 0.1 mm or better.” Known as AutoSETA (Automatic Sensor Test Facility), the technology 

involves the use of a robot arm to place sensor boards in a section of a detector module 

for testing under X-ray conditions. This not only replaces manual placement and testing 

with a high-precise automated process, but cuts operator work time for the entire process 

from 80 minutes to just five, or from about 150 seconds down to about 2.5 seconds per sensor 

board, respectively. Developed by CT’s Josef Pössinger, AutoSETA involves locking the sensor 

boards into position before they enter the test space. “To the best of our knowledge, this 

system is the fastest and most precise test facility of its kind,” says Wagner. Arthur F. Pease 



Factories of the Future 

large machines and even entire factories. 

Schwarzlose introduced this tool at PG in 2003, 

at a time when the 340-MW high-performance 

turbine for the Irsching power plant was still at 

an early development stage. 

In 2005, a further element was added: a VR 

system for gas turbine final assembly. Since it 

takes weeks to assemble a giant turbine, and 

the process is almost as complex as building an 

aircraft, VR technology has accelerated the assembly 

process. The technology allows specialized 

mechanics to practice manual assembly 

maneuvers in advance using virtual final assembly 

programs — something that would 

have been inconceivable just a few years ago. 

Schwarzlose recalls how things used to work 

during the early stages of work on the Irsching 

turbine. Back then, in order to test assembly 

operations, a full-scale model of a turbine combustion 

chamber had to be built in Berlin. 

What’s more, it took months from the moment 

an order was place until a model could be fully 

assembled. And, of course, it wasn’t possible to 

test the assembly process during that time. 

Tremendous Savings. The amount of time 

gained through the use of new virtual tools is 

tremendous. Depending on the complexity of 

individual turbine components, it used to 

sometimes take weeks or even months before 

researchers could determine whether it would 

even be possible to install or manufacture certain 

components. “While it’s true that virtual reality 

can’t replace a real operation in every single 

case, the fact remains that an actual model 

cannot depict or make noticeable the smallest 

tolerances,” Schwarzlose explains. All in all, the 

virtual planning process can reduce development 

times by several months, according to 

Schwarzlose. The Irsching turbine will be operational 

next year after only seven years of planning 

and construction. Projects in the past took 

much longer to complete. 

VR is is set to become a key part of product 

lifecycle management at PG. A roadmap for establishing 

a PLM process is currently being 

worked out. The goal here is to permanently incorporate 

all development processes, combine 

various development platforms, and simplify 

the exchange of data. New simulation tools, 

such as those made by UGS (a major PLM 

player recently acquired by Siemens — see p. 

16), will further develop virtual reality into a 

key development component whose depiction 

of reality will become increasingly exact. Such 

precision has long since moved beyond individual 

products to include entire factories that are 

developed in computers (see p. 20), allowing 

industrial companies to save oceans of time 

and money. 

Tim Schröder 

| Europe’s Best Factory 

Simply the Best 

Siemens’ electronics plant in Amberg, Germany, 

demonstrates that even supposedly expensive manufacturing 

locations can be competitive. The facility 

boasts low-cost production, brings innovative products 

to market, and is always striving to improve. As 

a result, it was recently named Europe’s Best Factory. 

Tack-tack-tack-tack…” — it’s practically impossible 

for the human eye to follow the 

extremely rapid movements of the machines in 

the Amberg Electronics Manufacturing Plant 

(EMP) as they stamp chips, transistors, resistors, 

and capacitors onto blank circuit boards 

that fly by on conveyor belts. Here at the EMP, 

Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D) produces 

“invisible intelligence” for industry and 

everyday applications. The associated devices 

are part of Siemens’ Simatic line of programmable 

logic controls — a product family used 

in regulating just about every kind of production 

machine, from welding systems and cement 

manufacturing facilities, to bottling 

equipment, automated car washes, dairy products 

processing systems, and ski lifts. The EMP 

itself has 16 production lines operating around 

the clock, each of which processes 150,000 

electronic components per hour. 

Precise facility planning (below), 100 percent 

quality achievement (center), and continual 

process control (right) helped ensure that the 

Amberg plant was named Europe’s Best Factory. 

Siemens is — by a wide margin — the world 

market leader in electronic controls for industrial 

automation, What’s more, its market share 

has been growing by one percentage point per 

year for some time. This achievement is in no 

small part due to the Amber plant’s 870 employees, 

who produced 11 million Simatic 

modules last year. “And this year, we plan to 

build more than 12 million,” says plant manager 

Hans Schneider. 

Amberg’s factory hall is as tall as a two-story 

building and covers an area the size of oneand-a-half 

soccer fields. A gallery offers a view 

of the production floor, which is as clean as a 

whistle. Wide aisles can easily accommodate 

three workers walking side by side, and with 

most machines no higher than 1.4 meters 

there’s no problem making eye contact. 

Cost Effective. The EMP is living proof that it’s 

possible to manufacture products in Europe at 

the same low cost as at a sister factory in Nanjing, 

China on a daily basis. What’s more, this 

year the facility captured first prize in Germany’s 

Best Factory/Industrial Excellence 

Award 2007. The two organizations that present 

the award — the INSEAD Business School in 

Fontainebleau, France, and the Department of 

Production Management at the Otto Beisheim 

School of Management in Vallendar, Germany, 

also named the plant Europe’s Best Factory. 

The awards jury assessed operational strategy, 

product development, supply chain management, 

organization, human resources, service, 

partner management, and continual 

improvement and awarded the EMP top marks 

in nearly all categories. The plant’s success is 

partly due to its use of the best machines available, 

its low-cost procurement sources, and its 

mastery of the production process. Still, other 

plants can boast the same virtues — so what 

makes a champion a champion? “We use comprehensive 

information and communications 

technology that provides us not only with basic 

production data but also the coordinates for 

the insertion machines,” Schneider explains. 

“These systems collect, analyze, and assess 

manufacturing data — so we always know 

what’s going on at the plant, and we also have 

up-to-date information on production figures, 

downtime, and inventories. Our flexible order 

logistics system also ensures that the material 

logistics and production departments are not 

negatively affected by fluctuations in order volume. 

This supports efficient capacity planning 

and high machine-capacity utilization.” 

The EMP, which produces exclusively on a 

made-to-order basis, has an amazing delivery 

reliability rate of 99 percent, meaning that 99 

out of 100 customers receive their exact number 

of ordered units within 24 hours at the requisite 

quality. 

Flawless from the Furnace. Production 

processes at the EMP are synchronized and perfectly 

aligned with one another. Practically 

nothing is done by hand at the plant, with the 

exception of machine setups and repair and 

maintenance work. Men and women in blue 

overalls at the facility plan production, make 

decisions, and coordinate and monitor activities. 

Snapshot: A worker carefully examines a 

module under a magnifying glass. The module 

has just emerged from a soldering furnace, 

where printed components are mounted on 

circuit boards at a temperature of 250 degrees 

Celsius. The worker is responsible for ensuring 

that the circuit board is stable, and that nothing 

is missing or incorrectly mounted. 

Ulrich Brück, who is responsible for Employee 

Initiatives and the Siemens top + Management 

Program, refers to this employee 

check as statistical process control. Here, a 

computer randomly determines which modules 

should be examined. Brück points to a 

monitor at the testing station. “Our colleague 

here sees an interactive model of the selected 

module on the screen, and the functional units 

she needs to check are marked in color. If she 



Factories of the Future | Europe’s Best Factory 

Incorporating all employees into quality assurance 

processes (left) and making use of their numerous 

suggestions for improvement (right) helps make the 

Siemens Amberg Electronics plant so successful. 

| Beijing Airport 

To ensure trouble-free construction and commissioning 

of Beijing Airport’s 50-km-long baggage 

handling system (left), Siemens first built and tested 

the complex facility in the virtual world (right). 

Each employee submits an average of 15 implemented 

improvement suggestions per year; the norm is one. 

finds one to be defective, she clicks its virtual 

counterpart on the monitor, automatically 

identifying the real part and generating a message 

that is sent to the Production Planning department.” 

Since each circuit board has a barcode, 

“fishing out” defective modules is not a 

problem. But when defects are identified, an 

analysis is performed to determine the cause of 

the problem. “If necessary, we’ll even go to the 

lab and examine circuit board components under 

a microscope,” says Brück. “No matter what 

the error, we’ll find its cause.” 

The Amberg team is renowned for its ability 

to bring innovative products tailored to its customers’ 

needs to market faster than its competitors 

— a feature that significantly influenced 

the Best Factory jury. The EMP also 

stands out thanks to its employees’ great commitment 

to quality. “Things can always be done 

better,” says Schneider, whose office door — 

which is just a two-minute walk from the production 

hall — is always open. Schneider pulls 

out a chart that shows error rates for the past 

few years. This year, only 28 of the one million 

units produced were defective, a very low 

number for electronic components. However, 

it’s still not low enough for Schneider and his 

team, who want to reduce that figure to less 

than 20. 

Ideas and Ideals. Every year, EMP employees 

— from line workers to managers — submit an 

average of 15 improvement suggestions per 

person that are implemented; the norm for the 

electronics sector is one suggestion per employee 

and year. Plant management actively 

encourages this commitment. For example, it 

allows staff to meet any time they want in creative 

offices in the factory hall. These meetings 

are used to discuss issues, depict ideas on flip 

charts, or directly enter ideas into special databases. 

This improvement process has nothing to 

do with coincidence, as it’s based on a specific 

methodology. Brück displays the CIP (continual 

improvement process) mobile — a pinboard on 

Simatic: Synonymous with Success 

The origin of the Siemens Simatic system dates back to the 1950s. But it wasn’t until 1979 that 

the big breakthrough came. That was when the S5 series was launched. The S5’s small electronic 

control units not only managed automation but also documentation. What’s more, they could also be 

programmed. Before Simatic, machinery and production lines were controlled by large and expensive 

process computers that could only be operated by experts. This situation changed radically with the 

introduction of the S5 series, which was designed from the ground up with non-specialized operators 

in mind. In fact, anyone can learn how to use the system. 

wheels that displays key issue areas (Keys) at 

the EMP. There are a total of 16 Keys covering 

everything from quality and waste to cleanliness 

and machine setups. Each Key also has a 

description of its ideal state and the abilities required 

to achieve it. Managers and experts update 

these Keys every year in the form of master 

charts. 

“Employees compare the ideal with the actual 

situation, draw up proposals and measures 

for reconciling them, and then put these on the 

pin boards,” says Brück. One working group can 

address 25 percent of the Keys in one business 

quarter. All results are presented to supervisors, 

who support staff with implementation. 

The “champion” of industrial plants is thus 

now much more than just a production facility. 

“Modern factories need to have a clear strategy 

for moving forward — one that involves entering 

new markets and assuming responsibility 

for achieving sales and profit targets,” was the 

judgment of the jury, which added that “the 

EMP comes very close to this ideal.” 

Schneider has a humble explanation for the 

plant’s success: “We simply utilize all the levers 

at our disposal.” In its systematic search for hidden 

potential, the EMP has achieved average 

productivity increases of ten percent per year. 

That’s why EMP workers are not afraid of competition 

from Asia. “Our advantage lies in having 

the best-trained employees, proven engineering 

know-how, and an outstanding 

infrastructure,” says Brück. For example, if a 

machine fails, our machine supplier shows up 

right away to fix the problem.” 

This year’s Best Factory award has served to 

motivate the team even further. Recently, 

Schneider and Brück set themselves the goal of 

improving quality by a factor of ten and thus reducing 

EMP’s error rate to the unbelievably low 

level of only 3.4 pieces per million units produced. 

Evdoxia Tsakiridou 

Designing the Belly of the Beast 

Simulation has made it possible to build and test complex baggage handling facilities 

— including Beijing’s new dragon-shaped terminal — before construction begins. 

With the Olympic Games coming to China 

in August 2008, preparations are now 

running at full steam, including construction of 

Beijing Capital International Airport’s Terminal 

3, a vast, dragon-shaped complex. 

Beginning next spring, some 60 million passengers 

and 500,000 planes will arrive and depart 

from the terminal each year. High-tech solutions 

— such as a baggage handling system 

from Siemens — will help ensure that the facility 

can accommodate this colossal volume. 

With some 50 kilometers of conveyors, the 

baggage handling system can transport and 

sort more than 19,000 pieces of luggage per 

hour, making it one of the world’s biggest — 

and fastest — systems of its kind. Equipped 

with a complex network of sorting machines 

and sorting gates, and with a top speed of 40 

kilometers per hour, the Siemens baggage handling 

facility requires less than 25 minutes to 

move a piece of luggage from the check-in 

counter to the furthest parked plane at the 

terminal. 

Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) 

specified a number of requirements that the 

system was to meet. For instance, it should not 

only make use of the terminal’s basement 

down to the last meter but also meet tough requirements 

regarding maximum luggage size, 

throughput, and baggage travel time. The 

company also wanted the facility to be developed, 

installed, and tested within 32 months 

— and to function fault-free afterwards. 

In order to plan and build such a vast facility 

in such a short time, a team of engineers from 

Siemens Industrial Solutions & Services (I&S) in 

Offenbach, Germany had to dig deep into their 

virtual reality toolkit. Long before the first component 

was manufactured, these experts built 

and tested the entire baggage handling system 

using 3D software. Indeed, they utilized some 

of the same procedures they had developed in 

designing similar facilities in Seoul and Madrid. 

Virtual Luggage on the Move. The engineers 

downloaded key data on the airport’s 

catacombs to their PCs and utilized software 

modules from the Seoul and Madrid projects 

that had been stored in digital libraries. Their 

3D simulation and optimization software allowed 

them to examine even the smallest areas 

of the baggage handling system and its 

building in order to determine if planned systems 

would fit into the available space, and to 

ensure that sub-systems would not interfere 

with one another. 

A simulation of the initial conveyor belt 

setup revealed areas of congestion. A second 

test indicated that the distance between some 

junctions was so tight that it could lead to delays 

and shutdowns — problems that would 

make it impossible to achieve the target of a 

maximum 25 minutes of travel time for any 

given bag. Ultimately, the planners were able 

to eliminate all of the errors in the huge system 

before construction began. 

This virtual planning and simulation led to 

huge cost benefits, as changes could be made 

and tests carried out without expensive prototypes. 

Planners knew at each process stage 

which components (and how many of them) 

would be needed for a given solution. After 

planning was completed, the software produced 

assembly lists containing everything 

that needed to be procured. 

Before the facility could be built, the control 

software responsible for smooth operation of 

the actual system had to be extensively tested. 

To ensure smooth interaction between software 

and hardware, Siemens experts tested 

the software at the Siemens Airport Center 

(SAC) in Fürth, Germany, which serves as the 

company’s simulated airport. SAC actually has 

the largest baggage handling facility in Germany, 

after Frankfurt and Munich. It’s a complete 

airport — the only things missing are the 

control tower and planes. SAC also serves as a 

training center, which is why Chinese staff 

from Terminal 3 were sent there to learn to use 

the sophisticated system. 

BCIA gave its preliminary approval of the 

baggage facility in July 2007, two years after 

the project was launched and eight months before 

the new terminal is scheduled to open, at 

which time Beijing Airport will become one of 

the world’s busiest destinations. The city will 

then be ready for the Olympic Games, and the 

last thing visitors will have to worry about will 

be their luggage. 

Sebastian Webel 



Factories of the Future | Rail Systems 

Comprehensive 3D simulations. At Siemens, new 

trains are developed and tested down to the last 

detail by international teams in virtual reality 

before a single physical component is assembled. 

aided design) process chain. Every step, from 

the initial concept through development, production 

preparation, manufacture, assembly, 

and documentation, is worked through in 

three dimensions using CAD systems. 

Everyone involved works together in this 

virtual environment. That makes it possible to 

align, in real time, the stages of development 

reached in the main production plant in Krefeld 

with those in Erlangen and Kassel (Germany), 

Graz and Vienna (Austria), and Prague and Ostrava 

(Czech Republic). In addition, suppliers 

and service providers are integrated into the 

process of developing rail vehicles of all kinds, 

from subway systems to high-speed trains. 

High-tech tools are absolutely essential in 

Krefeld because market demands are increasing 

steadily. Customers all over the world are 

demanding shorter development times with 

equal or even better product quality and a high 

degree of technical sophistication. “A few years 

ago we developed and produced a high-speed 

train in three years. Today, our customers are 

asking us to do the same thing in two and a 

half years,” says Martin Olbrich, head of the TS 

Work Preparation Assembly unit. 

In addition, prices have dropped dramatically 

as a result of fierce competition in the rail 

vehicle market. “These demands can no longer 

be met using conventional methods. What we 

High-speed trains can now be developed and 

produced within two and a half years. 

ers begin to work in and on trains, they take a 

look at the individual work steps in animated 

virtual form. SAP’s Product Lifecycle Management 

module, which controls and documents 

the entire product creation process, was introduced 

in 2004. 

And in 2006 the company put in place at all 

of its locations a comprehensive 3D process 

chain that creates digital animations during the 

initial design phase on the basis of 3D CAD 

data and carries out initial simulations. Developers 

design individual assemblies in 3D, 

which are then made available to partners 

worldwide. This is done using a uniform product 

data management system — even before a 

single screwdriver is picked up in the real 

world. To date, parts of these processes have 

run in parallel, allowing the initial development 

steps to be immediately included in planning 

processes at other units. 

Virtual Reality Meetings. Because 3D CAD 

data requires lots of memory, it is not used in 

all process areas. Some developers work with 

“viewing data,” which requires less memory 

and is cheaper and simpler to use. Here, all of 

the data is automatically converted to a viewing 

format. This is a feature that enables designers 

to have virtual worldwide meetings in 

which they can share their ideas about the current 

state of a project. Such meetings eliminate 

the need for time-consuming travel. What’s 

more, they make the entire development 

process faster and less prone to error because 

every developer knows exactly what his or her 

colleagues are doing. Of course, data provided 

by suppliers and external design partners has 

to be reviewed, converted, and integrated, because 

in some cases partners work with different 

systems. But here too, TS’s technology specialists 

are working on solutions. 

On the basis of 3D data from the development 

team, production preparation experts 

can plan and simulate manufacturing and assembly 

processes by, for example, visualizing 

different assembly sequences The production 

units, in turn, use the 3D data as a basis for various 

work steps. 

Despite the comprehensive use of 3D data 

in all units, 2D drawings are still required in the 

Trains of Bits and Bytes 

To make high-tech products you need a high-tech development environment. 

That’s why Siemens in Krefeld, Germany, relies on a purely virtual product and 

production development system that allows it to design entire trains on computers. 

What’s more, it expects to digitize the complete production process by 2009. 

The simulation of development and 

production processes is especially worthwhile 

for rail vehicles, which are generally 

produced in small batches. Using simulations, 

rail technology specialists at Siemens can run 

through all of the optimization possibilities in 

the digital world at an early stage in the 

development process, whether they’re 

working on the nose section of a train (left) 

or the ergonomics of the driver’s cab (right). 

The engineer running a Velaro high-speed 

train adjusts the controls on his instrument 

panel. Suddenly a flap opens in the floor, the 

angle of vision swings to the space under the 

train and components fly apart. Miraculously, 

however, the train reassembles itself. 

Welcome to the virtual reality laboratory at 

Siemens Transportation Systems (TS) in 

Krefeld, Germany. Neither the train nor the engineer 

are real — they’re animated virtual objects. 

There are no flip charts in the conference 

room. Instead, there’s a power wall on which 

true-to-scale prototypes in a spatial environment 

generated by a computer can be observed 

with the help of 3D glasses and discussed. 

“This is a big help, for example when 

we’re planning installation, analyzing ease of 

maintenance, and conducting ergonomic studies,” 

says Reinhard Belker, head of Engineering 

Process Management at TS. 

The Virtual Reality (VR) system is an integral 

part of the development process at TS. Here, 

designers meet regularly to study new trains in 

virtual space as they are being developed and 

production and assembly areas. That’s because 

in some cases the drawings contain information 

that is too complex to be incorporated into 

3D models without a great deal of time and effort. 

According to Belker, “we’ve proved that in 

principle we can do without the 2D drawings. 

However, there’s still no IT tool that effectively 

supports this process. We’re now working on 

reducing the time and effort required to create 

the 3D models.” 

Animated assemblies make it easier for 

workers to do their jobs, “because they can indiscuss 

them with their colleagues from adjoining 

units. They also meet in “collaboration 

meetings” with their unit’s sister production 

plant in Prague, in the Czech Republic, where 

the same system is used. At the moment, the 

systems are the only ones of their kind in the 

world. 

But the VR system is only one of the innovative 

tools that support the purely virtual product 

and production development process at TS. 

Today, rail vehicle design proceeds from start 

to finish in an unbroken 3D CAD (computer 

need now are innovations, not only in terms of 

products but also in our production and development 

processes,” says Belker. 

Step by step, engineers at TS have achieved 

a unique level of technical sophistication. Since 

1999, developers have designed their products 

using 3D technology from start to finish. In 

2000 they introduced a uniform 3D administration 

system as well as the Virtual Reality system. 

In 2003 the “paperless factory,” which 

uses virtual assembly instructions, was already 

a reality. In other words, before assembly work- 



Factories of the Future | Simulating Trains 

Simulations are replacing paper diagrams of assembly 

instructions. 3D graphics of individual work steps 

make assembly work simpler, faster, and more precise 

(left). Right: Velaro trains in the assembly hall. 

| Facility Simulation 

A particle therapy facility (right) is a complex system 

designed to destroying tumors with high precision. 

Configuration and workflows are simulated to 

ensure that treatment (left) is optimized. 

As of 2009, product life cycles will be simulated 

— from design to service and maintenance. 

tuitively understand them much faster than 2D 

drawings with their countless positioning numbers,” 

says Olbrich. The 3D data serve as virtual 

assembly instructions. Assembly workers are 

provided with a rapid overview of the entire situation, 

as well as more precise information 

about how to integrate the components to be 

assembled. It takes less time to learn the assembly 

steps, fewer questions are necessary, 

and there are fewer errors. 

The 3D data are also very valuable for product 

descriptions and maintenance instructions 

at the end of the process chain. But 2D drawings 

are used here as well, first because 2D vehicle 

documentation is customary, and second 

because as yet there is no recognized format 

that makes long-term implementation of 3D 

data possible. However, one of the priorities at 

TS is to convince everyone involved of the advantages 

of 3D vehicle documentation. 

Taken together, TS’s system allows the entire 

process chain to be depicted in virtual 

form. “Our customers are impressed by the way 

we’ve integrated these innovative technologies 

into our development processes,” says Belker. 

Andy Neuschulz from trans regio Deutsche Regionalbahn 

GmbH agrees. “Virtual product development 

makes the production process easier 

to retrace and monitor. As a result, at an 

initial vehicle presentation we were able to offer 

visiting politicians a fairly realistic and very 

impressive picture of our trains at a very early 

stage of production,” he says. 

Currently, trans regio operates 20 trains 

running on three lines in Germany. After its 

next change of train schedules, it will begin to 

operate along the route from Cologne to Mainz 

via Koblenz, for which it will use a total of 16 

Desiro ML trains manufactured by Siemens. 

Back in Krefeld, Reinhard Belker walks 

through the TS production hall, past rows of 

railroad cars draped with cables. Everything in 

the hall is clean and tidy. “Now that we’ve mastered 

virtual product and production development,” 

he says, “the next step is what we call 

the digital factory. We’ve been rolling it out 

since last April.” Plans call for TS to be ready by 

the end of 2009. 

Simulating Entire Life Cycles. The digital 

factory is a concept of a production facility in 

which not only the physical plant is visualized 

and simulated on a computer, but also its 

processes. The concept includes the entire 

product lifecycle, from planning, development 

and production to service, maintenance, sales 

and marketing. 

TS’s goal is to integrate development and 

production even more closely, make cooperation 

even more efficient, and align even larger 

portions of product and process development 

along parallel paths. The digital factory is an 

ideal way to coordinate process and layout 

planning and capacity analyzes. Here, all planners 

have access to the same database as the 

basis of their work. That enables them to significantly 

reduce errors and associated costs in 

production startup processes, as well as the 

time required for coordination. 

Unlike the automotive sector, which has 

embraced the digital factory concept, other industries 

have generally avoided it because of 

their low production volumes, which did not 

seem to justify the large investments that are 

needed to realistically simulate processes. But 

in this sector in particular, comprehensive simulation 

of a product’s life cycle is crucial. This 

point is made very clearly by Dr. Robert 

Neuhauser, Director of Manufacturing & SCM 

at Corporate Supply Chain and Procurement at 

Siemens, who heads a company-wide program 

on the future of manufacturing. “For products 

that are manufactured in large numbers over a 

period of years, we can steadily improve and 

optimize production processes over long periods 

of time. By contrast, the project and smallbatch 

business is characterized by short startup 

times and short manufacturing runs. That 

means everything has to work optimally the 

first time around, because the manufacturing 

process will be over before any significant optimization 

can take place. Simulation makes it 

possible to run through all the possible optimization 

measures digitally before production. 

That way, we can detect problems long before 

they reach the real world.” 

Simulation also benefits the Krefeld plant, 

which produces an average of 450 rail vehicles 

per year. A preliminary study and an efficiency 

analysis carried out by Siemens Transportation 

Systems in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute 

for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation 

(IPA) demonstrated the advantages 

of the digital factory. Its potential benefits include 

faster and better-quality planning. Integrated 

tools relieve planners of routine activities 

and give them more time to plan less 

expensive and qualitatively more sophisticated 

products and to make their production as costeffective 

as possible from the very start. 

Belker is looking forward to the advent of 

the digital factory. Surveying a long row of 

gleaming trains that are ready for shipment, he 

predicts that, “In the future we’ll be able to deliver 

them to our customers even faster.” 

Gitta Rohling 

Optimizing Throughput 

In 2008 the heavy-ion therapy center in Heidelberg will begin treating cancer 

patients. Siemens configured the facility and optimized its workflows using 

simulation expertise gained in designing manufacturing processes for factories. 

At first blush, factories and hospitals don’t 

have much in common. Yet both are complex 

systems that must operate rapidly and efficiently. 

With this in mind, Siemens has tapped 

its expertise in simulating and optimizing automation 

systems, and has applied this knowledge 

to visualizing the configuration and workflow 

of — and ultimately realizing — a new 

heavy-ion therapy center at the University of 

Heidelberg Medical Center. 

The center, which will open in 2008, will 

specialize in treating patients with tumors that 

are either too difficult or too risky for a surgeon 

to remove. The tumors will be bombarded with 

carbon ions — the atomic nuclei of carbon — 

from a particle accelerator. The particles penetrate 

a patient’s body and destroy growths with 

extraordinary precision, and without significant 

damage to surrounding tissue (Pictures of 

the Future, Spring 2004, p. 36). 

Heavy ion therapy was developed and 

tested by the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung 

(society for heavy ion research or 

GSI) in Darmstadt. GSI’s mission is basic research, 

not commercialization, so it sought a 

partner in industry — and found one in 

Siemens. In 2003 Siemens purchased key 

heavy-ion therapy patents from GSI and the 

German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg 

and then invested a significant effort in bringing 

the method to market. 

Siemens is supplying all the patient-related 

technology for the Heidelberg center, including 

the equipment for guiding the ion beam to the 

patient, patient positioning and treatment control 

— “everything that goes on at the business 

end of the accelerator,” says Klaus Staab, project 

manager of the Heidelberg ion therapy center, 

who welcomes the close cooperation with 

Siemens. At another therapy center, the Rhön- 

Klinikum in Marburg, Siemens is supplying 

everything except the building itself, including 

the particle accelerator. The groundbreaking 

ceremony for the center took place in August 

2007. 

Visualizing New Terrain. GSI researchers 

have already proved that the new therapy 

works as intended. “But what’s missing is experience 

with regard to how the design of individual 

treatment steps will affect the performance 

of the center as a whole,” says Thomas Lepel of 

Siemens Corporate Technology (CT). Particle 

therapy is an entirely new element in clinic operations. 

That’s why Lepel and his colleagues 

have developed a simultation that depicts the 

ion therapy center’s entire workflow. This 

makes it possible to analyze the effects that 

specific customer requirements can have on 

patient throughput — and on the facillity’s operational 

costs. 

With a price tag of about €150 million — at 

least €100 million for the irradiation unit, plus 

roughly €50 million for the building, depending 

on how it is equipped — patient throughput 

is set to play a key role in the facility’s economic 

health. Current projections foresee 

about 1,300 patients per year, with treatments 

funded in equal parts by the state and federal 

governments. But a typical hospital or health 

care facility that relies exclusively on private 

funding would have to treat at least 2,000 patients 

per year to cover the facility’s estimated 

capital costs. And this equation also would 

have to include payments of about €20,000 

per patient from health insurance providers, 

which corresponds to the agreement between 

insurers and the Heidelberg Medical Center. 

By comparison, health insurers pay only 

€8,000 for conventional radiation therapy. 

Nevertheless, the ion therapy center’s higher 



Factories of the Future | Workflow Simulation 

Ions are accelerated to as much as 60 percent of 

the speed of light, stored in a synchrotron (left) 

and delivered to the patient via a complex beam 

guidance system (right). 

| Metal Making 

Posco’s Finex test facility has already demonstrated 

its advantages. The plant produces 90 percent 

less air pollution and 98 percent less water 

contamination than conventional blast furnaces. 

costs seem justified, given that total cancer 

treatment costs, including surgery, chemotherapy, 

and radiation therapy, often exceed 

€100,000 per patient. 

What’s more, clinical studies have shown 

that the new therapy appears to be linked to 

significantly fewer recurrences of some tumors. 

To Dr. Konstanze Gunzert-Marx, sales director 

at Siemens Medical Solutions (Med) in 

Erlangen, particle therapy has what it takes to 

be a success. “Extrapolating the numbers of 

new cancer diagnoses shows that this type of 

center pays off for a catchment area with between 

eight and ten million people,“ he says. 

Economic efficiency is not the only criterion — 

physicians will now have more time for patients. 

Treatment Simulation. That conclusion is 

confirmed by the treatment center’s business 

plan, which factors in its investment and operating 

costs, as well as the health insurance 

providers’ payments. To calculate cost-effectiveness, 

patient throughput is simulated and 

automatically optimized. “Essentially, we apply 

the know-how we’ve gained from analyzing 

production processes,” says Lepel. “As with factories, 

where you have thousands of components 

that must be handled differently, there 

are a range of different processes at work in a 

hospital.” The simulation differentiates between 

types of tumors, for example, and takes 

into account the different preparation times 

needed. 

To define a patient who is in considerable 

pain as a work-process element may sound 

heartless, but Siemens developers have entered 

such classifications into their simulation 

to come up with a treatment control system 

that optimizes workflow in line with criteria 

that take individual patient needs into account. 

mation system, sophisticated Schedule Optimizer 

from Siemens optimizes the rooms’ occupancy 

and also the use of the ion beam to ensure 

as little interruption as possible. This 

reduces costs while shortening waiting times 

for patients. 

If it becomes clear that the preparation of a 

patient will take longer than planned, another 

patient can be informed in time and moved 

ahead in the treatment schedule. Preparation 

and treatment are seamlessly integrated, thus 

shortening the entire process for each patient 

to an average of less than 30 minutes. As Lepel’s 

simulation indicates, this process — and 

thus patient throughput — is optimized with a 

configuration comprising three or four treatment 

rooms. 

Robots at Work. A production plant can operate 

efficiently only if work processes are coordinated. 

The same holds true for hospitals. With 

this in mind, Siemens Med developed a hightech 

treatment table made of carbon fiber, 

“One strength of our control system is that it allows 

physicians and medical personnel to devote 

more time to their patients,” says Gunzert- 

Marx. Instead of being concerned with the ion 

beam in the accelerator, the physician is free to 

focus entirely on the patient — who is simulated 

as a part of the workflow, but treated as a 

human being. 

In front of each of the three radiation 

rooms, for example, is a room where a patient 

is prepared for treatment and immobilized on a 

treatment table, while still another patient is 

undergoing radiation in the treatment area. 

Fed with patient data from an oncology inforwhich 

is both strong and light. The table is as 

suitable for planning computer tomograph 

treatments as it is for ion treatment itself. Once 

an immobilized patient is on the table, a robot 

arm grasps the table and automatically moves 

it into the right position. The table makes it 

possible to prepare patients outside of the 

treatment room. 

The patient positioning system can also be 

used in the clinic’s computer tomographs, making 

treatment planning easier and more precise. 

This development can be used with conventional 

radiation and diagnostic systems, as 

growing numbers of clinics are demanding patient 

positioning and transport systems when 

selecting contractors. 

Siemens developers in Erlangen gained insight 

into the needs of hospitals and clinics by 

interviewing doctors and clinic administrators. 

Med employees visited the Harvard Medical Cyclotron 

in Boston, for instance, and the Midwest 

Proton Radiotherapy Institute in Bloomington, 

Indiana — always asking the same 

question: What do physicians and their patients 

really need? Answers revealed that the simulation 

developed by CT was very close to what 

was needed. 

“When it comes to taking into account the 

entire system and the analysis of its associated 

workflow, Siemens is years ahead of everyone 

else,” says Gunzert-Marx. Other suppliers are 

trying to develop similar components and an 

integrated work process for particle therapy, 

but none can offer this flexibility, combined 

with imaging processes and IT integration. 

That’s why the Siemens system — which is 

unique worldwide — was designed for several 

types of ions. In addition to carbon, oxygen 

ions and protons, the nuclei of hydrogen, can 

also be alternately used in the system at the 

Heidelberg center — and that’s a very attractive 

feature for investors around the world. 

Plans call for more particle therapy centers to 

be opened in the years ahead. Bernd Müller 

Smarter Smelting 

Finex, a technology developed by Siemens and Korean steel company Posco, 

is revolutionizing the iron smelting industry. The new technology is more efficient, 

more environmentally friendly, and less expensive than any previous process. 

Pohang doesn’t look like a place for launching 

a world revolution. The South Korean 

port city, which has 300,000 inhabitants, was a 

fishing village up until the early 1970s, when 

the government decided to make it the home 

of the Posco steel company. Operations began 

with a workforce of only 39 people. Today, 

Posco has more than 50,000 employees, and 

with an annual production volume of 30 million 

tons, the company is now the world’s 

fourth-largest steelmaker. Everyone in Pohang 

has some kind of connection to Posco. 

This may also soon be the case for anyone 

involved in the steel industry worldwide, because 

in April 2007, a facility went into operation 

at Posco that has solved a decades-old iron 

smelting problem. Extracting pig iron from iron 

ore in a blast furnace requires sintering the ore 

and producing coke from coal, both of which 

are extremely labor- and energy-intensive 

processes. Sintering involves partially melting 

the millimeter-large crumbs of ore dust known 

as “fines” at around 1,200 degrees Celsius to 

form lumps of ore. Otherwise, the ore fines 

would clog up the gas channels in the furnace 

through which carbon monoxide passes. The 

latter reduces the iron oxide in the ore to elementary 

iron. Coke is produced by heating coal 

to 1,000 degrees Celsius in the absence of air. 

The process releases tar and other gaseous byproducts, 

leaving only the coke as a solid 

residue. Pure coal cannot be used in a blast furnace 

because its tar by-products would also 

clog up the gas channels. Without sintered ore 

and coke, the furnace can’t be heated to the 

more than 2,000 degrees needed to make pig 

iron. 

That was the case until recently. Now, however, 

a technology called Finex, which was developed 

by Posco and Siemens, has eliminated 

the need for sintering furnaces and coking 

plants. “For the first time ever, we have a 

process that enables us to directly use ore and 

coal fines,” says Johannes Schenk, who played 

a major role in the development of Finex as the 

project manager at Siemens. “Substances created 

at one point during the Finex process are 

reused in the process via internal recycling systems,” 

he explains. As a result, Finex is not only 

more environmentally friendly and energy efficient 

than conventional processes; it’s also 

much more economical. “Production costs are 

around 15 percent lower than with a conventional 

blast furnace,” says Lee Hoo-geun, the 

Posco manager responsible for operation of the 

Finex facility. “Our competitors are very jealous 

of our new technology, of course,” Lee adds. 

Their envy is justified, as the Finex facility has 

passed its practical tests with flying colors. Lee 

originally expected it to take until the end of 

2007 to fine-tune the processes at the facility. 

However, 95 percent of all parameter targets 

(mainly with regard to availability, consumption 

values, and quality) had already been met by 

July. “We’re extremely satisfied with the results,” 

Lee says. 

Testing a New Technology. A perfect example 

of how to combine resources and expertise in a 

worldwide network, Finex confirms many of 

the benefits of globalization. Its development 

started more than 15 years ago, when the economic 

boom in emerging Asian markets led to 

a rapid increase in demand for steel. Posco, 

which was the main supplier of body panel 



Factories of the Future | Metal Making 

The Finex facility in the South Korean port city of 

Pohang (left) is a pioneer in the global steel 

industry. The plant’s construction costs were around 

20 percent below those for a conventional facility. 

| Energy-Saving Technologies 

Since 2005, Winfried Mayer (right) has been 

tracking down ways to save energy at Siemens 

locations. He also provides environmental 

tips — like the use of this heat pump. 

sheets for Hyundai, wanted to use each expansion 

of its capacity to develop new technologies. 

The search for new techniques led the Koreans 

to Voest-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau 

(VAI) in Linz, Austria in 1991. VAI, which became 

part of Siemens in 2005, had developed 

a new smelting procedure known as Corex that 

required no coking but was nevertheless unable 

to directly process ore fines (see Pictures 

of the Future, Fall 2006, p. 38). 

“Corex was the best technology back then 

— but we knew it would be possible to develop 

an even better system,” recalls Joo Sang-hoon, 

who headed the team of engineers that built 

compact this hot sponge iron into lumps that 

are fed into a melter gasifier. The gasifier is similar 

to a blast furnace, the difference being that 

only iron and slag need to be melted in it. The 

temperature of over 2,000 degrees Celsius required 

for this is achieved by gasifying coal with 

oxygen, whereby the resulting gas mixture consisting 

of carbon monoxide and hydrogen is fed 

into the fluidized bed reactor as reduction gas. 

The Finex method also creates a valuable 

byproduct in the form of an export gas that is 

used to fire a power generation plant. The iron 

and slag are tapped from the melter gasifier in 

the same way as from a blast furnace. 

The first Finex demonstration facility exceeded 

its annual production target by one third. 

the first Finex facility in Pohang. This assessment 

was shared by VAI, which had already developed 

a concept that would eliminate the 

need for sintering and coking. “Of course, our 

idea was only one of many,” says Schenk. However 

Posco had faith in the VAI approach, and 

the two companies signed a development 

agreement in 1992. VAI provided its facility 

construction and process development expertise 

while Posco contributed its experience as a 

plant operator and the muscle to carry out and 

finance such a complex project. 

After years of development work and the 

registration of over 100 patents, construction 

began in Pohang in 1998 on a test facility with a 

capacity of 50,000 tons per year. The facility’s 

principle new feature was the inclusion of a fluidized 

bed reactor in which carbon monoxide 

stirs up ore fines at a temperature of around 

800 degrees Celsius. The system utilizes four reactors 

in series. By the time the process is complete, 

the fine particles of ore have been transformed 

into small pieces of sponge iron. Rollers 

But it’s a long way from theory to practice. 

Success can only be attained by precisely aligning 

hundreds of parameters — starting with the 

properties of raw materials, the setting of temperatures 

and gas pressures, and the efficient 

use of by-products. “There are many potential 

sources of problems,” says Schenk, “and it’s often 

peripheral defects that cause shut-downs. 

Engineers love to make jokes like ‘The process 

works but the facility doesn’t’ in such situations, 

but in reality this is never a laughing matter.” 

Great Expectations — and Results. In the 

case of Finex, both the process and the test facility 

worked. The plant quickly achieved 95 

percent availability, and the quality of its pig 

iron was just as good as that from a blast furnace. 

In addition, gaseous emissions such as 

dust and sulfur and nitrogen oxides were 90 

percent lower than those produced by a conventional 

facility. Water contamination was 

also reduced by up to 98 percent; conventional 

facilities — especially coking plants — tend to 

produce wastewater containing large quantities 

of hydrocarbons and cyanide, and this water 

has to be purified in a lengthy and costly 

process. In 2001, Posco decided to build a 

demonstration facility with an annual capacity 

of 600,000 tons — around half the output of 

an average plant. By May, 2003, the plant entered 

service and has since reached 800,000 

tons per year. 

Transcontinental cooperation was the right 

move. “VAI is totally reliable,” says Joo. The 

Austrians have also benefited from this intercultural 

cooperation. “It’s impressive how Posco 

never wavers in pursuit of its goals,” says 

Schenk, who is impressed by the Korean’s dedication. 

“Everyone worked around the clock in 

the weeks leading up to the facility’s commissioning.” 

In 2004, Posco and VAI began jointly building 

the first major Finex facility, which went 

into operation in April 2007 with a rated capacity 

of 1.5 million tons per year. “Construction 

costs were around 80 percent of what you’d 

spend on a comparable blast furnace facility,” 

says Lee. “I can’t imagine Posco building anything 

other than Finex facilities in the future.” 

The company is now planning to build facilities 

in India and Vietnam — and steel manufacturers 

from other countries have expressed interest. 

China’s Baosteel, for example, is 

designing its newest plant near Shanghai in a 

manner that will enable it to be expanded later 

on into a Finex facility. Finex engineers have 

long ceased to worry about the success of their 

invention and have instead focussed on finding 

ways to further improve it. “Right now we’re 

looking at how to better combine the fluidization 

bed reactor and smelter gasifier, and we’re 

also trying to find a way to forgo the process of 

drying out the ore,” says Schenk. Joo also believes 

there’s potential for improvement. “We’re 

far from having fully exploited the process; 

after all, technological development never 

stops,” he says. 

Bernhard Bartsch 

Practice What You Preach 

Companies that offer environmentally friendly solutions should implement them 

themselves. At Siemens, the principle of sustainable business extends from 

reducing the company’s own energy consumption to refurbishing used equipment 

and working with the EU to promote the use of energy-saving industrial motors. 

From the seventh floor of Building 33, employees 

of Siemens Corporate Technology 

(CT) in Munich’s Neuperlach district can see the 

Alps in the distance. Often, the air is so clear, 

that researchers can plan their next hiking trip 

from here. No wonder then, that this floor is 

where Corporate Environmental Affairs & Technical 

Safety (CT ES) — the experts in companywide 

environmental topics — is based. 

Winfried Mayer works here and he’s responsible 

for environmental protection at Siemens 

facilities. An engineer, Mayer has plenty of 

work to do, especially since sustainability became 

a major factor in the decisions of stock 

market investment firms. His work includes 

helping Siemens attain leading listings in the 

Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and the 

Climate Leadership Index, which is compiled by 

the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). These indices 

list the major companies most committed 

to sustainability worldwide. Siemens has been 

listed on the DJSI for eight consecutive years 

since 2000. 

Inclusion in these indices requires, among 

other things, publication of data on global energy 

consumption and a list of energy-saving 

products. Mayer’s department collects this data 

in the form of the annual environmental reports 

issued by all Siemens locations, evaluates 

it and then passes all relevant information on 

to the compilers of the DJSI and the CDP. 

The reports show that electricity consumption 

alone accounts for approximately 60 percent 

of total energy costs at Siemens. With 

electricity prices constantly rising, this adds up 

to a lot of money, which is why Mayer established 

a one-day workshop for passing on energy-saving 

tips and recommendations, such as 

the idea of using heat pumps. 

Since 2005, Mayer has visited many of the 

approximately 300 Siemens production locations 

worldwide and inspected their facilities. 

In many cases, he has been able to make effective 

recommendations after just a few hours. 

“Sometimes it’s enough to just compare temperatures 

in warehouses and offices,” he says. 

“If they’re the same, it often means that the 

warehouse is overheated.” 

Mayer can also help out with complex problems, 

however, as he’s gained a great deal of 

technical expertise since his first workshop. “I 

even look at ads for energy-saving technologies 

now to see if we can use them,” he reports. 

His efforts have proved successful, as it’s 

estimated that a production location that takes 

part in one of Mayer’s workshops can reduce its 

electrical energy consumption by an average of 

five percent and its primary energy consumption 

by ten percent. 

And that’s just the beginning. Siemens has 

launched a program at its production locations 

that aims to increase energy efficiency in relation 

to the sales and product portfolio by 20 



Factories of the Future | Energy-Saving Technologies 

Sustainability in action. Light optimization (left) 

and heat recovery (center) reduce power 

consumption, while recycling used tomographs 

conserves resources (right). 

| Interview 

Rethinking 

Manufacturing 

percent between 2006 and 2011. Mayer’s 

workshops will play a key role here. 

Just a few doors down from Mayer’s office, 

CT colleagues are less concerned with saving 

energy at factories than they are with ensuring 

an environmentally friendly design for Siemens 

products. For 12 years now, Dr. Ferdinand 

Quella and his team in the Product-Related Environmental 

Protection department have been 

addressing the issue of “ecological design.” 

There’s even a standard for this, which is 

known as SN 36350 (see Pictures of the Future, 

Spring 2007, p.102). The 11-page document 

for this internal standard has been required 

reading for all developers planning a new product 

since 1999. The standard, which contains 

guidelines for product design and a list of toxic 

ment and sold worldwide with the “Proven Excellence” 

seal of quality. 

But it’s not just Med that has learned to take 

advantage of the environmental standard. According 

to Quella, Siemens now has so many 

efficient products that it’s high time the ecoportfolio 

was recognized with some form of 

certification. He’s therefore looking into having 

an external institute conduct an audit. “That 

would really set us apart from most of our rivals 

and spur competition,” he says. 

Boosting Awareness. Despite all the benefits 

offered by environmentally friendly products, 

many companies are still hesitant about purchasing 

systems that, although offering more 

energy efficiency than conventional solutions, 

Variable speed drives pay for themselves in a very 

short time — thanks to the savings they generate. 

and avoidable substances, has a total of 40 regulations 

that cover a product’s entire lifecycle. 

Adherence to these regulations has enabled 

Siemens to comply with new environmental 

legislation and design rules. 

The significance of SN 36350 goes beyond 

environmental protection, however. “We’ve repeatedly 

seen that environmentally friendly solutions 

also make a great deal of business 

sense,” says Friedrich Koch, who is responsible 

for environmentally friendly product design. 

“That’s because environmentally-focused production 

leads to better resource conservation, 

which in turn means that improved economic 

efficiency begins as early as the initial storage 

of parts and materials.” 

A key element of resource conservation is to 

re-use as much equipment as possible. 

Siemens Medical Solutions (Med), for example, 

has a Refurbished Systems unit that takes back 

used computer and magnetic resonance tomographs, 

which are refurbished according to the 

same quality standards as those for new equipcost 

more. The Automation and Drives (A&D) 

Group is only too familiar with this story. “Lots 

of customers still don’t realize that an investment 

in efficient solutions would very quickly 

be amortized by associated savings in energy 

costs during operation,” says Dr. Peter 

Zwanziger, head of the Associations and Regulations 

department of A&D’s Large Drives division 

in Nuremberg, which manufactures variable 

speed drives for industry (see Pictures of 

the Future, Spring 2006, pp. 49, 66). 

There’s tremendous need to boost awareness 

in this area. A&D is doing its part by manufacturing 

special Sinamics frequency converters 

for variable speed motors. Depending on 

how they’re used, motors outfitted with such 

converters can consume up to 60 percent less 

electricity than fixed-speed drives. Procurement 

costs for such devices can be recouped 

within two years. But although the converters 

are selling well, Zwanziger says that the market 

could be much bigger. “There’s potential for 

around €1.5 billion in sales per year in Europe 

alone if older motors could be replaced with 

energy-efficient ones. What’s more, this could 

cut CO 2 emissions by up to 60 million tons per 

year — not to mention the savings on electricity 

costs,” he says. But because many companies 

aren’t aware of this potential, the technology 

often remains on the shelf. To correct this 

problem, Siemens has joined a campaign established 

by the European Union to raise 

awareness of this issue. 

The EU Motor Challenge Program, which 

was established in 2003, promotes sustainable 

economic development by publicly honoring 

companies that are particularly energy efficient. 

Any company that chooses to join the 

program — either as a partner that strives to 

save energy, or as an endorser that recruits 

new partners, which is what Siemens does, has 

to identify energy savings potential at its 

plants and draw up a plan of action to achieve 

it. Such companies are then bound to this plan 

for the duration of their membership in the 

program. “Siemens’ plan of action is to inform 

as many companies as possible about the program 

— for example, at industrial trade 

shows,” says Zwanziger, who serves as a project 

liaison officer to the European Commission. 

Since becoming an endorser, Siemens has 

recruited 70 companies, including Ferrero and 

Johnson & Johnson, and has even gotten cities 

such as Hamburg on board. The new members 

may use the Motor Challenge logo in public 

and are also given official status as a company 

or city committed to sustainable development. 

Zwanziger doesn’t deny that all of this publicity 

also amounts to an excellent marketing 

tool for Siemens. “Still, you have to keep in 

mind that wherever energy-saving Siemens 

products are used, there’s a proven benefit to 

the environment,” he says. Such environmental 

benefits are already common within Siemens, 

and sustainability is set to become increasingly 

significant in terms of Siemens’ external activities 

as well. As Zwanziger points out, the EU 

Motor Challenge is just a harbinger of more 

stringent and comprehensive efficiency regulations 

to come. 


Roddy Martin (50), 

is general manager 

and vice president of 

AMR Research Value 

Chain Strategies 

Group, the world’s 

number one advisor 

on the optimization of 

supply chains, enterprise 

applications, and 

infrastructures. After 

completing a degree in 

engineering, Martin 

worked for a consulting 

engineering company 

and later became 

chief engineer for 

electrical infrastructure, 

process control, 

and automation for 

South African 

Breweries. At AMR, 

he leads value chain 

research across all industries. 

What are the major trends driving 

production automation? 

Martin: The most important long-term trend 

is our evolving ability to holistically model and 

simulate the complete product value chain — 

everything from the product to be produced to 

the processes and resources that will be used 

in producing it, whether it’s a car or a couple 

of tons of iron ore. We are not yet able to 

model value chains as broadly as we would 

like, or in a holistically integrated manner; but 

we’re getting there. The ability to model and 

simulate product value chains opens the door 

to improved collaboration between R&D and 

manufacturing, which is another very important 

capability. Once you can simulate products 

and processes in a holistic value chain, 

you can optimize manufacturing processes so 

that they can be modified in response to actual 

external demand. And once you’re that far, the 

next capability is the integration of manufacturing 

operations into the supply chain to provide 

the visibility that enables agility. 

Can we simulate products and processes 

in their full complexity today? 

Martin: Not together as a holistic system or in 

the same language. What’s missing is an architecture 

for modeling and simulation that can 

be implemented across heterogeneous application 

architectures. What we have today is silos 

of different technologies and applications. 

What’s the economic value of simulation? 

Martin: In most environments we could cut 

the cost of design in half if design and portions 

of execution were done in the virtual world. 

Do you need to see an operation as a 

whole to see the value of simulation? 

Martin: Yes. If you measure the value of simulation 

at a project level, you won’t necessarily 

see the total scope of savings. But if you’re 

modeling at an overall cost-to-performance 

level it is definitely cheaper to simulate. 

Are many companies doing this? 

Martin: No. Companies can be divided into 

those that have an internal or “inside-out” 

focus on manufacturing — one that pushes 

rather than pulls — and those that are moving 

to an “outside-in” focus. Here, customer requirements 

are translated back from need and 

use into manufacturing and operations. As you 

can imagine, this is a huge cultural change for 

manufacturing operations. In inside-out-driven 

operations I produce as much as I can and rely 

on sales and marketing to sell the product. This 

is where most companies are today. But the 

most advanced organizations are starting to 

implement outside-in-driven manufacturing. 

These companies are driving for value from the 

customer’s side. This amounts to a strategic 

joint value creation relationship between the 

manufacturer, suppliers, and the customer. 

Is Siemens heading for an outside-in 

manufacturing architecture? 

Martin: Following its recent acquisition of 

UGS, Siemens Automation & Drives announced 

a project called Archimedes that is designed to 

provide an integrated systems engineering architecture 

for products and production 

processes. The goal is to create an environment 

in which Siemens, non-Siemens and UGS 

components plug into a process-based architecture 

to achieve overarching automation and 

process integration. So in my opinion, the fact 

that Siemens has identified such a systems-integration 

architecture bodes well for Siemens’ 

Strategy and the future. 

Where will we be in 15 years? 

Martin: We will move toward much more sophistication 

and holistic modeling in the virtual 

world. Modeling will include not only mechanical 

components, but human and network 

components, and even the behavioral aspects 

associated with operations. We will be in a position 

to simulate opportunities to a very late 

stage, right up to the point that virtually all of 

the questions have been answered. To accomplish 

this, we will conduct at least 80 percent 

of development in the virtual world. Today it’s 

just the opposite. Why will we move in that direction? 

Because in the physical world we 

make mistakes and generate waste that costs 

time and money. In the virtual world, simulation 

allows us to structure experiments, test, 

detect errors, and try innovations that ultimately 

optimize products and processes. That’s 

my vision of the future, and it’s only ten to fifteen 

years away. 

Interview conducted by Arthur F. Pease 



Factories of the Future | Interview 

Dr. G. Günter Voß, 

57, a professor of 

Industrial Sociology 

and Sociological 

Technology Studies 

at Chemnitz University 

of Technology, 

discusses the 

social impact of 

automation. 

In your opinion, will increasing 

automation lead to the elimination of 

manual labor in factories? 

Voß: That depends on how you define the 

term factory. If we’re talking about a press 

shop in the automotive industry, such facilities 

are already highly automated. But that’s very 

different from an assembly line in the same 

industry, where fewer people work than used 

to be the case, but where the proportion of 

unskilled workers is still surprisingly high. 

Wanted: Workers with 

Broad Qualifications 

Manual labor will continue to exist — not only 

in the automotive industry, but also in the 

electrical and electronics industry, where 

people are needed to mount components on 

printed circuit boards or assemble cell phones. 

Manual labor is also required in the textile 

industry and in parts of the mechanical engineering 

sector, especially when machines 

have to be individually configured for each 

customer. 

Is the vision of an automated factory 

realistic? 

Voß: What we will see — and what already 

exists — are sections of complex manufacturing 

facilities that operate with very few people. 

Certain flexible production systems today 

already have fully automated areas where 

processes have been standardized through 

implementation of networked computer numerical 

control machines. 

Still, even here there are people in the background, 

such as technicians in control centers 

who monitor facilities and manage operations, 

waiting to intervene if something goes wrong. 

You may not see these people in the plant, but 

when there’s a problem, you’d be surprised 

how quickly they appear! 

I’d also like to point out that a large proportion 

of simple functions are invisible in many 

places because they’ve been outsourced 

around the world. Such so-called extended 

workbenches demonstrate that manual labor 

continues to exist. 

Advanced technologies have created 

millions of new jobs around the world — 

tion are unable to carry out the newly created 

functions, and this is especially true of people 

who have few qualifications. What’s more, additional 

training is no help in many instances 

— and this applies to highly qualified people 

as well in some situations. That’s because 

human capital cannot be bent into any desired 

shape; it is not an abstract production factor. 

Instead, it is a type of capital that is linked to 

specific people, their individual skills, and the 

life experiences they have. 

If you want to prepare for a shortage of skilled 

labor, you need to train people at an early 

stage in order to create a large pool of workers 

with broad qualifications. Restricting training 

or streamlining training operations down to 

the bare minimum at a company is a recipe 

for disaster. It often comes back to haunt the 

company involved, which — as many are 

doing today — then complains about a lack 

of skilled workers. 

According to your research, what kinds 

of jobs will tomorrow’s production 

facilities be most likely to offer? 

Voß: Human labor will focus less and less in 

the future on the direct manufacturing of 

products and more on indirect functions, such 

as the control and monitoring of production. 

At the same time, the term manufacturing will 

increasingly come to include all those parts 

of a company that are just as important as the 

units responsible for making products. I’m 

referring here to research and development, 

product design, procurement, sales, and 

marketing, for example. We all know that poor 

product development processes result in pro- 

but not enough jobs to offset very high 

levels of unemployment in some countries. 

Are our educational and training 

systems failing to provide the human 

capital we need? 

Voß: The advent of new technologies has 

repeatedly shown that attempts to replace human 

labor with machines lead to the creation 

of new jobs. The question is what kind of jobs 

are being offered. It’s very often the case that 

those who lose their jobs through rationalizaduction 

problems. That’s because quality is a 

function that everyone is responsible for; it’s 

not something only production units need to 

worry about. What I’m talking about here is 

the value chain, and it’s becoming more and 

more important. Put simply, skilled workers in 

production have to keep the customer in mind 

as well, and when they do this, they become 

more than just workers who know their jobs. 

In this situation, they take a step toward becoming 

service providers who take the needs 

of customers into consideration when it comes 

to quality, price and on-time delivery. 

Let’s look ahead and talk about 

the year 2020. Many experts predict 

down-sized factories and highly 

flexible production systems with lot 

sizes of one — in short, truly 

personalized products. Given these 

innovations, do you expect customers 

to eventually become part of the 

production process? 

Voß: Many industrial sectors already have 

production planning and control systems. 

Although the early euphoria that surrounded 

the introduction of computer-integrated manufacturing 

— or CIM — has largely dissipated, 

research in this area is moving forward. 

Interestingly enough, there are increasing 

attempts these days to incorporate consumers 

into the production process through instruments 

like mass customization, whereby 

customers formulate individual product 

demands and can even intervene in production 

by entering these demands into Internet 

systems. The goal here is to develop technical 

and organizational procedures that enable 

products to be industrially manufactured at 

an affordable cost — and at the same time 

tailored to the needs of customers. 

“Crowd sourcing,” which has been the subject 

of much discussion lately, goes even further by 

envisioning an interactive Web 2.0 that allows 

customers to be incorporated into business 

processes by contributing their wishes, ideas, 

and even suggestions for improvement and 

new designs. This is also known as Pro-Am 

cooperation, which means professionals and 

amateurs working together — and doing so 

even in the production of complex products 

such as automobiles and electronic equipment. 

We’re talking about much more here 

than selecting models, colors, seat coverings 

or optional equipment. In this approach the 

product is manufactured down to the last detail 

in accordance with the customer’s wishes. 

In some cases, this could have an impact on 

the entire production process as well. 

Interview conducted by Evdoxia Tsakiridou 

In Brief 

With the acquisition of UGS, Siemens has 

become the first company to unite the 

previously separate worlds of virtual product 

development and production planning with 

production automation. As a result, the development 

of new products and their associated 

production processes will become faster, 

more flexible, less expensive and more transparent 

to the customer. Real-time collaborative 

development of virtual products and 

processes supports these trends. (pp. 13, 16) 

Siemens researchers and developers are 

moving toward full digital representation and 

optimization of the entire product lifecycle — 

from design and manufacture to sales, distribution, 

disposal and recycling. Products such 

as trains are already being planned virtually, 

down to the last detail. (pp. 20, 23, 30) 

Virtual simulation can also be applied to 

work sequences — not just in factories, but 

also in medicine, as is being demonstrated in 

a new particle therapy center in Heidelberg. 

Here, Siemens is simulating and optimizing 

patient throughput in order to make the center 

more efficient and give physicians more 

time for their patients. (p. 33) 

Workflows at Siemens’ Amberg location 

are exemplary. With quality indicators and capacity 

utilization at close to 100 percent, the 

plant is not only one of Siemens’ most efficient 

facilities, but also the best factory in Europe 

— and that’s official. Its secret is innovation 

and highly motivated employees. (p. 26) 

Working together with a South Korean 

company, Siemens has developed a production 

process that eliminates the need for coking 

plants and sintering furnaces in pig iron 

production. Compared to other technologies, 

the new process is more efficient, cheaper, 

and easier on the environment. (p. 35) 

Reducing energy requirements at production 

locations, recycling used equipment, 

and developing and using power-saving 

equipment such as variable speed drives — 

these are all important steps when it comes to 

promoting sustainable manufacturing. (p. 37) 

PEOPLE: 

Digital factory: 

Dr. Bernhard Nottbeck, CT PP 

bernhard.nottbeck@siemens.com 

Dr. Bernd Korves, CT PP 

bernd.korves@siemens.com 

Dr. Robert Neuhauser, CSP SCM 

robert.neuhauser@siemens.com 

Dr. Helmuth Ludwig, A&D 

helmuth.ludwig@siemens.com 

Anthony Affuso, A&D 

tony.affuso@siemens.com 

Charles Grindstaff, A&D 

chuck.grindstaff@siemens.com 

Digital product development: 

Bernd Friedrich, CT PP 

bernd.friedrich@siemens.com 

Michael Schwarzlose, PG 

michael.schwarzlose@siemens.com 

Amberg location: 

Hans Schneider, A&D 

hans_j.schneider@siemens.com 

Baggage-handling system Beijing: 

Herbert Hiller, I&S 

herbert.hiller@siemens.com 

Train simulation: 

Reinhard Belker, TS 

reinhard.belker@siemens.com 

Workflow simulation: 

Thomas Lepel, CT PP 

thomas.lepel@siemens.com 

Finex facility: 

Dr. Johannes Schenk, I&S 

johannes.schenk@siemens.com 

Internal environmental protection: 

Winfried Mayer, CT ES 

winfried.mayer@siemens.com 

Dr. Ferdinand Quella, CT ES 

ferdinand.quella@siemens.com 

EU Engine Challenge Program: 

Dr. Peter Zwanziger, A&D 

peter.zwanziger@siemens.com 

AMR Research: 

www.amrresearch.com 

LINKS: 

Information on A&D PL / UGS: 

www.siemens.com/ugs 

National Association of Manufacturers: 

www.nam.org 



Research Cooperation | CERN Particle Accelerator 

The 25-meter-high and 50-meter-long ATLAS detector is 

the world’s largest particle physics experiment (large 

photo). Siemens position controllers help ensure that 

the superconducting magnets stay cool (small photos). 

ticle density. Such high “luminosity” is very important, 

because it increases the probability of 

a collision and thus the chances of finding the 

Higgs boson, which must be at least 100 times 

heavier than a proton. Four large detectors 

placed at the points where the beams intersect 

will register the matter and the particle showers 

created by the collisions. Such experiments 

are expected to result in some 15 million gigabytes 

of data per year. The data will be analyzed 

by physicists in a new, dedicated computer 

network. In addition to finding the Higgs 

boson, CERN scientists hope the new accelerator 

will provide insights into the mysterious 

dark matter that constitutes around 25 percent 

of the universe. 

To keep the particle beams precisely on 

course, the LHC relies on superconducting 

magnets, which need to be cooled with superfluid 

helium to a temperature of minus 271 de- 

units, for instance, which are seamlessly connected 

to one another, will shrink by 4.5 centimeters 

due to the cooling. Special buffers ensure 

that the system remains sealed. Once 

achieved, the ultra-low temperatures will have 

to be maintained for months. 

Special Controllers Keep things Cool. Helium 

distribution will be regulated by valves 

specially designed for use at the lowest temperatures. 

The system requires more than 

1,000 elements with supply and return headers, 

which control the cooling of the magnets 

and other components. The valves will be 

moved by compressed-air driven units, whose 

position will be regulated by Siemens position 

controllers. “We can’t use the normal Sipart- 

PS2 controllers directly in the ring,” says product 

manager Klaus-Peter Heer from Siemens 

Automation and Drives (A&D) in Karlsruhe, 

On the walls of the 53,000-cubic-meter room 

that houses this machine are ascending metal 

platforms that enable technicians to access the 

various levels of the detector, which consists of 

several million components, many of which 

need to fit together to within one hundredth of 

a millimeter. 

The inner zone of the detector contains 

around ten billion transistors. The ATLAS detector 

is the biggest experimental component 

arrangement ever built by particle physicists. It 

is basically made up of three detector systems, 

each of which independently measures various 

properties of the particles derived from collisions. 

ATLAS also has eight superconducting 

magnets. “An additional 130 of our split-version 

position controllers will be used here as 

well,” says Heer. Siemens has delivered 1,400 

Sipart position controllers in the split version 

and 400 conventional ones. 

Solving the World’s Mysteries 

The European Laboratory 

for Particle Physics (CERN) 

is building an accelerator 

that’s designed to solve 

some of the great 

mysteries of the universe. 

Components from Siemens 

will play a key role in ensuring 

that the accelerator’s 

superconducting magnets 

keep their cool at minus 

271 degrees Celsius. 

When particle physicists go hunting, they 

take along big guns that fire invisible bullets. 

Next spring, they will open the hunting 

season deep below ground at the French-Swiss 

border near Geneva in a manner never seen 

before. More specifically, they will cause particles 

to collide in a 27-kilometer tunnel ring at 

previously unattained energy levels in an attempt 

to solve some of the great mysteries of 

the universe. For example: Why do particles 

have a mass at all? And is the so-called Higgs 

boson responsible for this mass, as the Standard 

Model of particle physics predicts? 

Scientists are working to complete the Large 

Hadron Collider (LHC) at a site 100 meters below 

ground. The tunnel is dominated by a 1.2- 

meter-thick steel pipe, which contains superconducting 

magnets and curves slightly as it 

leads off into the distance. Numerous cables 

and smaller pipes are mounted on the walls, 

while an adjoining tunnel houses a huge number 

of switch cabinets for high-voltage electronic 

systems and control systems for the ventilation 

units. Two pipes as thick as human 

arms run in parallel inside the large steel pipe. 

Inside the pipes, protons or lead ions will be accelerated 

to almost the speed of light. There 

are four separate areas in which the particle 

beams will collide head-on. These particle collisions 

— which will occur up to 600 million 

times per second — will enable the Large 

Hadron Collider to recreate the conditions that 

prevailed less than a billionth of a second after 

the Big Bang. 

The LHC facility will be able to generate 

much higher energies than its predecessor, the 

LEP accelerator, was capable of producing. It 

will also create a beam with 100 times the par- 

grees Celsius. “If we didn’t use these magnets, 

the facility would have to be 120 kilometers in 

circumference and would require 30 times 

more energy,” says Laurent Tavian, who is responsible 

for CERN’s cryogenic systems. He explains 

that while conventional magnets 

achieve a field strength of approximately two 

teslas, the superconducting magnetic coils 

reach eight teslas and can thus bend particle 

beams sharply. Nevertheless, over 1,600 ultracold 

magnets are required to achieve this result. 

“Basically, we’re building the world’s 

biggest refrigerator,” Tavian jokes, adding that 

“Siemens is playing a major role in the project.” 

The biggest facility to date required 3,600 

liters of pressurized superfluid helium; the LHC 

will need about 600,000 liters. It’s the first time 

that such a large amount of ultra-cold liquid 

will have to be transported over the large distances 

around the ring, while the temperature 

throughout the entire cooling system may not 

deviate by more than 0.1 degrees Celsius. Such 

requirements place unique demands on the 

materials used. The 15-meter-long magnet 

Germany. “That’s because the radiation is intense 

enough to affect or destroy the sensitive 

electronic systems.” 

To solve this problem, developers at A&D 

created a split version of the Sipart PS2 position 

controller, which has all of the microprocessors 

located in a separate radiation-proof tunnel 

nearby. “Before delivery, we thoroughly tested 

the split arrangement under the most realistic 

conditions possible,” says Heer. The microprocessor 

circuit boards can be located up to 

one kilometer away from the position controller. 

“Siemens components are crucial for 

controlling the cooling process,” says Tavian. “If 

one of the position controllers stops working, it 

might be possible in some cases to have others 

take over, but in most instances the entire cooling 

machinery would eventually fail.” 

In another part of the LHC facility, more precisely 

at Access Point 1, a narrow, brightly lit 

corridor ends at a blue steel door. Located behind 

this door is the ATLAS detector — a machine 

nearly 50 meters long and 25 meters 

high (about the height of a five-story building). 

The complex position controllers are not the 

only things Siemens has provided to the LHC or 

CERN. Over the last ten years, the company has 

also supplied numerous products such as 

Simatic control devices, power supply components, 

computers, and laptops. Other CERN 

and LHC suppliers also rely on such Siemens 

products as mobile operator panels and hidden 

electronic control systems. Siemens alone has 

received orders worth around €30 million — 

but that’s only a fraction of the €6 billion that 

will have been spent over 15 years to design 

and build the LHC and its detectors when the 

facility is completed. As the project’s conclusion 

draws near, thousands of scientists worldwide 

can hardly wait for the facility to be 

switched on in May 2008. Laurent Tavian is one 

of them. “One thing’s for sure,” he says. “If 

there is a Higgs particle, we’ll find it very 

quickly.” And if there is no Higgs boson? “That’s 

when things will really get exciting. We could 

end up finding something unexpected that 

could change the face of particle physics as we 

know it.” 

Norbert Aschenbrenner 



Materials for the Environment | Scenario 2020 

Highlights 

50 Taking the Heat 

The energy content of a fuel can 

be exploited more efficiently at 

higher combustion temperatures. 

New types of coatings make the 

blades in many turbines more 

resistant to heat and corrosion. 

53 Precision Protection 

Ceramic heat shields developed 

and produced by Siemens protect 

gas turbine combustion 

chambers. 

58 Plastics: A Growing Field 

Bacteria can produce organic 

plastics. These new materials can 

be used to manufacture environmentally-friendly 

electronic 

products. 

60 Catching the Wind 

Rotor blades up to 52 meters in 

length can produce up to 3.6 

megawatts. This year Siemens 

will install 1,500 megawatts. 

64 Catching Contaminants 

An analytical lab at Siemens uses 

advanced technologies to detect 

imperfections in semiconductor 

materials and traces of banned 

substances in electronic products. 

68 China’s Road to Sustainability 

China’s Minister of Science and 

Technology, Prof. Wan Gang, 

discusses his country’s leading 

technologies and the need for 

more environmental protection. 

2020 

Nano-particles on the outer facade of the 

new, high-tech Retro Hotel replace air 

conditioners (1). The hotel’s floors are 

water and dirt repellent (2). Light fibers are 

woven into garments (3). Ceramic coatings 

on turbine blades (4) ensure high energy 

efficiency. Supercaps (5) store braking energy 

from a shuttle rail system, and nano 

particle car paints repair small scratches 

themselves (6). 

3 

1 

2 

6 

4 

5 

Invisible 

Revolutionaries 

October 2020. At the grand opening of a 

luxury hotel, representatives from the 

world’s hospitality industry are on hand 

to admire the building’s innovations. 

Among other things, the hotel is able to 

generate most of its own energy, thanks 

in part to new materials. 

It’s hot outside — which goes well with the 

“Ancient Rome” theme. I’ve got to hurry or 

else I’ll be late. It’s great that the new hotel’s 

administration set up an information event like 

this for hotel managers like me. And I’m really 

excited about what I’m going to see here, especially 

because our own hotel is in dire need of 

refurbishment. One thing we really need to do 

is lower our energy consumption. Hey, this 

building looks really cool shimmering in the 

sunlight. Wow, it’s iridescent. Now it’s red, now 

it’s blue, now it’s purple… “Welcome, ladies 

and gentlemen, to our new High-tech Retro 

Hotel. I’m very pleased to be able to tell you 

everything about our new jewel today,” says 

the hotel’s manager proudly. 

Oh no, sounds a like a long tour. “But first let 

me offer you some refreshments,” she continues. 

Nice, ice-cold juice in a Roman chalice — 

very refreshing. But wait: What are those 

gowns? They don’t expect me to wear a toga 

here, do they? “Everything here fits in perfectly 

with our theme. Go ahead, try on the functional 

outfits made by one of our partner companies. 

Flexible energy storage units are integrated 

into the fabric, and these supply power 

to light diodes woven into the clothing. Those 

tiny spot lights are also name tags.” Good idea! 

Much better than normal name tags. 

“Now, please follow me over here. The 

building’s outer facade is truly amazing. The 

wall paint contains metallic nano-particles that 

function like an air conditioner by only letting 

in heat from the sun when the rooms inside 

aren’t warm enough. When the outside temperature 

drops below 23 degrees Celsius, the 

nano-particles are trapped in a kind of protective 

casing, which means the heat rays can 

penetrate the building. When the temperature 


Materials for the Environment | Scenario 2020 

goes above 23 degrees, the material properties 

of the protective casing change and the nanoparticles 

are freed-up, so to speak, after which 

they resume their job of reflecting heat. On hot 

days like this they act as an insulator.” Wow — 

it’s amazing what nanotechnology can do 

these days. The other hotel managers also look 

impressed. 

“And what do you think of the facade itself?” 

the charming hotel manager asks. “Depending 

on the temperature and the angle of sunlight, 

our hotel shimmers in different colors. There 

are also additional nano-particles in the exterior 

paint that make the facade water- and dirtrepellent.” 

No fun for graffiti artists here. 

“Up on the roof you can see our large solar 

power unit, which supplies hot water. We also 

have other state-of-the-art solar cells with a sequence 

of layers that provide for optimal utilization 

of sunlight. These cells provide electricity 

for our 3D light walls that display Roman 

sculptures, temples, and everyday scenes. 

“In addition, we get power from wind and 

geothermal facilities in the area, so our CO 2 

balance is very impressive, as you might imagine. 

In fact, rather than having to purchase CO 2 

certificates, we’re actually able to sell them. 

“And speaking of energy supplies, if you’ve 

got some time later, you should have a look at 

the combined cycle power plant, which is right 

nearby. As a lover of art, I have to say I think 

the facility’s architecture is outstanding — but 

those of you who are more interested in technology 

will find it fascinating too. So take a look, 

and make sure the technicians there tell you 

about some of the secrets of nano-coatings. 

“Now please follow me into the lobby.” As it 

turns out, the lobby is a lighting paradise, and 

I’m sure it uses a lot of electricity… “We have a 

sophisticated and extremely energy-efficient 

system here that consists of energy-saving 

lamps, light-emitting diodes, sensors, and 

high-tech electronics. All of this has reduced 

energy consumption by nearly 80 percent compared 

to what used to be the norm. All corridors 

and rooms have motion detectors, and we 

also mix natural and artificial light, which not 

only makes for a more natural lighting atmosphere, 

but also conserves energy. Anybody suffering 

from jet lag — and that’s almost everybody 

these days — can recuperate with a 

light-pulse shower in our Roman thermal 

baths.” Hey, and they even have splashing water, 

dim lights, carafes with wine, scented oils, 

a massage table — oh, I almost tripped into a 

fountain over there. What’s that strange vibration 

under my feet? The hotel manager grins. 

“You’re lucky! Anyone who gets too close to our 

fountain of youth, as we call it, gets a warning 

from vibration sensors integrated into the 

than just the nanoparticles of metal or metal 

oxides that are currently available on the 

market. 

Their special properties do not fully develop 

until the nanoparticles have been endowed 

with certain functions and embedded in a stable 

medium. It’s only then that they genuinely 

open the door to enhanced or completely new 

material properties — and therefore also to 

materials that can further reduce the burden 

on the environment. “No matter whether you 

take a massive block or a small particle of a specific 

substance, its physical and chemical characteristics 

such as its electrical conductivity, 

hardness, magnetism and chemical reactivity 

remain the same. But as soon as we enter the 

nanoworld, these properties change dramatically,” 

explains Grandke. “Nanoscale particles 

have a huge surface area in proportion to their 

volume, and they experience quantum-mechanical 

effects.” 

The result of this basic difference is a range 

of completely new materials. Below 150 

nanometers, for example, the white pigment 

titanium dioxide becomes an effective abfloor.” 

I look down and see a beautiful ancient 

Roman mosaic floor. “The mosaic in the lobby, 

as well as the furniture are sealed with a dirtrepellent 

nano-coating,” the manager continues. 

“The front desk and the furniture in the 

rooms are made of organic plastics — it’s hard 

to believe that this antique-looking chair over 

here is made of starch or sugar, don’t you 

think? 

We like to use environmentally friendly materials 

because we generally change our hotel 

theme once or twice a year, including all interior 

furniture. No fossil fuels are needed to 

manufacture the furniture. And when disposed 

of, the furniture releases no more carbon dioxide 

than the plants from which it is made absorbed 

from the air while they were alive. All 

decomposition products are non-toxic as well. 

Oh, please wait a second; I just got an urgent 

message from our security service. Excuse me, 

does anyone here own a sedan with gull-wing 

doors, license plate M-UZ-2000?” 

Oh, that’s mine... “It seems a guest at our 

hotel bumped your car while parking, but it 

doesn’t look like anything serious.” Oh no! I just 

got that car three months ago! I better go take 

a look. Luckily, it turns out to be only a small 

scratch that’ll heal by itself, because in just a 

few hours the nano-based body paint will regenerate. 

So no need to go to the repair shop. 

And at least the car’s been broken in now. O.K., 

let me get back to the tour; it’s really exciting. 

“In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I’d like 

to show you our rail shuttle. The high-tech 

Retro Hotel sponsored construction of a new 

environmentally-friendly commuter rail system 

and also shares the cost of operating it. This rail 

system, which received an environmental 

award recently, features rail cars equipped with 

electric motors and double-layer capacitors, socalled 

supercaps. By harnessing the kinetic energy 

released when the train brakes, the motors 

serve as generators. The energy thus 

gained is stored in the supercaps and re-used 

when the train begins moving again. 

“This energy recuperation system alone reduces 

power consumption by up to 25 percent. 

I really would have liked to have shown you our 

hotel rooms, which have been presented with a 

design award. But since we’re fully booked, I 

hope you’ll understand that I can’t do that. As a 

small consolation, we’re going to give each of 

you a Roman toga and a hotel gift certificate 

for a one-night stay. I hope to be able to welcome 

all of you here again next year, when our 

theme will be: ‘In the Court of the Sun King.’” 

Well, I think I got some pretty good ideas for 

our hotel. Maybe we should also have special 

themes like “In the House of Cleopatra,” or 

“Lost in Space.” 

Ulrike Zechbauer 

| Trends 

Siemens’ Nanolab in Berlin is investigating how 

nanoparticles behave in solution. The goal is to 

prevent them from clumping, thus allowing 

them to be homogeneously applied to surfaces. 

Unless climate change can be slowed, the 

consequences will be dramatic: drought, 

floods, storms, famine, species extinction, and 

mass migration. Yet there is still time to prevent 

the worst from happening — if a substantial 

reduction in global emissions of greenhouse 

gases such as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) can 

be achieved (Pictures of the Future, Spring 

2007, pp. 78–105). 

“Thanks to the use of new materials we can 

improve efficiency in the generation, transmission 

and consumption of energy, both on the 

part of utilities and consumers,” says Dr. 

Thomas Grandke, head of the Materials & Microsystems 

department at Siemens Corporate 

Technology (CT). The use of innovative new 

coatings, for example, can protect gas and 

Promising 

Particles 

also help make electronic products more environmentally 

friendly in the future. In the Bio- 

Fun research alliance, for instance, Siemens 

scientists are currently investigating the material 

properties of these biopolymers (p. 58). 

At present, materials research is undergoing 

a veritable revolution. However, the revolutionaries 

themselves are often invisible to the 

naked eye. Many of them are smaller than 100 

nanometers — a nanometer is one billionth of 

a meter. Five years ago research institutes were 

proud if they could produce a few grams of 

these so-called nanoparticles; today more and 

more producers are marketing such substances 

on a commercial level. The stage has therefore 

been set for the advent of industrial applications 

on a large scale. Yet this will require more 

Special materials boost power plant efficiency, keep air 

pure, and clean our water. The smaller the particles, the 

more effectively they combat harmful substances such 

as ozone, thus improving environmental quality. 

steam turbine blades against the effects of 

heat and corrosion, which in turn enables 

higher operating temperatures and thus increases 

in efficiency (p. 50). Ceramic heat 

shields fulfill the same function in the annular 

combustion chambers of gas turbines (p. 53). 

Additional examples of climate-friendly 

technologies include light-emitting diodes 

(LEDs), which are destined to become one of 

the most environmentally compatible forms of 

lighting around. They consume around 80 percent 

less electricity than conventional incandescent 

lamps and also last as much as 50 

times longer (p. 63). Siemens is likewise helping 

to enhance the world’s subways, express 

trains, aircraft, and ships with the use of lightweight 

engineering, enhanced drive systems 

and, in many cases, new materials (p. 70). For 

example, the new lightweight aluminum railcars 

of the Oslo subway are now more environmentally 

compatible thanks to the use of new 

materials. They use a third less power than 

their predecessors, are free of harmful materials, 

and are more than 94 percent recyclable. 

The use of plastics produced by bacteria should 



Materials for the Environment | Trends 

sorber of UV light, which is why nanotechnology 

is even impacting products such as cosmetics 

(suntan lotions). Another example is gold. 

Although known for being extremely inert and 

therefore a favored anticorrosion agent for 

high-grade components, gold as a nanoparticle 

is in fact extremely reactive — a new material 

property which is now being exploited in the 

development of new catalysts. 

Once again, the reason for this is the difference 

between a nanoparticle’s surface area 

and its volume. Whereas a solid cube of one 

cubic centimeter has a surface area of six 

square centimeters, the same-sized cube filled 

with particles each 10 nanometers in diameter 

has a surface area of around 450 square meters 

— some 740,000 times as much. “The great 

thing is that each element and each structure 

can in principle be reduced to the nanoscale, 

where it will then exhibit completely different 

properties,” says Grandke. 

At Nanolab Jensen and his colleagues are 

currently investigating how they will have to 

modify nanoparticles in order to give them special 

properties. Work safety and environmental 

protection are paramount considerations here. 

Strict regulations apply in the lab. Researchers 

conduct experiments in a fume hood and wear 

protective clothing. Likewise, the lab’s air conditioning 

is separate from the system used for 

the rest of the building. Both incoming and 

outgoing air is specially filtered in order to prevent 

any nanoparticles from escaping into the 

atmosphere. 

“Future products containing nanoparticles 

will have to fix these substances in a protective 

paint or surface coating. We must ensure that 

these substances cannot escape into the environment,” 

explains Jensen. “Any potential 

health risks from this source are also a subject 

of discussion in the current debate on diesel 

particulates.” 

Nanotechnology opens the door to a host of 

materials with new properties. 

Nanocomposite coatings in air conditioner elements 

could provide an energy-efficient way of clearing 

ozone from outside air before it enters the cabin in 

planes such as the Airbus A380. 

air conditioning systems transform ozone into 

oxygen, but only at temperatures of between 

150 and 200 degrees Celsius before cooling 

it to cabin temperature. At these high temperatures, 

catalytic converters using precious 

metals can efficiently decompose ozone into 

oxygen. 

The goal of Germany’s NanoBase project is 

to develop materials that will support the transformation 

of ozone into oxygen without the 

use of precious metals and at temperatures 

well under 100 degrees Celsius. This would 

give more flexibility to aircraft air conditioning 

designers since converters would no longer be 

dependent on the use of high temperatures. 

This will be particularly important for planes 

that, for example, use electric compressors to 

achieve cabin pressure using external air. Such 

planes will no longer need to use air that has 

been heated by the engines in order to reach 

catalytic temperatures. 

Although this goal is still a long way from 

being fully achieved, an initial demonstration 

model should be ready within two years. This 

will be able to convert ozone at well under 100 

degrees Celsius. “We’re now developing this 

prototype for the NanoBase project in cooperation 

with EADS and other partners,” says 

Jensen. “We’re combining a method introduced 

in the late 1960s — the so-called chemical 

nickel process — with nanotechnology.” As a 

rule, such chemical nickel coatings consist of 

nickel-phosphorus alloys that are deposited on 

a base material — mainly metallic materials but 

increasingly plastics and glass as well — to protect 

them against wear and corrosion. This 

process involves immersing the base material 

in a dip tank. On its own, however, the nickel 

alloy is a poor catalyst. “But if we evenly embed 

nanoparticles of metal or metal oxide in the 

topmost layer of the alloy, this creates so-called 

nanocomposite coatings with highly catalytic 

properties,” explains Jensen. 

These modified coatings decompose ozone 

at much lower temperatures and also work 

much faster than is the case with conventional 

converters. Siemens researchers are currently 

refining the deposition process and testing a 

wide range of nanoparticles, which is a very 

time-consuming task. “Just to keep the 

nanoparticles stable and make sure they don’t 

clump together in the dip tank and sink to the 

bottom is a science in itself,” Jensen says. “Another 

major challenge is to ensure that they are 

evenly embedded in the nickel alloy. It takes all 

our know-how, and we still learn something 

new every day.” 

But it’s not just the aerospace industry that 

is interested in these high-tech catalysts. “In 

just a few years we could well see our 

nanocomposite coatings in high-speed trains 

and in cars. It’s a huge market,” says Jensen. “In 

railcars, for example, they could be used not 

only for air conditioning but also to keep vehicle 

bodies clean. That’s because catalytically 

active, self-cleaning surfaces would also be impervious 

to graffiti.” 

This would represent a major benefit for rail 

operators, who today spend a huge amount of 

time and money on removing spray paint. It 

takes two to three employees a whole working 

day to clean a suburban train, for example. Often 

the graffiti can only be removed with the 

help of powerful chemicals that get rid of not 

only the scribbles and scrawls but also the 

paint and coatings underneath. 

“Deutsche Bahn alone could save tens of 

millions of euros in this area every year,” says 

Jensen. “Alternatively, nanocomposite coatings 

can also be used in filter elements for water 

treatment systems. Furthermore, they can increase 

the sensitivity of the chemical sensors 

used for quick and easy detection of drugs or 

explosives.” 

Likewise, the service life of organic LEDs decreases 

markedly when they are exposed to 

dampness and oxygen. Gröppel is therefore 

working on new nanopaints and adhesives that 

offer a radically improved barrier effect. “In our 

labs here in Erlangen we’re synthesizing 

nanocomposites on the basis of modified sheet 

silicates. These consist of nanoparticles with a 

thickness of one nanometer and a length and 

breadth of 500 nanometers. These dimensions 

generate the desired barrier effect. Just to give 

you an example, it takes water molecules 

about ten times as long to penetrate this coating 

compared with conventional protective 

paints,” explains Gröppel. 

Future catalysts will function faster and more 

efficiently while using less energy. 

Withstanding the Elements. Aside from the 

development of highly active catalytic coatings, 

the NanoBase project is also looking at 

improved protective coatings for products and 

systems used for electrical engineering and 

transportation. Today, plastic sheathing is normally 

used to protect electronic components 

and systems against the elements. Yet this is 

not always sufficient, especially when components 

are exposed to rough conditions, such as 

those in vehicle engine compartments and industrial 

machinery. 

Molecules of water, air, or harmful gases 

can penetrate the plastic and cause electronic 

component inside to fail. “This can even knock 

out complete industrial plants or traffic guidance 

systems, sometimes with serious consequences 

for human safety and the environment, 

not to mention the financial impact,” 

says Dr. Peter Gröppel, a chemist at Siemens CT 

in Erlangen. 

What’s more, conventional protective paints 

have an additional disadvantage. In many 

cases they contain organic solvents that are 

harmful to the environment. “In the NanoBase 

project, our target for 2009 is to develop a solvent-free, 

water-based protective nanopaint 

that also possesses greatly enhanced product 

properties,” states Gröppel. 

Visionaries in the nanotechnology field are 

already dreaming of developing a self-repairing 

paint. People would never have to worry again 

about getting minor scratches on their cars. Instead, 

nanocapsules in the paint would open at 

the edge of a scratch, releasing a catalyst that 

would react with other components in the 

paint. Such components might contain tiny 

drops of a smaller functionalized polymer. 

These would fill and seal the scratch before the 

metal underneath could begin to corrode, with 

the result that the vehicle would once again 

look as good as new. Ulrike Zechbauer 

Dr. Jens Dahl Jensen has a striking comparison 

to explain the size of the nanoworld: 

“Imagine the earth next to a soccer ball, and 

the soccer ball next to a nanoparticle — that’s 

the scale of magnitude we’re talking about.” 

Jensen heads the nanoparticle competence 

field at Siemens CT in Berlin and leads 

NanoBase, a project sponsored by the German 

Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), 

which involves Siemens as well as other companies 

and research establishments. The aim of 

the project is to develop new types of coatings 

on the basis of functionalized nanoparticles, 

which will enhance existing technologies and 

also enable completely new applications. 

Better Cabin Air. Siemens’ research for the 

NanoBase project is also focusing on highly 

active catalytic coatings, which — when incorporated 

in an appropriate catalytic converter — 

will be able, for example, to decompose ozone 

in surrounding air. “These ozone converters 

could be used in aircraft air conditioning units,” 

Jensen explains. 

At an altitude of 10,000 meters the air contains 

up to 550 ppb of ozone per cubic meter, 

which means it must be treated before being 

fed into the cabin. That's because ozone is an 

aggressive and noxious gas. Regulations stipulate 

a maximum permissible volume of 100 

ppb over a three-hour period. Current aircraft 

Air flows through a specialized canal 

outfitted with catalytic nanoparticles 

that oxidize gaseous substances. 

In 

Catalyst 

Nanoparticles embedded in metal (turquoise dots) significantly increase the 

catalytic efficacy of a coating (left). Such catalysts will be able to decompose 

substances like ozone faster while using less energy (above). 

In Siemens’ Berlin Nanolab a metal sample is coated with nanoparticles (right). 

Out 

Source: DCL International 



Materials for the Environment | Optimizing Turbine Blades 

As every cook knows, a pinch of salt can 

transform a bland dish into a tasty one. But 

just how big that pinch should be is usually a 

question of experience, and sometimes it has 

to be mixed with other spices to get the right 

taste. The lesson isn’t lost on Dr. Werner Stamm 

— the star chef of materials research at 

A 300-micrometer coating developed by 

Dr. Werner Stamm (bottom) increases the 

service life of turbine blades, including those 

on the world’s largest gas turbine (far right). 

Taking the Heat 

New materials are making gas and steam turbine blades 

ever more resistant to heat and corrosion. This results in 

higher efficiency and lower fuel consumption, thus 

helping to cut environmental pollution. 

Siemens Power Generation (PG) in Mülheim an 

der Ruhr, Germany. Stamm is always thinking 

up new “recipes” for which he’s never received 

any cooking awards, but instead 52 patents 

and the title “2006 Inventor of the Year.” That’s 

because his recipes help make gas turbine 

blades more resistant to heat and corrosion. 

The latest spice in Stamm’s kitchen is rhenium, 

a rare metal characterized by a very high 

melting point and high density. Adding one to 

two percent of rhenium to a mixture of cobalt, 

nickel, chromium, aluminum, and yttrium (socalled 

MCrAlY coatings) imbues the complex 

mixture with extraordinary properties. 

At high temperatures, the mixture forms a 

barrier of aluminum oxide on the MCrAlY surface 

that protects turbine blades from oxygen 

in a combustion gas. The rhenium improves 

the mechanical properties of the protective 

coating and simultaneously prevents the aluminum 

from diffusing into the base material. 

“The coating stops the base material from oxidizing,” 

says Stamm. Without it, the nickel base 

alloy in the blade would only survive 4,000 

hours of operation at maximum operating temperatures. 

With the coating, however, the alloy 

can hold out against the oxygen for more than 

25,000 hours, longer than power plant operators 

demand as a minimum. 

Stamm’s coating, which is only around 300 

micrometers thick, also has another function 

— to serve as an adhesive agent for ceramic 

thermal insulation layers. Given a gas temperature 

of approximately 1,500 degrees Celsius, 

this composite system of adhesive agent and 

ceramic — in conjunction with a special bladecooling 

setup that blows air from narrow jets 

onto the blades — reduces the surface temperature 

on the metal in the first row of blades 

from 1,200 to around 950 degrees Celsius. The 

newest thermal insulation coating systems can 

even accommodate ceramic surface temperatures 

of up to 1,350 degrees Celsius. 

Percentage Points Worth Fighting For. But 

Stamm and his coworkers still aren’t satisfied. 

That’s because as temperature increases, the 

efficiency of the system (the share of useful energy 

obtained from combustion) improves. 

And with raw material prices rising, power 

plant operators and designers are struggling to 

achieve gains of just tenths of a percent. This 

was the rationale behind development of the 

most modern — and with 340 megawatts of 

output also the largest — gas turbine in the 

world, which Siemens delivered to the E.ON 

plant in Irsching in 2007. Plans call for the giant 

powerhouse to be used in conjunction with 

a steam turbine beginning in 2011 — a system 

that is set to break the 60-percent efficiency 

mark (see p. 54). “This moves us into a completely 

new realm of technology,” says Dr. Johannes 

Teyssen, chief operating officer of E.ON 

AG in Düsseldorf. “And we fully expect the 

higher efficiency to result in lower power generation 

costs.” 

Additional efficiency could be gained by reducing 

air cooling in the turbine blades, as the 

air used here is carried through the turbine, 

thus lowering efficiency. Less cooling air 

would, however, raise the temperature in the 

first row of blades by over 100 degrees Celsius 

— too much for the materials currently used. 

The gas turbine in Irsching already has an optimal 

cooling system — thanks to Werner 

Stamm’s MCrAlY protective coating. However, 

as Stamm points out, it won’t be possible to determine 

exactly how the turbine handles the 

of diamonds. Silicon carbide is a high-strength 

material that has one key disadvantage: It oxidizes 

when in contact with oxygen at high temperatures 

— and oxygen is something gas turbines 

have plenty of. Siemens researchers are 

therefore focusing on the development of oxide 

ceramics that have already reacted with 

oxygen. The material’s lower rigidity is not a 

drawback, as the most important thing is its actual 

useful expansion, which is greater than 

that of silicon carbide. 

Still, ceramic blades need to be reinforced if 

they’re going to survive at least the 25,000 

hours of operation customers demand of 

them. That’s because ceramics are brittle. Dr. 

Ulrich Bast of Siemens Corporate Technology in 

Munich, together with colleagues in Orlando, 

Florida, are therefore developing and testing 

Coal-fired steam power plants with over 50 percent 

efficiency are expected to be operating by 2014. 

strain until after it’s been operating normally 

for several years. “Labs and real machines are 

two different things,” he says. 

Heat-resistant and heat-insulating protective 

coatings like Stamm’s still offer huge untapped 

potential. If, for example, researchers 

are able to increase the surface temperatures 

of the ceramic material and reduce the formation 

of oxides on the MCrAlY layer, both efficiency 

and operating life could be significantly 

increased. And ultimately, the special ceramics 

are only an interim step on the road to full ceramics 

that require no cooling. But that’s a long 

way off, says Stamm, “Maybe in 15 years — but 

people were also saying that 15 years ago.” 

Siemens' acquisition of Westinghouse has 

brought new life to ceramic development, and 

engineers are now trying to increase temperatures 

— and thus efficiency — by utilizing oxide 

ceramics. Other companies in the sector are 

opting for a base material of silicon carbide, 

whose structure and properties resemble those 

fiber-reinforced ceramics . “The fibers provide a 

reserve for handling stress and keep the ceramic 

intact, even if it already has cracks in 

some places,” says Bast. The combination of 

two brittle materials — a ceramic matrix and 

fiber — results in high tolerance to strain and 

damage. The oxidized fibers of aluminum oxide 

and silicon dioxide nevertheless remain the 

weakest link in the chain. Although they too no 

longer react with oxygen, they can only withstand 

temperatures up to 1,200 degrees Celsius. 

Ceramic alone can handle up to 1,700 degrees; 

when used in certain gas turbine 

components, it therefore requires no cooling. 

The fiber compound thus has to be protected 

from the extreme temperature of the heated 

gas by a thick ceramic insulation. Tests on a 

ring segment made of fiber-reinforced ceramic 

have already produced very promising results. 

Generation 50plus. E.ON plans to begin 

building a new generation of coal-fired steam 

power plants in 2014 that will achieve an efficiency 

of above 50 percent. Several preliminary 

projects are now under way for “Generation 

50plus,” with Siemens working on the development 

of components for such a plant. At the 

Scholven power generation center near 

Gelsenkirchen, Germany, for example, the 

COMTES700 project is testing materials for use 

in boilers, pipes and turbines that will be exposed 

to a steam temperature of 700 degrees 

Celsius. This high temperature will enable the 

new plants to make the leap in efficiency from 

today’s maximum 46 percent to 50 percent. 

But higher temperatures alone won’t be 



Materials for the Environment | Optimizing Turbine Blades 

flow, however, which means the last blade 

wheel has to be the largest. The biggest blade 

wheel made by Siemens for final-stage operation 

has a flow surface of 12.5 square meters. 

“The trend is toward even larger areas,” says 

Bettentrup, which is why he and his team are 

looking to build a steam turbine with the 

world’s largest blade wheel area — 16 square 

meters. The turbine is also to be used at the 

E.ON plant in Irsching. Even the jet engines in 

an Airbus A380 don’t come close to this. 

There’s a simple reason why the giant wheel 

is so attractive to customers: A 16-square-meenough, 

according to Dr. Ernst-Wilhelm 

Pfitzinger, project manager for the 700-degree 

turbine in Mülheim. Pfitzinger says achieving 

the final percentage point will depend on finding 

a favorable location with good cooling conditions 

— like the Baltic Sea. In a study known 

as NRWPP700, several partners, including 

Siemens, are already designing a demonstration 

plant whose components will withstand 

steam temperatures of 720 degrees Celsius. 

While 720 degrees might sound almost refreshing 

compared to the hellish temperatures 

in a gas turbine, the demands placed on high 

and medium-pressure turbines are nevertheless 

enormous. In addition to the heat, there’s 

also the stress of 250 bar of pressure; in E.ON’s 

50plus plant, that will likely increase to 350 

techniques and, above all, new testing methods 

such as X-ray procedures, and ultrasound 

cannot penetrate far enough into the metal. 

The processing of alloys into thick-walled 

forged and cast components also necessitates 

a complicated recalculation of material data 

that takes into account the hot steam atmosphere. 

Such efforts increase costs — and the 

new alloy is also five times more expensive 

than high-quality turbine steel. Designers 

therefore only want to use a nickel-based alloy 

for those components such as rotor cores, 

blades, and internal housings that are truly 

Some components weigh 20 tons but have 

tolerances of a few hundredths of a millimeter. 

| Ceramic Heat Shields 

Custom-made ceramic heat shields (right) are the 

heart of an annular combustion chamber (left). 

Optimized materials for heat shields are tested on 

a specialized rig (bottom right). 

Development of steam turbine technology 

Efficiency 

Steam power plant 

Reduction in 

CO 2 

emissions 

Year 1981 2001 2004 2015 

bar. By comparison, a normal gas turbine is 

subjected to a pressure of only 25 bar or so. 

Engineers building the steam turbine at 

Siemens PG in Mülheim can call upon the material 

expertise of their colleagues from gas turbine 

development, but the processing of the 

materials is extremely difficult. Whereas housings, 

blades and shafts in a gas turbine have a 

filigree design and are formed from thin plates 

and sheets, the forged shafts of a large steam 

turbine can be up to a meter thick, and individual 

components can weigh more than 20 tons. 

What’s more, after being processed, all components 

may not deviate from pre-calculated 

shapes by more than a few hundredths of a 

millimeter. Welded seams 20 centimeters wide 

require the use of completely new welding 

37.5% 42% 47% >50% 

Bergkamen 

steam plant 

Baseline 

(projected to 

500 MW) 

Isogo 1 

steam plant 

-11% 

Development of gas turbine technology 

Reference plant 

in NRW 

50plus steam plant 

(E.ON), 500 MW 

-20.2% -25% 

Year 1992 1996 2001 2010 

Efficiency 

Combined cycle 

52% 56% 58% 60% 

power plant 

Reduction in 

CO 2 

emissions 

Killinghome 

CCPP 

Baseline 

(projected to 

530 MW) 

Didcot 

CCPP 

Mainz-Wiesbaden 

CCPP 

Irsching 4 CCPP 

530 MW 

-7.1% -10.3% -13.3% 

subjected to high stresses. “This requires not 

only new processing techniques for compounds 

of various metals but also new cooling 

concepts,” says Pfitzinger. “However, it should 

be possible to go above 720 degrees Celsius.” 

World’s Largest Turbine Blade. Jörn Bettentrup 

doesn’t have to worry about too much 

heat. A development project manager at 

Siemens PG, Bettentrup designs new running 

blades for the final stage of low-pressure steam 

turbines, which are generally used together 

with high and medium-pressure turbines. 

Steam in the three turbines gradually expands 

and then slackens in the end, cooling down to 

30 degrees Celsius at a pressure of 45 millibar. 

The expansion sharply increases the volume of 

ter turbine can replace two eight-square-meter 

turbines, which saves a lot of money in terms 

of room, bearings and piping. It presents a major 

challenge for developers, however, as associated 

centrifugal forces put huge stresses on 

the blades. At 3,000 revolutions per minute, 

several hundred tons of force act on the blade 

roots and the grooves that join it with the rotor. 

Conventional blade steel is not strong enough 

to withstand this, so engineers need a very 

rigid material that’s light, thereby reducing the 

centrifugal force. They’ve now decided on titanium, 

an expensive metal with a matte finish 

that’s also popular among jewelers. Titanium 

weighs around half as much as normal turbine 

steel, is somewhat stronger, and displays good 

erosion-resistance properties. Titanium’s ability 

to damp oscillations is, however, slightly lower 

than that of steel, which is why titanium blades 

are equipped with special coupling and support 

elements. The structure of this blade system 

is extremely complex. 

Most manufacturers now offer titanium 

blades for the final stages of their low-pressure 

turbines — but none have dared to build one 

as big as Siemens plans to produce. Tests and 

experiments designed to overcome technical 

hurdles still need to be carried out before the 

design is approved. But all operating parameters 

have already been tested for around two 

years using a small model turbine. 

The blade development team’s job is now to 

employ the material in an optimal design at a 

favorable cost, as production of titanium 

blades is more complicated — and therefore 

more expensive — than the process for conventional 

steel blades. Additional costs are 

generated by the high and increasingly volatile 

price of raw materials. Despite this, Bettentrup’s 

calculations show that, “It will definitely 

pay off for our customers.” Bernd Müller 

Precision-Made Protection 

Ceramics protect gas turbines from scorching combustion gases. By developing protective 

materials and production processes, Siemens has gained a competitive advantage. 

At the center of a candle flame, where the 

soot particles glow most brightly, the temperature 

reaches 1,000 to 1,200 degrees Celsius. 

However, for a Siemens Ceramic Heat 

Shield (CHS), the singing heat of a candle’s 

flame would be little more than a cool breeze. 

Such heat shields must be capable of withstanding 

temperatures of 1,500 degrees Celsius. 

That’s the temperature reached in the interior 

of the annular combustion chamber of a 

gas turbine — and therefore, on the hot side of 

the ceramic cladding, which consists of up to 

500 individual CHS tiles. 

On the “cold” reverse side, in contrast, the 

temperature falls to approximately 600 degrees. 

“Therefore, the insulating effect provided by 

this four-centimeter-thick ceramic insulation 

amounts to around 900 degrees,” explains Vassilios 

Papadopoulos, Production Manager CHS 

at Siemens Power Generation (PG) in Berlin. 

“Without this protection, the metal walls of the 

combustion chamber would rapidly melt, and 

the machine would be destroyed instantly.” 

In addition to the heat, the mechanical 

stresses inside a gas turbine combustion chamber 

are also extreme. The gas, rushing by at 

speeds of up to 100 meters per second and resembling 

a category F4 tornado — the second 

strongest — howls through the combustion 

chamber, constantly attacking the ceramic. 

However, a CHS can withstand it all — even 

though its operating conditions are tougher 

than those faced by a space shuttle. “The ceramic 

heat shields of a space shuttle are extensively 

inspected following every launch and 

landing,” says Dr. Holger Grote, materials expert 

and team leader CHS at PG in Mülheim an 

der Ruhr. “In contrast, our machines have to 

undergo many thousands of operating hours 

before their components can be inspected.” 

In-house Production. Over the years, gas turbine 

performance and efficiency has increased 

continuously (p. 50). This has been primarily 

achieved by notching up combustion chamber 

temperatures. As a general rule, the higher the 

temperature, the higher the performance and 

efficiency of the turbine. For the same electrical 

power, less natural gas is required and consequently, 

less carbon dioxide is produced. “Of 

course, as a result, the requirements for the 

heat shield also increase,” says Papadopoulos. 

“Before 2006, we were still purchasing all our 

CHS units from external companies. However, 

our suppliers’ development times were rather 

long. They were not able to keep up with the 

speed of innovation of our gas turbines.” That 

was also one of the results of the “Value Generation 

Program,” launched by PG in 2002. “Back 

then, we compared our own competitiveness 

with that of companies such as General Electric 

and, unlike our competitors, decided to get involved 

in the entire value chain associated with 

the fully ceramic components,” says Grote. 

Plans called for the ceramic heat shields to 

be produced and optimized in-house. To realize 

this aim, Siemens set up a materials testing 

center in Mülheim. “The heart of the facility is 

the special test rigs for thermal and thermomechanical 

characterization of the ceramics. From 

2003 to 2005 we studied a very wide variety of 

different material combinations,” says Grote. 

“We tested how well the ceramic material performed 

at 1,500 degrees Celsius, for example. 

After two years of research, one material 

clearly emerged as the top candidate. It’s more 

robust than the ceramics that were originally 

used, and holds up better under the stresses of 

temperature changes — while also having a 

longer service life. Those are all very attractive 

characteristics for the customer, because a CHS 



Materials for the Environment 

that remains intact longer also doesn’t have to 

be replaced as often, which reduces plant 

maintenance costs.” 

But the CHS wasn’t all that was newly developed. 

The entire production process also was 

revamped. Production at the Berlin facility began 

in March 2006, after a record-setting construction 

period of only 12 months. “We’re using 

a process that’s unique worldwide. It 

includes producing the CHS material from raw 

materials in quantities precise to the gram, processing 

the material using special forming 

equipment, and firing the ceramic heat shields. 

The result is a precision-crafted CHS — with 

maximum variances in length and width of 

four-tenths of a millimeter,” says Papadopoulos. 

“That’s a key advantage because the external 

suppliers use a different process to produce 

their heat shields, which then require reworking 

— and anyone who has ever reworked a ceramic 

knows how much work is involved.” Each 

individual heat shield is painstakingly inspected 

prior to delivery, and a shield that displays even 

the tiniest of fissures, for example, will be rejected. 

“Siemens also created a Total Quality 

Management System for this production line, 

which further improves the availability and 

safety of our gas turbines,” reports Grote. 

Tailored Production. If a CHS displays damage, 

the cause can quickly be found. That’s because 

each heat shield bears a number that 

designates its production process, in addition 

to ensuring the shield’s traceability. Later, each 

individual heat shield is also documented at PG 

in Berlin during “stoning,” which is what specialists 

call the process used to painstakingly fit 

the CHS into the annular combustion chamber. 

The specified clearance between the two is 

about 1.4 millimeters, with a maximum tolerance 

of one-tenth of a millimeter. “Here we 

clearly see the benefits of the high-precision 

production process,” says production chief Papadopoulos. 

But the greatest advantage of the 

new heat shield — innovative CHS geometries 

— is still to come. 

“In contrast to external suppliers, we can 

cast the CHS in an extremely wide variety of 

forms. This means they will be suitable for applications 

not only in the area of the combustion 

chamber but also in other gas turbine 

components,” says Grote. And the material itself 

also will be further improved to meet requirements 

in future generations of power 

generation plants. By the end of this year, the 

ceramic heat shields are to be enhanced with a 

corrosion protection layer, which will also be 

ceramic. As a result, the shields will be even 

more resistant to howling gases and scorching 

temperatures. 

Ulrike Zechbauer 

| World’s Largest Gas Turbine 

Unmatched 

Efficiency 

The world’s largest turbine, with an output of 340 

megawatts, will enter trial service in November 2007. 

In combination with a downstream steam turbine, it 

will help ensure that a new combined cycle power plant 

achieves a record-breaking efficiency of more than 

60 percent when it goes into operation in 2011. 

After assembly at Siemens’ gas turbine plant in 

Berlin (above), the world’s largest gas turbine 

hits the road. Bottom: The turbine arrives on a 

flatbed trailer at its destination. 

Residents of the town of Irsching in Bavaria, 

came out in droves this year to witness the 

traditional raising of their white and blue maypole. 

Three weeks later, they appeared in 

droves again — this time out of concern for the 

pole, as an oversized trailer had shown up carrying 

a new turbine for the town’s power plant. 

The residents were worried that the turbine, 

which measured 13 meters in length, five meters 

in height, and weighed 444 tons, could 

pose a threat to their beloved maypole. This 

was not the case, however; specialists supervising 

the transport were actually more concerned 

about a bridge at the entrance to the 

town, which they renovated as a precautionary 

measure prior to the turbine’s arrival. 

The world’s largest turbine, which was built 

at Siemens’ Power Generation (PG) plant in 

Berlin, traveled 1,500 kilometers to get to 

Irsching — initially by water along the Havel 

river, various canals, the Rhine, and the Main. It 

then went down the Main-Danube Canal to 

Kelheim, where it was loaded onto a truck for 

the final 40 kilometers. This odyssey was undertaken 

because the only way to truly test 

such a large and powerful turbine is to put it 

into operation at a power plant. “It was a nice 

coincidence that the energy company E.ON 

was planning to expand the power station in 

Irsching,” says Hans-Otto Rohwer, PG project 

manager in Irsching. 

Siemens will now build a combined cycle 

plant at the Bavarian facility (Block 5) for E.ON 

Kraftwerke GmbH. Scheduled for completion in 

2009, the plant will house two small gas turbines 

and a steam turbine. Siemens will also 

build the plant’s new Block 4, where the giant 

turbine will be installed. The new turbine’s output 

of 340 megawatts, which equals that of 13 

jumbo jet engines, is enough to supply power 

to the population of a city the size of Hamburg. 

“Block 4 is our project at the moment,” says 

Rohwer. Siemens will use the existing infrastructure 

here, purchase gas from E.ON- 

Ruhrgas, and sell the electricity it produces at 

the plant. That’s not that important now, however, 

as the turbine first needs to be tested over 

the next 18 months. To this end, the unit has 

been equipped with 3,000 sensors that measure 

just about everything modern technology 

can register — from temperature and pressure 

to mechanical stress and material strain. If a 

component is defective, or fails, computers 

linked to the sensors call attention to the problem 

immediately. The component will then be 

removed, replaced, or reworked. 

Most of the measuring technology is hidden; 

the thing that stands out at the facility is a 

section of 21 office trailers housing the measurement 

stations. The trailers look tiny next to 

the turbine hall, which is 30 meters high. Despite 

its massive size, the new facility’s metal 

facade makes it seem light and modern compared 

to the plant’s three old concrete towers 

from the 1960s and ’70s, each of which is 200 

meters high. “The hall is still a long way from 

finished,” says Rohwer, as he points to a big 

hole in the floor between the turbine and generator. 

“This is where we’re going to install the 

oil systems to keep all movable parts of the 

shaft assembly lubricated. This is also where 

most of the smokestack, nearly all the electrical 

equipment, and the gas tanks will be located.” 

Efficiency Record. Rohwer points to an opening 

in one of the walls and explains that it is 

the connection to the air intake unit, which will 

draw in fresh air from the outside. Equipped 

with a special housing, filters, and sound absorbers, 

the unit will channel in 800 kilograms 

of air per second when the facility operates at 

full capacity — an amount that would exhaust 

the air inside the hall in just a few minutes. But 

it will be worth the effort because the gas turbine 

and a downstream steam turbine will set a 

new world record with an efficiency rating of 

over 60 percent, two percentage points higher 

than the previous titleholder, the Mainz-Wiesbaden 

power plant. Relatively speaking, therefore, 

less fuel will be burned and 40,000 tons 

less carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) per year will be emitted 

into the atmosphere than would be the 

case with the Mainz-Wiesbaden plant. And 

compared to the average coal-fired plant, 

which has an efficiency of 42 percent, the new 

facility in Irsching will emit around 2.3 million 

tons less CO 2 per year, while producing the 

same amount of electricity. 

There will still be plenty of work to do even 

after the plant has been built, as technicians 

will have to test all systems to ensure that the 



Materials for the Environment | World’s Largest Gas Turbine 

Weighing in at 444 tons, the world’s largest turbine is carefully positioned. 

gas lines are pressure-tight, electrical cables are 

properly secured, and all valves open and close 

quickly and reliably. It’s like a final check before 

a space mission — and the countdown is now 

under way, with ignition scheduled for mid- 

December, 2007. 

There’s good reason for Siemens’ decision 

to use one giant turbine rather than the two 

smaller ones E.ON will put into operation next 

door. “The price per megawatt (MW) of output 

and efficiency correlate with the size of the turbine 

— in other words, the bigger it is, the 

more economical it will be,” explains Willibald 

Fischer, who is responsible for development of 

the 8000H turbine family. “In 1990, the largest 

gas turbine produced 150 MW, and, in conjunction 

with a 75-MW steam turbine, had an 

efficiency of 52 percent. Our gas turbine has 

an output of 340 MW. In combination with a 

190-MW steam turbine it utilizes more than 60 

percent of the energy content of the gas fuel.” 

Engineers at PG overcame two challenges 

while designing the turbine. They increased 

the amount of air and combustion gases that 

flow through the turbine each second, which 

causes output to rise more than the losses in 

the turbine, and they raised the temperature of 

the combustion gases, which increases efficiency. 

“It’s tricky when you send gas heated to 

1,200 to 1,500 degrees Celsius across metal 

turbine blades,” says Fischer. “That’s because 

the highest temperature the blade surfaces are 

allowed to be exposed to is 950 degrees, at 

which point they begin to glow red. If it gets 

any hotter, the material begins to lose its stability 

and oxidizes.” 

Ceramic Coating. Siemens engineers have 

been creative in tackling this problem. One 

thing they did was lower the heat transfer from 

the combustion gas to the metal by applying a 

protective thermal coating consisting of two 

layers: a 300-micrometer-thick undercoating 

directly on the metal and a thin ceramic layer 

on top of that, which provides heat insulation 

(see p. 50). The blades are also actively cooled, 

as they are hollow inside and are exposed to 

cool airflows generated by the compressor. The 

blades at the very front (the hottest part of the 

grain boundaries between the crystallites in 

the alloy that can rupture. 

Engineers also optimized the shape of the 

blades with the help of 3D simulation programs, 

whereby the edges were designed to 

keep the gap between the blades and the turbine 

wall as small as possible. As a result, practically 

all the gas passes across the blades and 

is utilized. The blade-wall gap is made even 

smaller due to the turbine’s operation in a 

cone. This means that the shaft can be shifted 

several millimeters during operation until the 

The turbine can produce enough electricity to 

supply a city the size of Hamburg. 

turbine) also have fine holes, from which air is 

released that then flows across the blades, covering 

them with a thin insulating film, like a 

protective shield. 

As turbine blades spin, massive centrifugal 

forces come into play. The end of each blade is 

exposed to a maximum force of 10,000 times 

the earth’s gravitational pull, which is the 

equivalent of each cubic centimeter of such a 

blade weighing as much as an adult human being. 

The blades are made of a nickel alloy. These 

used to be cast and then left to harden. Later, 

crystallites were made to grow in the same direction 

as the centrifugal forces. But now the 

blades on the giant turbine in Irsching contain 

alloys that have mostly been grown as single 

crystals through the utilization of special cooling 

processes. They are therefore extremely resistant 

to breaking, as there are no longer any 

blades nearly touch the housing — a practice 

known as “hydraulic gap optimization.” 

Trial Run. Each off the measures mentioned 

above produces only a fractional increase in efficiency 

or output. But taken together they add 

up to a new record. Whether or not everything 

works as planned will be revealed by the 18- 

month trial period that will begin in November 

2007. If preliminary test results are satisfactory, 

engineers will sign off on the new megaturbine 

in August 2008, allowing Siemens to 

begin marketing it. 

After successful completion of all tests in 

mid-2009, things will quiet down in Irsching. 

The turbine will then be overhauled and disassembled, 

and all of its components will be thoroughly 

examined. If everything is found to be 

in order, the unit will be reassembled minus its 

specialized measuring equipment. 

During the overhaul, engineers will install 

an additional steam turbine on the shaft at the 

end of the generator. The turbine will make use 

of the generator’s 600-degrees-Celsius gas to 

generate steam in a heat exchanger. Only 

through this combined cycle process can the 

energy in the gas be so effectively exploited as 

to achieve the record efficiency of 60 percent. 

Conventional gas turbine power plants are 

generally pure peak-load facilities that can be 

turned on very quickly. But the Irsching plant is 

simply too good for that. “If the gas turbine 

proves itself during the trial period, we’ll assume 

control of the plant in 2011,” says Alfred 

Beck from E.ON Kraftwerke GmbH. “It’s high efficiency 

will make it profitable for use in 

medium load operations, despite slightly 

higher gas prices.” 

The facility will then generate electricity for 

between 3,000 and 7,000 hours each year, and 

will definitely be a superlative power plant. 

Bernhard Gerl 

| Purging Hazardous Materials — Recycling 

Circuit boards look like miniature models of 

big cities. The gray conductor paths could 

be streets and the tower-shaped capacitors skyscrapers. 

The color of the board’s surface is 

green. “But until now, circuit boards were green 

only in terms of their surface color,” says Dr. Peter 

Demmer from Siemens Corporate Technology 

(CT). Things are changing, though, as 

Siemens researchers strive to make the boards 

green in the figurative environmental sense as 

well. It’s an important issue, as circuit boards 

can be found in virtually every product containing 

electronic components. The boards run coffee 

machines, computer tomographs, electric 

motors, and entire power plants. 

Lead — a toxic heavy metal frequently found 

in solders — is a substance Siemens has always 

tried to avoid using. In fact, the company has 

been more restrictive here than required by legislation. 

In the summer of 2006, lead was 

banned from use in many electrical and electronic 

devices by the European Union. “Over the 

Lead-free solders join the most diverse 

components to circuit boards (top). The entire 

soldering process (pastes included) is optimized 

at Siemens’ lab in Berlin (bottom). 

Circuit Boards Go Green 

long term, we also want to replace flame retardants 

that contain bromine, even though 

there’s still no legislation on that,” says Demmer, 

who manages the “Green Circuit Boards” 

project at CT. Bromine compounds are dangerous, 

as they can release carcinogens in the 

event of a fire. 

That’s why some of Siemens’ green circuit 

boards already contain organophosphorous 

compounds, which at the moment are considered 

less harmful. Flame retardants prevent the 

spread of smoldering fires, such as those 

caused by short circuits. 

An excellent example of active environmental 

protection is the “Green PC” from Fujitsu 

Siemens Computers (FSC). All internally produced 

or exclusively commissioned components 

in this computer are free of both lead and 

bromine, according to Hans-Georg Riegler-Rittner, 

head of Environmental Protection and 

Quality Management at FSC in Augsburg, Ger- 

Siemens researchers are making electronic components 

more environmentally friendly. They’re eliminating 

lead from soldering pastes and bromine-based 

flame retardants from some printed circuit boards. 

Fujitsu Siemens Computers is already selling PCs 

containing “green” circuit boards worldwide. 

many. “The only components in the Green PC 

that might contain brominated flame retardants 

are the hard drives or the LAN or modem sticks 

purchased from outside,” Riegler-Rittner explains. 

Green PCs from FSC also consume very 

little energy. Under ideal conditions, they require 

no more power than it takes to light a 60- 

watt bulb — and the computers are easy to recycle. 

Big Hit in Scandinavia. “Environmentally 

friendly computers don’t cost our key account 

customers any more than conventional PCs,” 

says Riegler-Rittner. While the Green PCs are 

slightly more expensive to produce, they are 

only used commercially, which means the additional 

cost can be recouped in delivery logistics 

systems. “We no longer pack each PC individually 

for our major customers; instead, we deliver 

a complete package containing hundreds of 

computers,” Riegler-Rittner explains. 

The environmentally friendly PCs, which are 

shipped all over the world, are an especially big 

hit in Scandinavia, not least due to the fact that 

the new Nordic Swan environmental certificate 

requires adherence to very strict standards — 

and the Green PCs are currently the only computers 

to have received such certification. 

FSC sold more than 1.3 million Green PCs 

worldwide last year — even though private customers 

are still unable to purchase them. “Our 

normal PCs can compete at retail prices because 

many elements are bought in from the outside. 

But unfortunately, those components still contain 

bromine,” Riegler-Rittner explains 

Materials issues are also the focus of work 

conducted by Dr. Klaus Peter Galuschki. For 

years, Galuschki and his team at Siemens CT in 

Berlin have been assessing the quality of leadfree 

soldered circuit boards and optimizing the 

processes for manufacturing them. “Characteristics 

such as lifespan, stability, and electrical 



Materials for the Environment | Recycling 

| Renewable Materials 

properties should not be negatively affected by 

the change-over to lead-free solders,” says 

Galuschki. The problem is that practically no 

historical data exists on the performance of 

new solders, most of which are alloys made of 

tin, silver, and copper. Soldering with lead, on 

the other hand, is a procedure with a long tradition 

— and up until just a few years ago, all 

manufacturing processes for electronic equipment 

were designed for it. 

“A major problem with the conversion from 

lead was the high melting temperatures of the 

new solders, which many common electronic 

components were unable to withstand,” explains 

Galuschki. The lead-free soldering materials 

don’t melt until approximately 220 degrees 

Celsius, around 40 degrees higher than the 

melting point of conventional tin-lead solders. 

The advent of more heat-resistant components 

made the conversion possible. 

Stable Compounds. The materials used in soldering 

pastes were also reviewed, as state-ofthe-art 

soldering today no longer involves soldering 

irons and wire. “We buy soldering paste 

and press it through a molding tool onto circuit 

boards,” says Galuschki. The pastes contain micrometer-sized 

globules of the selected metal 

alloy, fluxing agents that prevent the soldering 

point from oxidizing, and thixotropy agents — 

substances that make the mixture sticky, ensuring 

that the globules adhere to the boards. 

Once the paste has been applied, a SIPLACE 

machine places components on the board surfaces. 

After that, the boards proceed through 

an oven, where the component contacts and 

soldering material melt together. “The key here 

is sophisticated temperature regulation to ensure 

that the solvents in the soldering paste are 

vaporized before the soldering material melts,” 

says Galuschki. Without such vaporization, troublesome 

gas bubbles could develop in the contacts. 

Researchers carry out hardness tests and 

employ powerful microscopes to identify such 

errors, using the resulting knowledge to further 

optimize the production process. 

Although Siemens converted to lead-free 

soldering pastes several months before the EU 

ban in 2006, Galuschki and his team still face 

constant challenges. “We are continually adapting 

the processes,” he says. “One reason why 

we have to do so is miniaturization. We have to 

keep packing more functions into small boards.” 

More functions mean more tiny components 

that heat up quickly in the soldering oven. As a 

result, you either have to make such components 

more heat resistant or alter the temperature 

regulation accordingly. 

Circuit boards are set to become even 

greener in the future, and in some cases will 

even be produced using renewable raw materials 

such as sugar cane or waste from the paper 

industry or biodiesel manufacturing processes. 

“Truly green circuit boards are really yellow,” 

says Galuschki, as he points to a prototype 

made of a light-colored bioplastic. Although 

mass production of the yellow “green” circuit 

boards is still a long way off, the first samples 

from the lab have already landed on Galuschki’s 

test stand. 

Andrea Hoferichter 

IT Reutilization and Recycling 

7.0 % 

Packaging 

11.7% 

Plastics 

6.4 % Glass 

(cathode ray 

tubes) 

5.5 % 

Concrete 

(safes) 

2.1 % 

Other 

11.5% Non-ferrous metals 

(copper, aluminum etc.) 

0.6 % 

Plastics 

2.7 % Mixed 

packaging 

42.1% Ferrous metals 

1.1 % 

Hazardous 

waste 

Non-recyclable 

Thermally recyclable 

Recyclable materials 

Reusable 

1.4 % 

Safes 

7.9 % 

Component 

groups 

Figures represent percentage of weight 

Just under 99 percent of all the old IT equipment Fujitsu Siemens Computers accepts for 

disposal — including PCs and cash register systems — can be recycled or directly reused. 

Source: Fujitsu Siemens Computers, 2007 

Plastics: 

Plastics produced by 

bacteria will make 

many electronic products 

more environmentally 

friendly in the future. 

Scientists are studying 

the properties of these 

polymers and identifying 

possible applications 

for them. 

Life is good. Take Paracoccus denitrificans, 

for instance. This round, purple, singlecelled 

organism has an unharried existence 

that consists of breaking down organic residue 

in wastewater or soil. But in times of stress, 

when key trace elements required for cell division 

become scarce, it can respond by stockpiling 

reserves made of plastic. It does so by converting 

excess carbohydrates into fatty acids, 

which it joins together into long molecules, ultimately 

creating polyhydroxybutyric acid 

(PHB), which collects in bacterial cells as small, 

hard globules. PHB is a polymer similar to the 

solid plastic polypropylene that is used in many 

areas, ranging from food packaging to textiles. 

PHB, which is produced by many types of 

bacteria and is biodegradable, is a coveted raw 

material. That’s why materials researchers from 

Siemens Corporate Technology (CT) and BASF 

AG are also interested in it. The two organizations 

are working together with other partners 

in the “BioFun” and “BioPro” projects funded by 

the German Ministry of Food, Agriculture and 

Consumer Protection. Their goal is to develop 

high-quality plastics from renewable raw materials 

and identify the most promising possibilities 

for their application. 

Up until now, bioplastics have been used 

mainly in packaging and non-durable products 

such as disposable dishes, as many of these 

plastics are biodegradable. A major boom in 

demand for such materials began in 2006, according 

to the European Bioplastics Association. 

This rising popularity was brought about 

by greater environmental awareness on the 

part of consumers, a growing interest in sustainable 

development among companies, and 

higher raw material and energy prices. The Association 

believes bioplastics have the potential 

A Growing Field 

PHB 

Bacteria (red) produce PHB, a polymer similar to 

solid plastic, which they stockpile as food. 

to account for five to ten percent of the plastics 

market in the near future; at the moment, they 

account for only around one-tenth of a percent. 

Biodegradable PHB granules (front) can be used to 

produce a housing (left) and a circuit board (right). 

Limitless Quantities. The key benefit offered 

by “eco-plastics” is that their production requires 

practically no fossil fuels. Moreover, 

their disposal releases only about the same 

amount of CO 2 absorbed by the plants that are 

consumed by the bacteria that produce the 

plastics in the first place. Bioplastics are also interesting 

from an economic perspective because 

the base products for their production — 

sugar and starch — are available in virtually 

limitless quantities. In addition, high oil prices 

have significantly narrowed the price gap between 

bioplastics and petrochemical plastics. 

For years, Japanese electronics companies in 

particular have been attempting to manufacture 

durable products made of bioplastics. 

Sony, for example, has marketed a Walkman 

with a housing made of polylactic acid (a 

biopolymer), and NEC and Motorola have used 

the same material for cell phone casings. 

Such bioplastic products remain the exception 

to the rule, however, in part because polylactic 

acid turns soft at temperatures above 50 

degrees Celsius, at which point it begins to deform. 

“PHB, on the other hand, has some decisive 

advantages when it comes to demanding 

applications,” says Reinhard Kleinert, general 

project manager at Siemens CT in Berlin. For 

one thing, PHB can withstand temperatures of 

up to 120 degrees Celsius, and the material can 

also be processed with the same machines 

used for conventional polypropylenes. 

The BioFun project focuses on electronic 

products, whereby the most important aspects 

involve mechanical properties such as flexibility, 

resistance to impact, and the adhesion of 

the surface. “As an electronics manufacturer, 

we know exactly what these materials need to 

be capable of,” Kleinert explains. “Our involvement 

in BioFun enables us to ensure at an early 

stage that the new materials being developed 

have the right properties.” Raw materials specific 

to certain regions can be used. For instance, 

P. denitrificans cultures bred in tanks at 

the SIAB research institute in Leipzig are being 

fed glycerin, a wax-like liquid by-product of 

rapeseed oil-to-biodiesel manufacturing. In Europe 

alone, it is expected that by 2010, 

300,000 tons more glycerin will be produced 

than the global cosmetic, luxury foods and 

pharmaceutical industries can use. If BioFun researchers 

have their way, the excess glycerin 

will be used to make plastics. 

Firm and Elastic. Before such plastics can be 

manufactured in quantity, their production 

processes, which include everything from 

cleaning raw glycerin and fermentation in a 

bioreactor to extraction of PHB from bacterial 

cells, will have to be simplified. “Up until now, a 

lot of energy has been required for these 

steps,” comments environmental engineer Cornelia 

Petermann from Siemens CT, whose job is 

to draw up ecological balance sheets that take 

into account the energy consumed during production 

and the environmental compatibility of 

additives. Petermann believes a great deal of 

energy can be saved through material and 

heat recycling. 

Chemists are also working on an optimal 

composition for such plastics. The demands 

placed on electronic products mean that associated 

PHB mixtures need to be thoroughly examined. 

For instance, researchers at Siemens 

CT are examining how long different PHB variants 

remain firm and elastic, and whether or 

not protective coatings or special additives prevent 

them from decomposing in hot-humid environments 

— a problem shared by all polyesters. 

BioFun researchers have now succeeded 

in improving PHB’s elasticity by mixing it with a 

biodegradable, petroleum- based plastic produced 

by BASF. 

Scientists are also examining the extent to 

which PHB may be suitable for use with mechatronic 

systems, since PHB surfaces could be 

metalized, in which case they could perform 

the functions carried out by normal conductor 

paths. “You could then mount electronic components 

directly on the PHB housing’s metal 

coating,” says Kleinert. This would eliminate 

the need for conventional circuit boards, thus 

conserving space and materials. Naturally, one 

of the most important criteria here is price. 

“For our plastics to have a chance on the market, 

they can’t be any more expensive than established 

products,” Kleinert explains. “They 

also have to be of equal or better quality.” 

While researching his Master thesis at 

Siemens Medical Solutions, environmental engineer 

Stefan König discovered that fibers 

made from renewable raw materials could be 

used to reinforce conventional plastics, as natural 

fibers significantly improve the latter’s mechanical 

properties. Moreover, tests with plastics 

containing a portion of renewable raw 

materials revealed that they were able to meet 

the most stringent demands for flame resistance, 

such as those required for paneling components 

in large medical devices. “The ideal situation 

would be to reinforce biopolymers with 

natural fibers,” says König. “There are already 

such reinforced materials today that contain 

only a few petrochemical raw materials.” Obviously, 

the results of the BioFun project are set 

to produce exciting developments for years to 

come. 

Ute Kehse 



Materials for the Environment | Wind Turbines 

Finished blades await shipment (below), 

while new ones are already in the making (right). 

Here, huge molds are being removed (center) 

from raw blades (left). 

for 20 years.” To achieve this, the rotor blades 

— despite their huge size and strength — must 

have an optimal aerodynamic shape right 

down to the smallest angle and, most crucially, 

they must be very robust. This is because many 

of them are destined for offshore wind farms, 

where repair and replacement costs are extremely 

high. “The cost to the manufacturer of 

carrying out a repair on the open sea is around 

ten times as high as that for an onshore installation,” 

says Burchardt. “On the large turbines 

an everyday wind speed of 10 meters per second 

forces 100 tons of air through the rotor 

every second. That requires a robust blade!” 

Extreme quality requirements such as these 

have caused many manufacturers to pull out of 

the offshore sector. In the meantime, Siemens 

has not only become the most experienced, 

but also the largest supplier of offshore wind 

turbines. 

Blade Baking. In the Aalborg facility’s production 

hall, which is some 250 meters in length, 

there are huge blade-shaped molds like cake 

pans, stretching out along the floor and even 

hanging upside down from the ceiling. There’s 

not a hint of chemical smell and most workers 

In a patented process, wind mill blades are 

baked as a single piece — without any seams. 

woven carpet but feels like plastic. “Fiberglass,” 

explains Burchardt, “and once it has been injected 

with epoxy resin it turns into a fiber-reinforced 

plastic composite. Unlike products from 

rival manufacturers, our rotor blades don’t contain 

any polyvinyl chloride, which has been associated 

with dioxin. This means they’re not a 

problem to dispose of at the end of their 20 

year service life, because they are primarily 

made of recyclable fiberglass.” 

How can such a length of fabric give a rotor 

blade its enormous strength? “The mold is initially 

lined with many layers of fiberglass. In fact 

there are seven metric tons of this material in a 

45-meter blade, and 12 tons in a 52-meter 

blade. To enhance stiffness, a layer of wood is 

placed between the fiberglass layers,” says Burchardt. 

He indicates the different layers of fiberglass 

and the wooden mat carefully embedded 

in the midst of the multilayered structure. “The 

other side of the blade is made up of the same 

ingredients and then joined with its mate. But 

and prevent the blade from collapsing during 

production. “With this method it only takes 48 

hours from the first step to a completed blade, 

instead of several days,” says Burchardt with evident 

pride. “That’s one day to place all the 

fiberglass, and another to inject and bake. After 

that the blade is adjusted and painted white — 

it’s a mixture of high-tech and skilled handicraft.” 

Once completed, the rotor blades are delivered 

by truck or ship to customers worldwide, 

including destinations as far away as the U.S. 

and Japan. 

Good Vibrations. Before delivery, samples of 

the rotor blades have to go through a variety of 

static and dynamic tests. First of all, they are 

subjected to 1.3 times the maximum operating 

load. To simulate 20 years of material fatigue, 

the blades are then mounted on special test 

beds and made to vibrate around two million 

times, before the endurance of the material is 

again tested with a final static test. 

Catching the Wind 

Siemens Wind Power is more than just the global market leader for offshore wind 

turbines. In Denmark, in a unique, one-shot process, the company produces rotor 

blades that are up to 52 meters in length. It also manufactures the world’s largest 

serially-produced wind turbine, which has an output of 3.6 megawatts. 

Low black clouds and bone-chilling wind are 

blowing in over the whitecaps on the North 

Sea. By most people’s standards this is anything 

but great weather. But for Claus Burchardt, 

head of blades research and development 

at Siemens Power Generation’s (PG) Wind 

Power division, nothing could be better. “For 

us, good weather means a stiff wind,” he says. 

“Without that, we would be struggling to find 

customers.” 

Rather than standing at the beach, Burchardt 

is sitting in a small office on the outskirts 

of Aalborg, Denmark’s third largest city. 

Together with 3,200 fellow employees of 

Siemens Wind Power, Burchardt builds huge 

wind power plants, each of which can generate 

enough electricity to boil a bath full of ice-cold 

water within 30 seconds. In fact, the individual 

components of such a wind turbine are so large 

that, for logistical reasons, some are built far 

from Denmark. One such location is Fort Madison, 

Iowa, where a new rotor blade factory 

opened in September, 2007. Local infrastructure 

also plays an important role in choosing 

locations. Thus, Aalborg, for example, was selected 

because of its proximity to a harbor with 

quays capable of handling rotor blades, some 

of which are over 50 meters in length. 

“The big challenge in Aalborg,” says Burchardt, 

“is to ensure that all of the rotor blades 

we produce, some of which weigh 16 metric 

tons, are manufactured to such a high level of 

precision that they perform exactly as required 

without any need to upgrade or adjust them 

don’t have to wear special protective clothing. 

“A few years ago we developed a method of 

manufacturing the blades as a single, all-in-one 

piece,” says Burchardt. “Using this integral blade 

process — or one-shot technique, as we also 

call it — we’ve been able to do away with adhesives. 

As a result, the workforce is not exposed 

to toxic vapors. At the same time there are no 

individual components to clutter up the hall, 

and we end up with a rotor blade that is produced 

in a single casting and therefore without 

any seams whatsoever, which makes it considerably 

stronger than other blades.” 

At the far end of the hall, Burchardt halts at 

one of the blade molds, which an employee is 

lining with what look like lengths of white fabric. 

The material has the appearance of a finely 

instead of fixing the two sides together with an 

adhesive, we fill the interior with bags of air and 

then inject several tons of liquid epoxy resin inside, 

which finds a smooth course between the 

pockets and the fiberglass and thus evenly joins 

the two sides of the blade. Finally, we bake the 

whole thing for eight hours at a temperature of 

70 degrees Celsius.” 

As Burchardt speaks, a mold is lowered from 

the ceiling and seamlessly encloses the two 

sides of a blade. It is only now that the shape of 

the huge units on the backs of the molds becomes 

evident. In their closed state, the molds 

act as a huge cake pan with an integrated oven, 

and once the epoxy resin has been injected, 

they are heated to bake the blade into a solid 

whole. The bags inside the blade defy the heat 

In Brande, a town of 6,000 inhabitants located 

some 150 kilometers south of Aalborg, 

2,000 Siemens employees manufacture the 

heart of every wind power plant: its turbines’ 

nacelles (housing). During a trip through the 

Danish countryside, past its fields and farms 

and some of the country’s 3,500 wind turbines, 

I ask why the biggest manufacturers of wind 

power plants are in Denmark. 

“There are historical reasons,” says Henrik 

Stiesdal, Chief Technology Officer at Siemens in 

Brande. “It all began with the energy crisis of 

1973/1974. In a move to reduce its dependence 

on oil, Denmark looked at the possibility of 

building nuclear power plants. In response, 

talented engineers designed the first wind turbines. 

In the mid-1980s, a number of countries 



Materials for the Environment | Wind Turbines 

Before installation at sea (bottom), Henrik Stiesdal 

(right) makes sure that everything is perfect — 

including turbine assembly (center), and 

a final endurance test (left). 

| Lighting 

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are as small as 

motes of dust — but they’re giants when it 

comes to environmental friendliness. Not only 

do white LEDs require only one-fifth the power 

used by traditional light bulbs; but they last 

about 50 times longer. What’s more, unlike 

conventional energy-saving lamps, they are 

mercury-free. In fact, the white LED success 

story has been in the making for years (Pictures 

of the Future, Spring 2007, p. 34). 

Offering 1,000 lumens, which is brighter 

than a 50-watt halogen lamp, the star in the 

Another important factor when it comes to 

producing efficient LEDs involves the yellow 

and orange-red colorants that are applied to 

the original light source in layers in order to 

transform the LED chips’ blue light into white. 

Osram researcher Dr. Martin Zachau is an expert 

in this field. He and his team use colorant 

grain size to control the dispersion properties 

of the particles, which allows them to vary 

emitted light. Efficiency is optimized via chemical 

composition. The stability of the phosphor 

is increased by means of a protective coating. 

introduced tax incentives for wind power, making 

it a lucrative business. As the only country 

with the know-how to build fully functional 

wind turbines, Denmark experienced a boom 

that has continued to this day.” 

Although it’s good weather outside — in 

the Danish sense — Stiesdal is evidently content 

to remain in his cosy office. From a drawer 

he produces a chronology of wind power 

technology and places it on his desk. “The first 

wind turbines we built in the early ‘80s had an 

output of only 22 kilowatts. Since then output 

has doubled around once every four years. 

At 2.3 and 3.6 megawatts, our modern plants 

produce more than a hundred times as much 

power. At least for now, the smaller plants 

still account for around 80 percent of our 

business.” 

Stiesdal points to a large map of Europe. 

“We just completed installation of the Burbo 

Windfarm — our first offshore facility based on 

the new 3.6-megawatt turbine. The farm is located 

off Liverpool in the UK and has a total 

output of 90 megawatts. We needed just one 

and a half months to do the job. By the end of 

shore wind farm, off the southern coast of Lolland, 

generates enough energy to supply my 

home town of Odense and its 185,000 inhabitants, 

including households, industry, street 

lighting and everything,” he says, before entering 

a giant hall where turbines are produced. 

500-ton Giants. Here, massive metal nacelles, 

each containing a 2.3-megawatt machine, are 

lined up. We approach one of the rounded 

structures, whose top is folded up at either 

side, offering a view of the interior. “We’re 

standing at the front of the drive shaft. That’s 

where the rotor and its three blades will be 

mounted from the outside. For an offshore turbine 

this is a job that takes place on the open 

sea. The towers are assembled on land. A specially 

designed ship, complete with crane, is 

used to transport them along with the nacelles 

and rotor blades to an offshore site. It then takes 

less than half a day to install a single turbine 

weighing 500 tons. Once the rotor begins turning, 

its motion is transmitted via the drive shaft 

to the gear unit. This, in turn, transfers the 

torque, which varies depending on wind 

The first wind turbines produced 22 kilowatts — 

that’s less than one hundredth of today’s output. 

2007, the facility will be supplying over 80,000 

households. Next year we have another project 

with 54 turbines for what will be the world’s 

largest offshore wind farm, on the east coast of 

England. And as the only company able to supply 

wind turbines of this size, we have already 

received other orders for our flagship product.” 

Stiesdal’s eyes shine with enthusiasm. “This 

year we will be building wind turbines with a 

total output of 1,500 megawatts. That’s 

enough to produce four billion kilowatt-hours a 

year — around 12 percent of Denmark’s electricity 

requirements. Our 165 MW Nysted offstrength, 

to the generator. The result is electrical 

energy.” 

Stiesdal, a hobby sailor, points out that a system 

of this order of magnitude requires much 

more than just mechanical parts. “Today a 2.3- 

megawatt turbine like this contains many levels 

of processors and electronics. It might look simple 

and easy to understand, but the closer you 

look at it, the more complicated it becomes.” 

This applies all the more so to the top-of-therange, 

3.6-megawatt turbine. On our way to inspect 

this giant, we cross the storage area. As if 

in a child’s toy box, all the components for the 

wind turbines are neatly stacked, awaiting installation. 

On the left are the huge steel nose 

caps, which will later adorn the turbine housing, 

in the middle the machine nacelles, and on 

the right the gigantic rotor hubs, each of which 

weighs around 35 tons. The blades from Aalborg 

are delivered straight to the site of installation. 

The various components for the towers, 

which are up to 120 meters in height, come 

from external suppliers in Denmark, Germany, 

the U.S. and Korea, depending on the wind 

farm’s location. 

Once in the hall, the white nacelle of the 

3.6-megawatt turbine is unmistakable. Unlike 

its smaller relative, it is angular in shape. Measuring 

some 13 meters in length, four meters in 

width, and four meters in height, it is also bigger. 

The innards of the turbine are reached via a 

ladder. Various systems are spread over two stories, 

as if it were a small house. “Everything’s 

bigger in this turbine,” says Stiesdal with typical 

understatement. “But we’re already working on 

even bigger ones. In fact, before long the rotor 

blades on our turbines may be longer than 60 

meters.” 


Long lasting luminosity. The Dulux EL 

LongLife (above) is a compact fluorescent 

lamp with a rated life of 15,000 hours. Below: 

Materials for LEDs being tested in a fluorescent 

light library. Bottom: The Ostar Lighting 

white LED shines brighter than a 50-watt 

halogen lamp. 

Light-Emitting 

Developments 

Cutting energy consumption, banishing pollutants, 

and boosting lamp service life — that’s the mission 

of Osram’s lamp developers. Just around the corner: 

Bright, white LEDs with a service life of 90,000 hours. 

LED firmament is undoubtedly “Ostar Lighting.” 

With its efficiency of about 70 lumens per watt, 

it literally relegates incandescent bulbs (15 

lm/W) to the shadows. The lamp contains six 

high-efficiency LED chips, each measuring one 

square millimeter. “With Ostar, we have created 

a very large illuminated area,” says project 

leader Dr. Steffen Köhler from Osram Opto 

Semiconductors in Regensburg, Germany, a 

subsidiary of Osram, a Siemens company. In 

contrast to the trend toward miniaturization in 

the electronics industry, LEDs for general lighting 

should be as big as possible, so that they 

can supply large amounts of light. 

Achieving this goal is anything but an easy 

matter, though. It’s important to bear in mind 

that LEDs are a combination of differently 

doped semiconductor crystals. In other words, 

dopant atoms have been introduced to the 

crystal lattices, which have to be pure and regularly 

structured at the atomic level. The larger 

the crystals are, however, the higher is the 

probability that impurities and irregularities 

will occur. And the greater the number of impurities, 

the less efficient the conversion of 

electrical energy into light. Nevertheless, Köhler 

is confident that even more efficient and 

bigger chips can be produced. “We know that 

2,000 lumens is a feasible goal,“ he says. 

Nevertheless, LEDs still do not accurately reproduce 

natural colors. That’s because, unlike 

sunlight or light from incandescent bulbs, they 

produce only blue and yellow wavelengths. 

With this in mind, Zachau’s team has come up 

with a new system that will transform parts of 

the blue LED light not only into yellow, but also 

into green and red light. “As a result, the LED 

spectrum will be complete — like sunlight — 

and colors will be superbly reproduced,” 

Zachau explains. 

To accelerate phosphor development, Dr. 

Ute Liepold of Siemens Corporate Technology 

in Munich relies on combinatorial chemistry 

(Pictures of the Future, Spring 2003, p. 26). To 

that end, Liepold uses a perforated metal sheet 

about the size of a postcard. The sheet holds as 

many as 96 crucibles containing mixtures of 

powders, which create new phosphors when 

heated in an oven. A computer-controlled manipulator 

is then used to weigh out the starting 

materials and position the pans on a sample 

carrier. The advantage of this method is that 

several hundred samples can be produced in a 

single day. “But organizing and evaluating all 

the data is quite a challenge,” says Liepold. The 

objective of the screenings is to test as many 

compositions as possible in the shortest period 

of time. 




| Analytical Chemistry 

Mercury-Free Lamps. A small amount of 

mercury, which turns into a gas at a lamp’s operating 

temperature, is usually added in xenon 

automobile headlights. Thanks to their larger 

size, mercury atoms are more easily hit by electrons 

in the plasma of these gas-discharge 

lamps. Because they emit light that is close to 

the visible spectrum, the loss occurring during 

conversion into white light is very low. Mercury 

also serves as a chemical and thermal buffer, 

preventing unwanted oxidation processes and 

helping to dissipate heat. But mercury is also 

poisonous and can accumulate in the environment. 

An EU regulation therefore specifies that 

it should be avoided whenever possible in the 

automotive sector, which is why researchers 

are looking for alternatives. 

Just over a year ago, Osram launched the 

“Xenarc Hg-free lamp,” which replaces mercury 

with zinc iodide, a harmless gas. “The product’s 

development was difficult,” says Christian Wittig, 

head of Marketing for Xenarc Systems. “We 

had to adapt the entire electronic and optical 

environment to the new technology.” For example, 

the higher currents in this xenon lamp 

subject the components and electronics to 

greater stress, so Osram had to use thicker 

electrodes and thicker fused quartz glass. “Production 

is a bit more complicated, but it’s a step 

forward for the environment,” says Wittig. 

Automakers including Audi, Ford, and Toyota 

already use the new lamps. 

Abare and windowless corridor leads past a 

succession of dark doors. Behind these are 

labs where chemists and physicists from 

Siemens Corporate Technology (CT) in Munich 

track things that are barely tangible. They 

search for toxic substances in telephone casings 

and power cables, they unearth the causes 

of component failures, and they investigate 

why light switches in cars fail. Thanks to their 

ultra-expensive, ultra-sensitive collection of analytical 

equipment, the scientists are able to 

detect chemical and physical impurities diffusing 

through nanometer layers of computer 

chips — and even, if necessary, individual ions 

and molecules. 

It is their laboratory that gets a call whenever 

a Siemens Group has a real problem — 

when inexplicable failures occur and a product 

suddenly ceases to work for no apparent reason 

at all. “What we do is to apply forensic 

methods to technology fields,” explains Dr. 

Klaus Budde, a specialist in analytical chemistry 

at CT. At the same time, the labs also get to excompound. 

Chrome VI has long been recognized 

as a carcinogen and prohibited worldwide. 

But a screw supplier from the Far East 

had ignored the ban. Thanks to Budde’s efforts 

the breach of contract was discovered and the 

agreement with the supplier terminated. 

Knowledge Counts. The work performed by 

Budde and his team is perhaps best compared 

to a daily hunt for the proverbial needle in a 

haystack — not least because many electronics 

products contain hundreds of tiny components. 

How do team members find the one 

component that actually contains toxic substances? 

“It boils down to experience, familiarity 

with substances, and the ability to identify 

which chemicals might be used in what 

places,” explains Budde. “The average age in 

the analytical department is close to 50,” he 

adds with a laugh. “That must be unique!” 

Alongside their high-tech equipment, the 

team’s key to success lies in the accumulated 

expertise of 27 specialists. 

chine drum. Metal cylinders and cables project 

out from the sides of the cube. 

The TOF-SIMS is one of the most sophisticated 

pieces of equipment that analytical 

chemistry has to offer. Inside the stainless steel 

cube an ion beam is fired at the sample under 

investigation with an accuracy of a few micrometers. 

This in turn strips ions — so-called 

secondary ions — from the sample. These then 

race along a short track before they are deflected 

into a time measurement chamber. The 

TOF-SIMS is able to calculate the ion’s mass on 

the basis of its time of flight and thus determine 

the chemical element in question. 

The determination of flight duration is so 

precise that the machine can identify not only 

simple chemical elements but also more complex 

molecules made up of different elements. 

The ion beam of the TOF-SIMS bores its way 

into samples like a fine needle and analyzes the 

layers and the substances they contain. 

Cerva recently fired this ion beam at the surface 

of an ASIC — one of the small chips used 

Glowing Prospects. Osram compact fluorescent 

lamps still use mercury, but less than three 

milligrams per lamp. “It’s nearly impossible to 

dispense such a small amount of this material 

in drop form,” says Dr. Ralf Criens, an Osram 

environmental expert. “So the mercury is fixed 

with iron powder, which lets us put the right 

amount into each lamp.” Long service life is 

particularly critical for environmental reasons. 

Ultimately, longer service life means fewer replaced 

lamps — and less mercury. That’s why 

Osram researchers developed the very longlasting 

compact fluorescent Dulux EL LongLife 

lamp, which can burn for 15,000 hours. 

“Service life is a key factor when working on 

concepts for new lamps, as is the need to think 

in terms of systems,” says Criens. He foresees 

perennial favorites like white LEDs, which provide 

up to 90,000 hours of light, dispensing 

with the need for a base — a development that 

is expected to soon usher in new kinds of floor 

lamps, table lamps, and other applications using 

LEDs as fixed components at competitive 

prices. As a result, many customers could soon 

be glowing with pleasure at the sight of their 

bright, environmentally-friendly and long-lasting 

lamps. 

Andrea Hoferichter 

Catching 

Contaminants 

Some Siemens products that contain electronic 

components are scrupulously analyzed in a special 

laboratory for traces of toxic substances such as lead or 

cadmium. The lab, which has expertise in chemistry and 

physics, not only helps to clear up mysterious product 

failures, but has also defined international test 

standards for environmental toxins. 

amine new Siemens products for toxic substances 

before they go to market. Naturally, the 

presence of any prohibited chemicals in a new 

line can kill its chances before it has even begun 

to bud. A few years ago, for example, a 

Japanese consumer electronics company had 

to withdraw a new game console worldwide 

just before Christmas because there were 

traces of cadmium in the console’s power cable. 

By the time the problem had been remedied 

the lucrative Christmas market was long 

gone. 

Such stories are legend at CT. Some time 

ago Budde and his colleagues examined a 

batch of telephones for outlawed chemicals. 

Although most of the components came 

through the tests, they discovered that the tiny 

screws used to secure the housing were coated 

with traces of a toxic chrome VI anti-corrosion 

A fine beam of ions from a specialized mass spectrometer 

bores, layer by layer, through a sample — 

for instance a wafer (left) — analyzing its chemical 

composition. This ultra-sophisticated piece of 

equipment is controlled by computer (right). 

It’s not that the team is exclusively on the 

lookout for toxic substances. Its lab work can 

benefit the environment in other ways. This is 

because analyses often reveal causes of failure 

in advance. Moreover, early analyses can sometimes 

avoid expensive product recalls with all 

of their associated logistical headaches. Dr. 

Hans Cerva is a specialist in such “nonconformance” 

jobs. One tool at his disposal is a socalled 

time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer 

— or TOF-SIMS, for short. This piece 

of equipment is every bit as exciting as its 

name suggests. It comprises a shiny cube of 

stainless steel a little larger than a washing-mato 

control safety systems in cars. Before production 

launch of a new model automobile, 

manufacturers generally test drive a batch of a 

few hundred vehicles in what is known as the 

qualifying round. In this particular case the 

manufacturer was becoming increasingly concerned 

about the newly developed ASICS. The 

problem was that they kept failing, and nobody 

could work out why. With his knowledge of the 

physical properties of semiconductors and his 

many years of experience, Cerva had a hunch 

that the chips might contain more than just 

standard semiconductor materials such as silicon. 

He therefore decided to carry out a TOF- 

SIMS analysis. This revealed a suspiciously high 

concentration of sodium, a light metal that is 

fatal to semiconductor components, since its 

ions get everywhere and interfere with the chip 

and its transistors. 



Materials for the Environment | Analytical Chemistry 


Equipped with this crucial tip the manufacturer 

proceeded to check its ASIC production 

line and discovered a fault in process control. 

For some reason the production system was 

switching itself on and off in a fraction of a second, 

which caused sodium from the immediate 

surroundings to land inside the ASIC. A simple 

program debug was enough to spare the manufacturer 

thousands of complaints as well as 

Siemens’ analytical laboratory can track down 

just about anything that departs from the norm. 

the problem of having to dispose of tons of 

electronic scrap. “This was a typical case,” says 

Cerva. “What we almost always discover is a 

fault in the production process, the wrong 

choice of material, or damage to the material. 

But to locate the cause takes real detective 

work, and that’s where the fun comes in.” 

The labs is crammed with sophisticated 

equipment such as an infrared spectrometer, a 

gas chromatography mass spectrometer, and a 

huge transmission electron microscope (TEM). 

Humming away in one room there is even a 

massive particle accelerator made up of large 

Photoresist 

the development of almost every new material 

or technology at the Siemens Groups,” says Dr. 

Helmut Oppolzer, head of the analytical team. 

Oppolzer and his colleagues mainly work for 

Siemens, since no other analytical laboratory is 

as available or trustworthy when it comes to 

dealing with confidential information. “If they 

come to us it usually means they are up against 

an acute problem that they can’t solve,” says 

Oppolzer, “and one that needs to be resolved 

very quickly.” In addition, his team also works 

for former Siemens spin-offs such as Epcos and 

Infineon. 

Setting Standards Worldwide. The team’s 

expertise — especially in the analysis of contaminant 

substances — is also in demand from 

external clients. Here, areas of interest include 

the application of the EU’s environmental directive 

on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances 

in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS). 

RoHS stipulates that from 2006 onward such 

tively easy to test for toxic substances, a 

printed circuit board full of tiny components 

such as resistors, capacitors, and processors is 

by no means as straightforward. 

The International Electronics Commission 

(IEC) in Geneva, Switzerland, set up a task force 

with expert panels to establish international 

analytical standards. Their job was to lay down 

practical, reliable test methods and to work out 

sensible ways of examining the diversity of 

electronic components. The German Commission 

on Electrical Engineering appointed Budde 

to the international task force. With his wealth 

of experience in analytical methods he was 

able to make a number of telling contributions, 

including an astoundingly simple drop test for 

chrome IV compounds: if drops of a specific 

corrosive fluid are spotted onto the surface of a 

sample, it immediately turns a violet color in 

the presence of chrome IV. Although such a 

test is astoundingly simple, compared to the 

TOF-SIMS it is in fact extremely sensitive and 

reacts with chrome VI concentrations of only a 

few nanograms, which is certainly responsive 

enough for the limits prescribed by RoHS. 

Budde was able to remind the IEC of the 

virtues of the drop test. Instead of running 

everything through incredibly expensive ana- 

The World Turns to Renewables 

Alongside food production, the production of renewable 

raw materials has always been one of the agricultural 

and forestry sector’s tasks. Examples include 

starch-bearing plants such as potatoes and wheat for 

paper, cardboard and adhesives; corn and sugar cane for 

ethanol production; rape for biodiesel; and flax, hemp 

and jute as natural fibers. Many natural products are 

direct competitors of petroleum-based products. Against 

a background of increasing and increasingly volatile 

prices for petroleum, interest in renewable raw materials 

is growing substantially. 

The hemp industry, for example, is expanding globally. 

Hemp fibers can be used to reinforce plastics in 

window frames and floor coverings. Fiber-reinforced 

plastics have high stiffness and strength, which make 

them ideal for lightweight engineering. In comparison to 

glass-fiber reinforced plastics, which due to their high 

corrosion resistance and good insulating properties are 

mainly used in electrotechnical products, plastics 

reinforced with natural fibers can save up to 40 percent in 

weight. 

They are also better insulators and hardly splinter 

when broken. That’s why they are used in passenger car 

interiors — in interior door panels and trunk upholstery, 

for example. On average, a middle or upper range car 

contains 3.5 kilograms of flax or hemp fibers. But other 

sectors too, are interested in plastics reinforced with 

natural fibers. Areas of application range from office 

chairs and briefcases to cladding for large-scale medical 

equipment (p. 58). 

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is currently 

forecasting a threefold increase in global demand for 

bioethenol — for use in engines and petrochemicals, as 

well as in the cosmetics and beverage industries — from 

the current 40 billion to 120 billion liters per year by 

2020. The world’s biggest supplier is Brazil, which intends 

to expand its bioethanol production from sugar cane from 

currently 17 billion to 35 billion liters per year by 2013. In 

Europe and the U.S., biofuels are increasingly being 

blended into vehicle fuels in order to reduce dependence 

on petroleum and increase environmental compatibility. 

This boosts demand for biodiesel from rape and for 

ethanol from sugar cane or corn — which, in turn, pushes 

up corn prices in the U.S. and Mexico. The number of 

facilities producing ethanol from maize in the U.S. has 

tripled since 2000 and is increasing further. In Germany, 

two million of the total 11 million hectares of arable land 

are devoted to cultivating renewable raw materials, 

mostly for biofuels. Around 1,600 liters of biodiesel can 

be obtained from one hectare of rape. 

Renewable raw materials also include bioplastics 

from starch, sugar, and vegetable oils. These materials are 

used in the fabrication of short-lived packaging, disposable 

dishes, and flower pots, as well as in automobile 

interiors. Thermoplastic starches are the most important 

such biomaterials, accounting for 80 percent. Polylactic 

acid (PLA), polyhydroxybutyric acid (PHB) and cellulose 

acetate serve as the basis for biopolymers, for use in 

packaging, in landscape architecture and in medical technology 

— as pins for small fractures, for example. 

Petroleum-based plastics could also be replaced by bioplastics 

in electronics, for example in equipment 

housings. 

Market experts from European Bioplastics expect 

growth rates of around 20 percent per year for bioplastics 

for the foreseeable future. Today’s global production is 

around 500,000 tons, and is expected to rise to 900,000 

tons as early as 2010. Bioplastics’ share of the world 

plastics market (260 million tons) is still very small, 

because bioplastics are usually more expensive than 

petroleum-based plastics. But market researchers from 

European Bioplastics are convinced that bioplastics are 

still at the start of their development and that their technical 

potential is a long way from being exhausted. 

Sylvia Trage 

Au 

pipes the size of those used to transport natural 

gas. Within it, high-energy helium ions rebound 

from a sample with varying energies 

that reveal the exact chemical composition of 

the sample surface. Likewise, the TEM uses an 

electron beam to illuminate extremely thin 

samples of material, thus enabling researchers 

to analyze layers that are only a few nanometers 

(a millionth of a millimeter) thick — a degree 

of precision crucial for determining the 

functionality and quality of semiconductor 

components such as light-emitting diodes and 

diode lasers. 

“Our nanoscale analysis capability means 

that we have the very latest analytical methods 

the market has to offer. These are accompanied 

by a body of expertise that is in demand during 

Telltale coloring. An inexpensive “drop test” shows 

that a battery cover contains a poisonous chrome VI 

compound (center and right). Pictured left is a threemicrometer 

gold coating with photoresist. 

products may contain at most only traces of 

the heavy metals lead, cadmium and mercury 

as well as the brominated flame retardants. Initially, 

however, there was a lack of information 

on how the limits should be met and products 

tested. Understandably, manufacturers were 

very unsure about how to proceed according to 

the directive. After all, there was a real danger 

that products containing hidden traces of 

harmful substances would have to be withdrawn 

from the market. “It was a real time 

bomb for the manufacturers,” says Budde. 

Whereas a homogenous solder paste is relalytical 

equipment, he argued, it makes more 

sense to do a cheap and simple drop test to 

separate the wheat from the chaff. Today it has 

become a standard test worldwide. “Our analytical 

laboratory has been in existence for 30 

years,” says Oppolzer. “It was therefore relatively 

easy for us to come up with the tests required 

to check our products for RoHS conformance.” 

It says everything for the quality of its work 

that the laboratory’s expertise has become a 

world standard in the field of materials analysis 

and contaminant identification. What’s more, 

its success rate in clearing up cases of nonconformance 

is extremely high. As Klaus Budde explains, 

“We track down just about anything that 

departs from the norm.” Tim Schröder 

Source: European Bioplastics and companies 

Bioplastics Production 

Tons p.a. 

900,000 

800,000 

700,000 

600,000 

500,000 

400,000 

300,000 

200,000 

100,000 

0 

Global production capacity 

1990 

Production from renewable raw 

materials 

Production from petrochemical 

raw materials 

1995 2000 2002 2005 2006-8 2010 

Biofuels in Transportation 

Canada 

Italy Biofuels’ share of total fuel consumed by road 

Czech Republic traffic (2004) 

France 

World average 

U.S. 

Germany 

Sweden 

Cuba 

Brazil 

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 

Bioethanol Production 

Million of tons 

20 

16 

12 

8 

4 

0 

Sources: IEA, F.O. Licht (2006) 

95% growth 

Worldwide bioethanol production 

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 

Brazil 

U.S. 

European Union 

China 

India 


Biodiesel Production 

Million of tons 

2.5 

2.0 

1.5 

1.0 

0.5 

0 

295% growth 

Worldwide biodiesel production 

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 

Demand for biofuels and bioplastics 

is rising steadily. 

Germany 

France 

Italy 

Rest of Europe 

U.S. 


Sources: IEA, F.O. Licht (2006) 



Materials for the Environment | Interview 

Wan Gang, 55, has 

been China’s Minister of 

Science and Technology 

since April 2007. He is 

also the first non-Communist 

Party member to 

have become a minister 

in 35 years. Wan received 

a Master’s degree 

in automotive engineering 

at the renowned 

Tongji University in 

Shanghai. In 1990 he 

received a PhD from the 

Clausthal University of 

Technology in Germany, 

after which he joined 

Audi in Ingolstadt, working 

initially in the Vehicle 

Development department 

and later serving on the 

Planning Committee. 

At the end of 2000 Wan 

returned to Tongji University 

to coordinate 

a nationwide research 

program for the development 

of electric 

vehicles and hydrogen 

technology. In 2004, he 

was named president of 

his alma mater. 

Professor Wan, you’ve been China’s Minister 

of Science and Technology for half a 

year now. What challenges does China 

face in these fields? 

Wan: You have to look at things from two different 

perspectives. China has achieved very 

great economic successes since opening up to 

the West, and it’s well on the way to industrialization. 

This progress has led to many positive 

things — but it’s also created problems in 

terms of energy security, environmental protection, 

and climate change. We’re now 

searching for ways to achieve sustainable development, 

which is obviously a challenge not 

only for China but also for all humanity. 

What role do technological developments 

play in overcoming the challenges China 

faces? 

China’s Road 

to Sustainable 

Development 

Wan: A huge role, because in order to solve 

the problems, we need to be innovative. This 

view is also reflected in the long-term development 

plan we published in 2006. China is 

seeking to become an innovation-focused 

country over the next ten to 15 years. However, 

it’s not enough to have scientists addressing 

the problems we face; China’s people need 

to understand the importance of sustainable 

development. Our main task at the Ministry of 

Science and Technology is therefore to support 

all activities that promote sustainability. 

What key technologies are being pushed 

the most in China today? 

Wan: We’re focusing on several different areas, 

the most important of which are new 

forms of power generation such as clean coal 

systems and renewable wind and solar energy. 

We’re also working on environmental protection 

and information technology systems. 

Health care-related research is also important, 

and this involves everything from biotechnologies 

and pharmaceuticals to new diagnostic 

techniques and the development of various 

types of medical equipment. Finally, we’re conducting 

extensive basic research into forwardlooking 

technologies such as nanotechnology. 

Again, I must emphasize that it’s crucial to get 

the entire population involved in these issues. 

How do you plan to do that? 

Wan: At the end of May 2007 China became 

the first developing country to draw up a government 

concept for addressing climate 

change. This concept focuses on fundamental, 

technological, and applications research, and 

also includes measures for getting the public 

involved in the process. One way we do this is 

by explaining to people what could be 

achieved if everyone turned up their air conditioning 

thermostat one degree, left their cars 

home for one day, used environmentally 

friendly detergents etc. In this way, we sensitize 

people to the fact that everyone can contribute 

to environmental protection and help 

stop climate change. 

Industry plays a key role in this regard, 

since outdated machines in factories can 

cause significant environmental damage 

that seriously endangers nature and human 

health. Modern equipment, on the 

other hand, operates more efficiently and 

cleanly… 

Wan: That’s correct. Environmental protection 

also involves making industrial processes more 

efficient, improving process planning, and 

combining technologies to create closed cycles. 

Residual heat from steel production, for 

example, can be converted to electricity; slag 

can be processed into construction materials; 

and cooling water can be purified. This not 

only eases the strain on the environment and 

conserves energy; it also creates value. We’re 

now starting to do such things in China. We 

know that Siemens is a worldwide leader in 

environmental protection and the optimization 

of industrial processes, and that the company 

continues to lead the way in these areas. 

Siemens thus has a lot of market potential. 

What types of partnerships need to be 

formed to enable the efficient use of such 

technologies in China? 

Wan: Environmental protection is an issue that 

everyone around the globe needs to address, 

and each of us has to do what he or she can to 

help. In general, it’s important to make the 

technologies that are already being used in the 

industrialized nations affordable to developing 

countries like China. Technology transfer also 

furthers development and market expansion. 

The more these technologies are utilized, the 

more money and energy we can all save. At 

the same time, China itself has to become innovative 

through its own power. Still, being 

an innovative country doesn’t necessarily 

mean doing everything yourself or reinventing 

things. 

One aspect that is of great concern to international 

companies is the protection of 

intellectual property. There’s a feeling 

that reality still doesn’t correspond to officially 

stated intentions here. What is 

China doing to correct this? 

Wan: China has made a major effort to address 

this issue over the last few years. We 

joined the WTO in 2001, and we’ve also signed 

international agreements and established a legal 

system for dealing with these matters. Numerous 

legal proceedings have been carried 

out and many court rulings have been made 

that protect intellectual property in China. We 

know we still need to do more, and we therefore 

continue to work hard on further improving 

our standards. We also know that protection 

of intellectual property is one of the 

fundamental conditions for establishing an innovation-focused 

society. After all, people will 

only be motivated to develop innovations if 

they’re certain these will be protected. Chinese 

companies need to understand that the protection 

of foreign technologies also guarantees 

the protection of their own new developments. 

This realization will ultimately have a 

greater impact than tougher laws. We’ve made 

a lot of progress over the last five years in this 

regard, and the situation will improve even 

further over the next five. 

The Chinese government has traditionally 

played a major role in technological developments 

in the country. Now, however, 

Chinese industry is also becoming a 

driving force behind innovation. What 

role would you like to see each of them 

play in the future? 

Wan: The government will support those 

things it deems important, and it will provide 

investment accordingly. Take fuel cell vehicles, 

for example. The technology here is not yet 

ready for the market, which is why the government 

needs to fund its development. However, 

in those situations where a particular technology 

can soon be launched on the market, the 

government will simply create favorable conditions 

for its introduction and then let the market 

do the rest. 

You yourself spent many years doing research 

at a German university, and also 

worked as a manager at a German automaker 

— so you’re familiar with the respective 

strengths and weaknesses of the 

East and West. How would you compare 

conditions in the two societies? 

Wan: Europe’s strength — and the strength of 

Germany in particular — lies in the ability of its 

industries to develop many products on their 

own. Siemens offers a good example of this. 

The company has developed its own strategy 

for success; it invests at an early stage in innovations 

and then brings its products to market 

worldwide. China’s industry, which is relatively 

young, is still unable to keep up with such 

processes from either a strategic or a financial 

perspective. That’s why government support is 

so important, especially when it comes to 

bringing companies, universities, and research 

institutes together. Let’s look at fuel cell vehicles 

again. The government coordinated cooperation 

between experts from universities, research 

centers, and the automotive industry 

here in order to develop key components and 

drive systems. We then installed the technology 

in different vehicles from manufacturers 

such as Volkswagen, SAIC (Shanghai Automotive 

Industry Cooperation), and Chery. In doing 

so, we spread out the technology. I think this 

type of cooperation is our great strength. 

When products developed in such a manner 

are ready for the market, the government will 

discontinue its involvement. 

Just how advanced are fuel cell vehicles 

in China? 

Wan: We finished building our fourth generation 

at the beginning of this year. It now takes 

one of our fuel cell vehicles less than 15 seconds 

to accelerate to 100 kilometers per hour, 

and the top speed is 150 kilometers per hour. 

We will be presenting these hydrogen-fuel vehicles 

at the 29th Summer Olympics next year 

in Beijing. Around 20 fuel cell passenger cars 

and about ten fuel cell buses will be used at 

the Olympic site, along with 50 battery-powered 

electric buses and another 300 batterypowered 

small cars. All of these vehicles are 

the result of Chinese research projects that we 

launched five to seven years ago — and now 

we’ll be seeing the technology used for the 

first time in real applications. 

Interview conducted by Bernhard Bartsch. 



Materials for the Environment | Transportation 

Road to a Lighter Future 

Aircraft, ships and trains 

are heavy energy users. 

But by implementing the 

latest materials technologies, 

their energy demands 

can be significantly reduced. 

Siemens researchers 

are developing a package 

of solutions to this end, 

including ultra-light subways, 

compact drives for 

railcars, and high temperature 

superconducting 

motors for ships. 

The Scandinavian Mountains extend into the 

polar regions like an endless spine. Above 

them, the sky is a mass of heavy clouds driven 

in from the Atlantic by westerly winds. Here in 

Norway, there is obviously no shortage of water. 

Perhaps that’s why the Norwegians don’t 

just use it for drinking but also for power generation. 

They will proudly tell you that 99 per 

cent of their electricity comes from hydro-electric 

sources. Even the Oslo Metro runs on this 

clean form of electricity. However, in an attempt 

to make the Metro even more environmentally 

friendly, AS Oslo Sporveier, the city 

transport company, went looking for a new 

train four years ago. The search ended at 

Siemens Transportation Systems (TS). TS had 

already provided very economical trains for 

Vienna’s Metro system. Although the Norwegians 

wanted to base their Metro on the 

Vienna version, they were also determined to 

make it even greener. 

In the meantime, the first MX trains have 

entered service in Oslo. Altogether, 63 units 

have been ordered. In addition to using one 

third less electricity than their predecessors, 

they contain no toxic substances. What’s more, 

it will be possible to recycle over 94 percent of 

their components in 30 years when the trains 

are retired. 

It’s clear from this example that high-technology 

can contribute a great deal to environmental 

performance. This applies to all types of 

transportation, be it subways, inter-city trains, 

aircraft or shipping. Various Siemens Groups 

have been working for a long time to perfect 

vehicles — for example, by reducing weight, 

improving drive systems, and introducing new 

materials. These days, they don’t just look at 

the final product, but assess the total product 

life cycle — from manufacturing and operation 

to disposal. Product developers at TS applied 

this kind of life cycle assessment (LCA) to the 

Oslo Metro, working with experts from the 

Ecodesign study program at Vienna Technical 

University (TU Wien). “In order to identify key 

potential savings, we first had to identify which 

phase used the most energy,“ says Dr. Joachim 

Pargfrieder, who is responsible for LCA at TS in 

Vienna. 

The university staff take thousands of details 

into consideration for their eco-audits — 

thing like the energy consumed during bauxite 

mining and aluminum production or the heating 

requirements for a subway train on cold 

winter days. “For this type of analysis, sophisticated 

software — such as that developed at the 

TU — is required,“ says Pargfrieder. It quickly 

became clear that the main task was to achieve 

the highest possible energy savings at the lowest 

possible cost. It was obvious that weight 

could be saved by using aluminum. However, 

aluminum doesn’t have the good insulation 

properties needed to cope with chilly Oslo. To 

solve this problem in relation to the railcar 

Thanks to the superconducting motor (left), fuel 

consumption on ships is set to drop significantly. 

And thanks to lighter materials, Oslo’s subway 

trains already require 30 percent less energy. 

body, experts at TS developed a hollow aluminum 

chamber profile with air pockets and 

glued-on insulation. The subway also saves energy 

through a sophisticated brake and drive 

management system that feeds the power 

generated during braking back into the network 

as electricity. 

Pargfrieder and his colleagues have taken 

particular care to ensure that recyclable materials 

such as wood, plastics, metals, and ceramics 

make up 84 per cent of the total materials 

used. 

An additional ten per cent can be harmlessly 

incinerated to generate electricity, bringing 

the total of recyclable material to 94 percent. 

“It’s hard to reach 100 percent because 

fire safety makes it necessary to use certain 

composites that can’t really be split up,” 

Pargfrieder explains. His goal is to further reduce 

this component and cut energy consumption 

even further. 

Energy-Saving Direct Drive. The new Syntegra 

bogies developed by Pargfrieder’s colleagues 

at Siemens Transportation Systems in 

Erlangen, Germany, and Graz, Austria, might 

help him achieve his goal. (Pictures of the 

Future, Spring 2006, p. 62). Syntegra is a 

highly integrated rail drive system in which 

the drive technology is attached under the 

floor of the vehicle. Unlike traditional systems, 

where the engine’s power is transferred to the 

axles via a gearbox — which causes noise, 

wear, and reduced efficiency — the Syntegra 

system employs motors mounted directly on 

the bogies. 

To be more precise, a cylindrical electric motor 

sits directly on the drive axle like a ring on a 

finger, but without touching it. The motor uses 

a permanent magnetic field produced by rareearth 

magnetic materials to rotate the axle. 

“These high-performance materials are the 

heart of the drive,” says Dr. Lars Löwenstein, 

Syntegra’s project leader. “Until just a few years 

ago they would have been much too expensive.” 

However, the price of rare-earth magnets 

capable of achieving the required quality has 

fallen. And because the new concept dispenses 

with the need for a gearbox, a Syntegra bogie 

is around a meter shorter than traditional models. 

The result: a weight savings of around two 

tons, while energy is reduced by 20 percent. 

The Syntegra prototype is currently being 

tested by Munich’s Municipal Transport Services 

— for the moment at night and without 

passengers. During the test, 200 sensors monitor 

how well the new technology is working. In 

a few months the train is due to carry its first 

passengers. On the basis of the 10,000 kilometers 

the train has already run up on the 

Siemens test track in Wegberg-Wildenrath, Germany, 

it is already clear that Syntegra is fulfilling 

its promise. Energy consumption has 

dropped significantly. 

But there is still room for improvement before 

the production model is scheduled for 

market launch in around three years. In particular, 

the production model will be leaner and 

lighter than the prototype, which was initially 

designed to be very robust. The energy density 

of the rare-earth materials is also to be increased 

to boost drive performance. 

Lower Temperatures Boost Performance. 

Syntegra’s developers weren’t the only ones 

who had to wait a long time for their materials. 

So do did experts at Siemens Automation and 

Drives (A&D) in Nuremberg, who specialize in 

another type of material: superconductors. 

These materials are made from compounds 

that suddenly lose their electrical resistance 

when they are cooled to very low temperatures. 

The catch, at least initially, was that in 

most cases this type of cooling required the use 

of liquid helium at minus 269 degrees Celsius 

— an expensive product. But in 1987 researchers 

discovered substances that become 

superconducting at much higher temperatures. 

Unfortunately, these high-temperature superconductors 

(HTS) were still too expensive for 

most applications. 

However, about five years ago these substances 

became significantly cheaper. In response, 

A&D decided in 2003 to develop its 

first HTS generator. Its rotor is fitted not with 

the usual copper coils, but with HTS windings 

that can carry around 100 times more current. 

The 400-kilowatt machine was designed to be 

a third smaller and lighter than traditional units 

with the same capacity (Pictures of the Future, 

Spring 2006, p. 60). 

This type of equipment is particularly suitable 

for power generation on ships since it 

saves space in a narrow hull. In the meantime, 

A&D has developed a prototype 4-megawatt 

(MW) machine that has been tested for a year 

in the System Test Center in Nuremberg, operating 

both as a generator and as a motor. The 

next step is a slowly rotating 4 MW HTS engine 

for the direct drive of a ship’s propeller. “We’re 

Weight watchers. One kilogram less saves several tons of fuel over an aircraft’s life. Lightweight carbon fibers (right) aren’t just in demand for the A380. 




still in the development phase,” says project 

leader Dr. Klemens Kahlen. “Assembly starts in 

2008.” The new motor will be tested in 2009. 

The first commercial motors could then hit the 

market as early as 2011. U.S. superconductor 

expert Alan Lauder has calculated that this type 

of HTS motor could reduce a ship’s annual fuel 

costs by up to $100,000. 

Significant Savings. Fuel cost savings, particularly 

through weight reduction, are important 

in aviation. Every kilogram of mass saved represents 

a fuel savings of several tons over an aircraft’s 

lifetime. Alongside aluminum, aircraft 

engineers are therefore increasingly turning to 

carbon fiber composites (CFRP), which can reduce 

a plane’s weight by up to 30 percent. 

More CFRP parts — such as, for example, 

the 120-square-meter tail fin — are used in the 

new Airbus A380 than in any other aircraft. 

Toho Tenax Europe is the largest producer of 

carbon fibers in Europe and a global leader in 

carbon fiber technology. Over the last year the 

company’s Japanese parent company has built 

a new CFRP production line in Oberbruch, Germany. 

Siemens provided process control technology 

and other products and services for the 

plant. 

“Because of our expertise in a number of 

business areas we were able to offer a total solution,” 

says Klaus Vierbuchen, sales engineer 

at A&D in Cologne. Acting as a single-source 

provider, Siemens has delivered basic and detailed 

engineering, assembly monitoring, coordinated 

safety measures, and provided process 

measuring and control units, drive systems, 

motor switchgear, uninterruptible power supplies, 

and transformers for the plant. 

In a complex process at the plant, kilometerlong 

fiber blanks are baked to produce finished 

products. Several hundred fibers run in parallel 

over rollers through individual stages of the automated 

process. A large number of parameters 

— oven temperature, speed of transportation, 

and dwell times — are processed by a 

Simatic PCS 7 process control system to ensure 

that the fibers meet the quality requirements 

stipulated by aircraft engineers. 

The single-source solution was not only less 

costly than those offered by competitors, but 

also quicker to assemble. “The manufacturer 

was able to start production weeks before the 

actual deadline,“ says Vierbuchen. The new 

carbon fiber manufacturing plant illustrates 

that you can help make transportation sustainable 

in a variety of ways. For example, you can 

build an environmentally friendly subway or 

provide expertise to help operators build production 

plants for environmentally friendly 

high-tech products. 

Tim Schröder 

| Energy Demand 

Magnetom Avanto medical magnetic resonance 

imaging devices being prepared for shipment. 

Transportation is an area in which energy 

savings may be realized. 

Pinpointing Costs 

Siemens uses the cumulative energy demand (CED) 

method to find ways of reducing medical devices’ 

energy requirements. This approach addresses the 

entire product lifecycle, from materials and production 

to operation and recycling. 

When it comes to medical systems, environmentally 

friendly technology is a key 

selling point. For instance, hospitals that have 

environmental management systems want the 

major products they purchase to come with an 

Environmental Product Declaration. That’s because 

they want to know exactly how environmentally 

sound their production methods are, 

and how environmentally friendly their devices 

will be when in use. Such facts are provided by 

Dr. Franz Bömmel, Group Environmental Officer 

at Siemens Medical Solutions (Med), as well 

as product development engineers. Bömmel 

and others rely on the “cumulative energy demand” 

method or CED, which was developed 

principally by the Research Institute for Energy 

in Munich, Germany, about ten years ago. “Cumulative 

energy demand is the total quantity 

of primary energy needed to produce, use, and 

dispose of a device — including transportation,” 

says Bömmel. This value reflects the energy 

demand related to a device over its entire 

lifecycle, and makes it possible to determine 

which phase consumes the most energy. 

Sometimes this quest makes Bömmel feel like 

a detective tracking down energy leaks. 

When Bömmel’s team added up the energy 

demands of the Magnetom Avanto magnetic 

resonance imaging (MRI) system, it made a surprising 

discovery. The delivery of the device to 

the customer consumes nearly the same 

amount of energy as the manufacture of the 

components — roughly a third of the total energy 

used on production. In the U.S. in particular, 

these devices have usually been transported 

by air because their superconducting 

magnet is cooled with liquid helium and can’t 

be allowed to warm up. “Without a power 

source, all the helium evaporates in about 28 

days,” says Bömmel. “And cooling the magnet 

down again is costly. However, we found that 

ocean transport can be fast enough, at least on 

the U.S. East Coast. Several MRI systems have 

already been delivered that way.” In fact, he 

adds that the coastal route requires just onesixtieth 

of the energy of air transport. 

“That makes a significant difference on the 

CED bottom line,” says Bömmel. But some preliminary 

work had to take place before he was 

able to apply this method. Here, researchers at 

Siemens Corporate Technology (CT) provided 

data showing the material-specific energy demand 

values for 75 categories of materials that 

are typically used to make medical devices. 

These values define how much energy is consumed 

in the provision of an industrial material 

such as sheet steel — taking into account the 

entire value chain, from mining the ore to the 

finished material. Since Med generally just assembles 

components and manufactures few 

parts in-house, CT also determined CED values 

for a list of standard components, such as fans, 

computers, monitors, and keyboards. 

By putting together all these pieces of the 

puzzle, scientists can ultimately figure out the 

total energy required to provide the materials 

that make up a product. In the Magnetom 

Avanto, for example, that amounts to four percent 

of the total energy — taking into account 

the complete life cycle. In this context too, 

Bömmel sees opportunities for improvement. 

That’s because 45 percent of the eight-ton 

mass of an MRI system consists of different iron 

alloys and steels, while about 34 percent is 

nonferrous metals and alloys. When considered 

in the CED context, however, nonferrous metals 

such as aluminum and copper account for 

substantially more energy usage than the ferrous 

metals. This finding suggests that in a future 

MRI system aluminum should be replaced 

by steel wherever possible to reduce the energy 

consumption associated with providing 

materials. Such a switch would also have to be 

accompanied by design changes to avoid a 

substantial increase in gross weight. 

How Much Energy Does an Avanto Represent? 

Energy consumption 

in MWh 

5,000 

4,000 

3,000 

2,000 

1,000 

Materials 

(4% = 192 MWh) 

Production 

(10% = 507 MWh) 

Component production 

(37%) 

Customer delivery 

(35%) 

Other (28%) 

Utilization (86% = 459 MWh / year) 

System shutdown and 

pre-scan warmup 

(38%) 

Scanning (62%) 

Years 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 

Although Avanto’s manufacturing-related 

energy demand has been examined, analyzing 

every step of this process would simply be too 

costly. Instead, the energy consumption of an 

entire production hall would be determined using 

electric and heat meters. If this value is divided 

by the total quantity in kilograms of products 

manufactured, you would get the specific 

CED value for that production hall — in kilowatt-hours 

per kilogram. Such CED values can 

be added up to determine the CED for the entire 

production process of a device. An additional 

CED value must be determined for transportation 

between different factories and to 

the customer. With regard to the Magnetom 

Avanto, about ten percent of total energy demand 

is accounted for by this phase. 

Squeezing Standby Losses. The largest 

chunk of energy in the lifecycle of a device is 

consumed during its use. Computed for a tenyear 

period, this amounts to about 86 percent 

of the total kilowatt-hours — or about 460 

megawatt-hours annually in the Magnetom 

Avanto. Here again, Bömmel foresees additional 

energy reduction measures. One promising 

area involves the different operating modes 

of medical devices. A principal target here will 

be standby losses. In the Magnetom Avanto no 

less than 38 percent of energy is used in an unproductive 

state. During switch-off, the essential 

helium cooling guzzles up about 20 percent 

of energy, while 18 percent is used in the 

warm-up phase preceding a scan. 

Recycling is the final phase of the CED 

analysis. Based on total weight, about 85 percent 

of the material in medical devices can be 

recycled. About nine percent — mainly plastics 

— can be thermally reused. Based on the lifecycle, 

some two percent of the energy can thus 

be credited to the CED bottom line. 

Disposal 

(-68 MWh) 

Total: 

5.221 MW 

Thus the CED approach can be used to 

calculate total energy demand for each device 

and, no less important, a device’s resulting environmental 

impact. For example, if the main 

energy source is known — which in medical 

devices is electric power — its contribution to 

the greenhouse effect can be estimated. 

Since the calculation of all energy values in 

the CED method is based on primary energy 

demand, i.e. on the energy content of fossil 

fuels such as coal and oil, the energy content is 

first recalculated in terms of secondary energy 

— in this case, electric power. 

A Magnetom Avanto’s average annual consumption 

of primary energy corresponds to 

about 150 megawatt-hours of electric power. 

Today, each kilowatt-hour of electricity produced 

in Germany generates about 600 grams 

of carbon dioxide. Thus, operating the Magnetom 

Avanto produces about 90 tons of carbon 

dioxide annually. 

Values for other pollutants, such as nitrogen 

oxides, can also be estimated based on energy 

consumption — by using the conversion tables 

of the German Ministry of the Environment. 

The CED method therefore provides an inexpensive, 

simplified estimate of a given device’s 

environmental impact. 

“Of course you have to understand,” says 

Bömmel, “that the way we use the CED 

method only gives you a general idea of the 

energy demand, since it often involves 

approximations. But that’s okay, because it 

helps us to swiftly identify energy “leaks” 

that we can then address. CED has helped us 

determine that the operation of our devices 

accounts for the largest share by far of their 

total energy consumption. So that’s the first 

place where we’ll take action in order to 

achieve further improvements.” 

Rolf Sterbak 

Life cycle analysis. During its ten-year service life, only about 62 percent of the energy consumed by a Magnetom Avanto is associated with diagnostic scans. 



Materials for the Environment | Energy Storage 

Piggybanks for Power 

Whether at base or peak load, high-performance energy 

storage devices and smart energy management 

systems guarantee optimal power supplies in vehicles. 

Double layer capacitors called supercaps (right) are 

being used in streetcars such as the Combino Plus 

(below). The devices release stored braking energy 

quickly when the vehicle accelerates. 

In Brief 

If electrical energy is to be optimally used, it 

needs to be temporarily stored. And that’s 

the case whether we’re talking about cars, 

buses, streetcars, subway systems or power 

distribution networks. In road vehicles, electronic 

components are taking over more and 

more functions, partly as driver assistance systems, 

and partly to save energy — particularly 

in hybrid vehicles that combine an electric motor 

with a combustion engine. The electric motor 

serves as either a fully fledged second drive 

(in a full hybrid), as an auxiliary drive to provide 

a boost when starting and passing (in a mild 

hybrid), or as an assistant when the vehicle has 

Chemical or Electrostatic Storage? 

Accumulators such as lead-acid, nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries have a service life of 

between three and ten years, on average. They function on electrochemical principles. Charging the 

battery converts electrical energy into chemical energy. When an electrical device is connected, chemical 

energy is converted back into electrical energy. Energy stores such as double layer capacitors, in 

contrast, store energy electrostatically. They last almost indefinitely and exhibit high power densities. 

However, their energy densities are low. For this reason, their primary use is to cover peak loads such 

as engine starts or acceleration in hybrid applications. 

Comparison of Battery Systems 

Energy density in watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) 

1,000 

100 

10 

1 

0.1 

0.01 

10 

10,000 s 1,000 s 

Batteries 

Pb 

100 1,000 10,000 

Power density in watts per kilogram (W/kg) 

Battery type Energy density Wh/kg Power density W/kg Service life in cycles / years 

Lead-acid battery 30 – 50 150 – 300 300 –1,000 / 3 – 5 

Nickel-metal hydride battery 60 – 80 200 – 300 >1,000 / >5 

Lithium-ion battery 90 – 150 500 – >2,000 >2,000 / 5 – 10 

Supercaps (double layer capac.) 3 – 5 2,000 – 10,000 1,000,000 / unlimited 

Li-ion 

NiMH 

NiCd 

Double layer capacitors 

Electrolytic capacitors 

100 s 

10 s 

1 s 

0.1 s 

to stop and restart frequently (in the start-stop 

hybrid). 

To meet the needs of a growing number of 

functions, vehicles needs a high-performance 

energy storage device. Batteries, however, are 

heavy and their energy density is low. One kilogram 

of diesel contains 10,000 watt-hours 

(Wh), while a lead-acid accumulator manages 

just 30 to 50 Wh/kg. Batteries’ power density is 

low too, reaching a maximum of 300 W/kg. For 

an electric car to accelerate as rapidly as a 90 

kW gasoline-engine vehicle, it would need a 

300-kilogram lead-acid battery in the trunk. 

That’s why most of today’s hybrid vehicles employ 

nickel-metal hydride batteries with a capacity 

of 60 to 80 Wh/kg. Lithium-ion or 

lithium-polymer batteries are even more powerful, 

with 90 to 150 Wh/kg. Alongside storage 

capacity, the service life of an accumulator is 

also limited. A lead-acid battery is good for a 

maximum of around 1,000 charge-discharge 

cycles. Nickel-metal hydride or lithium-ion batteries 

last considerably longer. 

Accumulators must be charged slowly to 

avoid damage. But vehicles, in particular, are 

associated with many applications that need a 

fast charging capability — for example, when 

braking energy is harnessed in cars or streetcars. 

With this in mind, Siemens is promoting 

the use of double layer capacitors, or so-called 

supercaps — devices that store electrical energy 

by separating the charges as soon as a 

voltage is applied. Supercaps offer capacitances 

of 300 to 10,000 farads. Charge separation 

takes place at the boundary layer between a 

solid body and a liquid. High capacitances are 

achieved by ensuring that the charges are separated 

by a distance of only atomic dimensions, 

and by the use of porous graphite electrodes 

with a large specific surface area. 

Supercaps have low energy densities — 

three to five Wh/kg — but extremely high 

power densities of 2,000 to 10,000 W/kg. They 

can be charged within a few seconds, and at a 

million or so charge-discharge cycles, their 

service life is extremely long. This is due to the 

fact that the charge separation processes occurring 

within them are purely physical in nature. 

They can take up and release large quantities 

of energy extremely quickly. This makes it 

possible to use an electric motor in a hybrid vehicle, 

streetcar, or locomotive as a generator 

that recovers braking energy. This regenerated 

energy is stored in supercaps and re-used when 

the vehicle accelerates again. The resulting advantage 

is fuel and energy savings of between 

five and 25 percent, depending on the driving 

cycle. The capacitor packs can either be carried 

in the vehicle itself or permanently built into 

segments of subway lines. 

Such a setup has already been tested in several 

subway systems — for example, in Madrid, 

Cologne, Dresden, Bochum and Beijing. Supercaps 

could also be used in energy distribution 

applications, as power supply networks are 

constantly subject to load variations to which 

heavy turbines cannot react quickly enough. 

Power utilities could use flexible energy stores 

such as supercaps to balance out load peaks 

and troughs. 

“In ten years, vehicles with these new storage 

systems might be as commonplace as today’s 

vehicles with their trusty lead-acid batteries,” 

says Dr. Manfred Waidhas, project head for 

Electrochemical Energy Storage at Siemens 

Corporate Technology. Mild or start-stop hybrid 

vehicles can get by with the limited energy 

density of the supercaps. 

“Ensuring a supply of electrical energy is becoming 

increasingly important,” says Horst 

Gering, head of the Battery and Energy Management 

department at Siemens VDO. “This is 

especially true where safety is concerned, for 

example, with electric braking or steering.” In 

such systems, it is necessary to constantly 

monitor the state of the energy store. With this 

in mind, Siemens has developed BMS (Battery 

Monitoring System). Here, using supercaps, internal 

resistance and capacitance are determined 

in order to evaluate how much current 

the energy store can provide for specific tasks. 

Where accumulators are involved, sensors can 

also determine battery aging and charge state. 

The energy management system then determines 

when the store needs to be charged so 

that it always remains within optimal working 

parameters — and how much current can be 

made available to which devices. After all, in 

some cases, there may not be sufficient power 

available if many devices are active simultaneously. 

Siemens has christened the algorithm 

for this process “Power Trader.” 

“It’s like having a virtual stock market regulating 

energy use,” says Gering. “Power Trader 

calculates the supply — in this case, the 

amount of energy available from the generator 

— and sets an electricity price according to demand. 

If demand rises, so does the price. 

Safety-relevant systems such as electric brakes 

are set so that no price is too expensive. Comfort 

systems, on the other hand, purchase less 

power until the price has come down to a given 

level. In extreme cases, they will even switch 

off.” 

Bernhard Gerl 

Materials research is undergoing a revolution. 

Nanotechnology is opening the door to 

a host of innovative materials with completely 

new properties. (p. 47) 

New materials make it possible to generate, 

transmit and use energy more efficiently. 

Special coatings protect the blades in gas and 

steam turbines against heat and corrosion. 

This enables higher operating temperatures 

and thus higher efficiencies. Fuel consumption 

and environmental impact are both cut 

as a result. The goal is to introduce combined 

cycle power plants in 2011 that will use 

more than 60 percent of the energy in gas. 

The world’s most powerful gas turbine, 

which will start test operation in Irsching, 

Germany, this year, will produce enough 

electricity to power the households in a city 

the size of Hamburg. (pp. 50, 54) 

In the lighting sector, the focus is also on 

further cutting power consumption, eliminating 

pollutants, and increasing lamps’ service 

life. Mercury-free LEDs are particularly environmentally 

friendly, consume little electricity, 

and last up to 50 times longer than incandescent 

lamps. (p. 63) 

Siemens is the world’s leading supplier of 

offshore wind power systems. In 2008, the 

company will install the world’s largest such 

wind farm off England’s east coast. The 

facility will supply up to 180 megawatts of 

environmentally-friendly electricity from 54 

turbines. Siemens’ one-piece rotor blades are 

extremely robust and up to 90-percent recyclable. 

(p. 60) 

Advanced technology can cut energy consumption 

by planes, ships, cars, and trains. 

Siemens continuously improves vehicles by 

using lightweight engineering, better drive 

systems, and, in many cases, new materials. 

Improved energy storage systems also make 

regenerative braking an increasingly attractive 

option. (pp. 70, 74) 

Bioplastics from bacteria should also make 

electronic products more environmentally 

compatible in the future. (p. 58) 

PEOPLE: 

Nanotechnology / materials in general: 

Dr. Thomas Grandke, CT MM 

thomas.grandke@siemens.com 

Nanotechnology, NanoBase project: 

Dr. Jens Dahl Jensen, CT MM 

jensdahl.jensen@siemens.com 

Turbine blade coatings: 

Dr. Werner Stamm, PG 

werner.stamm@siemens.com 

Coal-fired steam power plants: 

Dr. Ernst-Wilhelm Pfitzinger, PG 

ernst-wilhelm.pfitzinger@siemens.com 

Ceramic heat shields, CHS: 

Dr. Holger Grote, PG 

holger.grote@siemens.com 

World’s largest gas turbine: 

Hans-Otto Rohwer, PG 

hans-otto.rohwer@siemens.com 

Green PC, Fujitsu Siemens Computers: 

Hans-Georg Riegler-Rittner, FSC, hansgeorg.riegler-rittner@fujitsu-siemens.com 

Green circuit boards: 

Dr. Peter Demmer, CT MM 

peter.demmer@siemens.com 

Bioplastics, BioFun project: 

Reinhard Kleinert, CT MM 

reinhard.kleinert@siemens.com 

Wind power plants: 

Henrik Stiesdal, PG Denmark 

henrik.stiesdal@siemens.com 

Lighting systems, Osram: 

Dr. Steffen Köhler, Osram 

steffen.koehler@osram-os.com 

Christian Wittig, Osram 

c.wittig@osram.com 

Pollutant analysis, analytical laboratory: 

Dr. Helmut Oppolzer, CT MM 

helmut.oppolzer@siemens.com 

Metro Oslo, lifecycle assessment: 

Dr. Joachim Pargfrieder, TS Austria 

joachim.pargfrieder@siemens.com 

Syntegra, drive systems for trains: 

Dr. Lars Löwenstein, TS 

lars.loewenstein@siemens.com 

LINKS: 

The EU’s Joint Research Center: 

www.jrc.ec.europa.eu 

U.S. National Academy of Engineering: 

www.nae.edu 



Test Facilities | Solar and Geothermal Power Plants 

The 219,000 mirrors at the Nevada Solar One facility 

(left) near Boulder City, Nevada have been supplying 

environmentally friendly electricity to 14,000 households 

since June, 2007. 

Power from Heaven and 

Earth 

Small facility, big impact. The 20 x 12 meter hall for 

Unterhaching’s geothermal power plant (above) 

houses an infrastructure for converting the Earth’s 

heat into electricity. Equipment includes ammoniawater 

pipes (left) and a steam turbine. 

The most modern solar- and 

geothermal power plants are 

now being built in the U.S., 

Spain, and Germany using 

technology from Siemens. 

Kramer Junction is 160 kilometers east of 

Los Angeles. As its name suggests, it’s not 

much more than an intersection. It is, however, 

the site of the world’s largest solar thermal 

power plant, which has an output of 354 

megawatts. Located in the middle of the Mojave 

Desert, the facility, which employs parabolic 

mirrors to focus solar rays and vaporize 

water using captured heat, has generated 

more than 12 billion kilowatt-hours of energy 

since 1991. It now has some competition, 

however — in Boulder City, Nevada, where 

Spanish company Acciona put a 320-acre solar 

thermal power plant into operation in June 

2007. And two similar facilities are being built 

simultaneously in Spain. Siemens has been involved 

in all of these projects, with Power Generation 

(PG) supplying their steam turbines. 

Nevada Solar One has 219,000 individual 

parabolic mirrors with a total length of 76 kilometers. 

These mirrors reflect solar rays onto a 

receiver containing a special thermal oil that is 

heated to a temperature of around 400 de- 

grees Celsius. The oil is used to create steam in 

a heat exchanger located in the plant’s central 

block, and the steam powers a turbine, which 

generates electricity. With a rated output of 64 

megawatts, the facility generates 134 million 

kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, enough to 

power 14,000 households. The Schott company 

estimates that solar thermal electricity 

costs approximately 12 euro cents per kWh. 

That’s much less than electricity produced by 

solar cells. What’s more, the International Energy 

Agency forecasts that the cost of solar 

thermal electricity will fall to only six cents / 

kWh by 2020, which would put it around the 

same price as power generated from fossil 

sources. Solar thermal power is more environmentally 

friendly in any case, as 64 megawatts 

of rated output reduce annual carbon dioxide 

emissions by around 80,000 tons in the global 

energy mix (600 grams of CO 2 per kWh). 

Siemens supplied the steam turbines for 

Nevada Solar One, and for the two 50- 

megawatt facilities that will go online in Andalusia 

in 2008 and 2009. The turbines must 

meet special requirements because solar thermal 

power plants produce electricity only during 

the day and therefore have to be shut down 

every evening and then started up quickly 

again the next morning. To ensure that the oil 

in the heat exchanger does not decompose, 

the steam isn’t heated as much as in a conven- 

tional power plant. The turbines therefore operate 

with two sections: one for low pressure 

and one for high pressure. “This enables more 

flexible operation of the turbine,” says Samuel 

Fällman from Siemens PG in Sweden. Siemens' 

first such turbine — which was built in 2005 — 

was a great success. The company has since 

sold an additional six turbines for new solar 

thermal plants planned for Spain, and is now 

the market leader in this segment. 

Another pioneering development is direct 

steam generation (DSG), in which water is 

heated to more than 500 degrees Celsius and 

turned to steam in the pipes. This eliminates 

the need for both the heat exchanger and the 

toxic thermal oil. DSG technology is being developed 

and tested by the German Aerospace 

Center (DLR). Despite its complex flow relationships, 

DSG functions perfectly and is ready for 

practical use. Engineers from Siemens PG in Erlangen, 

Germany, are also involved in the technology’s 

development, as PG’s Innovative 

Power Plant Concepts department is now determining 

the optimal setup for linking a DSG 

solar field with a conventional power plant 

block. Together with other measures, such a 

concept can lower the cost of generating 

power over the long term. Plans call for a small 

solar thermal test facility that will use water instead 

of oil to be built and put into operation in 

a few years. 

Producing energy with heat from the Earth 

harbors just as much potential as solar power 

generation. The rule of thumb here is that the 

temperature increases by three degrees Celsius 

for a depth increase of 100 meters. Temperatures 

at a depth of three kilometers range from 

80 to 120 degrees; at five kilometers the mercury 

climbs to 130 – 160 degrees. The energy 

stored at such depths is available around the 

clock and can be harnessed in two ways. “The 

hot dry rock” process involves pumping water 

at high pressure into the ground, thereby turning 

the area there into a continuous-flow 

heater. Hydrothermal techniques directly utilize 

hot water already present at such depths. 

In Unterhaching, a town southeast of Munich, 

for instance, the power of naturally-occurring 

hot water is being tapped. Unlike some 

other mayors in the area, Unterhaching’s Dr. Erwin 

Knapek, didn’t want to use the water to 

open a spa. A physicist, Knapek instead 

arranged to have a district heating network and 

a geothermal power plant built. With the help 

of Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services 

(I&S), the facility will soon feed its first kilowatt-hours 

into the grid, and cover around 

70 percent of Unterhaching’s electricity and 

heating needs. The town, which has slightly 

more than 22,000 people, will thus become 

the site of the world’s most modern geothermal 

power plant. 

An unobtrusive stainless steel pipe protrudes 

from the ground at the site. Not too far 

away is a 20 x 12 meter hall. This facility — the 

heart of the power plant — contains a compact 

green generator and a pink condensate tank. 

Various pipes run through the building. One 

set, for the district heating system, extracts 25 

of the 150 liters of thermal water that pass 

through the facility per second. A second set 

leads to the turbine that produces the electricity, 

while a third single pipe pumps the water, 

now cooled to 60 degrees Celsius, into a borehole 

three kilometers away, where it is returned 

to the depths in order to retain the underground 

water balance. 

The pink color of the condensate tank 

stands for ammonia, the true secret behind the 

facility. The problem is that the thermal water 

source in Unterhaching is not hot enough for a 

conventional water-steam power-generation 

cycle. Siemens engineers therefore employ the 

Kalina Technique, named after its Russian inventor. 

Here, hot water heats a mixture of 

around 89 percent ammonia and 11 percent 

water that is already simmering at 50 degrees 

Celsius. That’s enough for the turbine — and to 

generate 3.4 megawatts of electricity in Unterhaching. 

This output decreases slightly in the 

summer due to higher outside temperatures, 

and then rises in the winter. Because of its relatively 

low temperature and pressure, the facility 

has an efficiency rating of only 12 percent 

(a coal power plant has a rating of 40 percent 

or more). Nevertheless, the plant operates at a 

profit because Germany’s Renewable Energy 

Act fixes a 15 euro cent price for every kilowatthour 

produced in such a manner. That makes 

good sense given that the plant will reduce annual 

carbon dioxide emissions by 30,000 tons, 

or half of what Unterhaching was producing to 

meet its electricity and heating requirements. 

The next few months will be very exciting 

for the town — which has invested €60 million 

in the geothermal project — and for the 

Siemens engineers who worked on it. That’s 

because the Unterhaching facility is a prototype. 

“A successful conclusion to this project 

will spur development of other geothermal 

power plants,” says Sameer Joshi, who is responsible 

for geothermal activities at I&S. A 

borehole a few kilometers away in Sauerlach 

has made available an ample source of hot water, 

and Siemens will complete another geothermal 

power facility in neighboring Oberrheingraben 

in the summer of 2008. There is thus 

huge potential under the surface in Germany 

for a form of power previously neglected. In 

fact, a study conducted by Germany’s Ministry 

of the Environment estimates that geothermal 

power sources could be providing as much as 

ten percent of the country’s energy requirement 

by 2050. 

Jeanne Rubner 



Seamless Communication | Scenario 2015 

Highlights 

81 New Social Network 

Tremendous bandwidths, especially 

in mobile communications, 

provide entirely new possibilities 

for social interaction. 

83 Simplicity Is the Key 

Nokia’s chief strategist Jarkko 

Sairanen explains how userfriendliness 

holds the key to 

the mobile Internet. 

84 Billions Online 

New developments will enable 

Nokia Siemens Networks to increase 

its lead in fixed-line and 

mobile communications. 

90 Networked Power 

Efficient energy technology 

requires networked sensors that 

continuously and comprehensively 

report conditions. 

94 Hacking for Siemens 

Experts from Corporate 

Technology invade computer 

systems in tests designed to 

raise the level of security. 

96 Data that’s Always There 

Patients are receiving 

improved and more affordable 

treatment thanks to networked 

health care. 

98 The Music is Back 

After years of financial crisis, 

Buenos Aires is being revitalized 

thanks to investments in its 

communications infrastructure. 

2015 

Julian, a computer game designer, is 

preparing dinner in his networked home. 

The kitchen knows which ingredients he 

has on hand and suggests possible meals. 

Via a large, interactive display, Julian has 

access to the Internet, which he uses to 

chat with friends and order ingredients 

for cooking exotic dishes. And thanks to 

his fiber optic connection, Julian can also 

work from home. 

Hot Tip 

Munich, 2015. Only Julian’s cooking community can 

save him now. His wife is bringing along a dinner guest, 

and Julian, a game designer, has to improvise. 

Can you think of anything special you’d like 

me to cook for dinner?” Julian asks his wife 

Catherine and blows her a kiss. “Don’t distract 

me from my driving!” laughs Catherine with a 

wink. “I’m not particularly hungry, so cook 

whatever you like. I’m on the way home now 

— my navigator tells me I’ll be there in just 20 

minutes.” “Want to watch a film after dinner?” 

“Sure, just pick something out. Use that intro- 

ductory movie service subscription — you 

know, the one that automatically suggests 

films we might like. But wait — get a romantic 

comedy, OK? See you soon, love you!” 

Following this brief conversation, Julian’s 

face disappears from the edge of Catherine’s 

windshield, and the head-up display once 

again shows data from the navigation system 

and driving instructions. 

Catherine is a doctor and she has built up 

her own consulting firm specializing in the networking 

of databases in the healthcare system. 

Her clients include large clinics as well as small 

medical centers. The medical profession has 

changed dramatically since she was a medical 

student 20 years ago. Today, healthcare is a 

sector in which there are more biotechnologists, 

computer experts, and software develop- 


Seamless Communication | Scenario 2020 

ers than physicians. This sounds complicated, 

but thanks to integrated diagnostics and 

therapy many things are simpler than they 

used to be. 

Information about patients, their case histories 

and, most importantly, comparable cases 

with the names removed are available today to 

everyone involved, and that makes doctors’ 

work much easier. Doctors can make diagnoses 

faster, using genetic and protein databases 

when necessary, and choose the best therapy 

or medicine for a particular patient. Catherine 

helps clinics integrate information technology 

into their daily work processes. Today she has 

installed a software update in a newly built private 

clinic for heart patients. 

Her husband Julian has made a profession 

out of his hobby and works at home developing 

scenarios for RealNetGames, one of the largest 

producers of online games. Using a 10 gigabit 

glass fiber connection, he can design the threedimensional 

worlds of the role-play “Fellows of 

Glendalough” on four large displays. Together 

with his colleagues he’s now building an additional 

feature that will be made available in 

two months to the 250 million active members 

of the fantasy game community. Known as 

“The Descent,” the feature will sport a complex 

of interconnected caves in which players will 

encounter a completely new type of being — 

creatures who initially appear to be very aggressive 

but later turn out to be intelligent inhabitants 

of an underground parallel world. 

That’s why Julian has spent a lot of time in 

recent weeks exchanging ideas with spelunkers 

in Web 2.0 communities so that he can 

make the scenario as realistic as possible. As his 

workspace is networked with all of his project 

partners, Julian can work with them smoothly. 

New ideas and changes to the 3D worlds are 

immediately accessible to everyone. Because 

the system has a memory, previous work 

stages can be reconstructed. Right now, Julian 

is designing a complete city on the banks of an 

underground river. 

But first, he has to make dinner. He has begun 

by selecting a film from a list of suggestions 

provided by his Web service and ordering 

it via video on demand. “Harry and Sally 2,” a 

classic that’s one of his wife’s favorites. It’s fascinating, 

he muses, how these interactive databases 

generate precise profiles on the basis of 

your media behavior. Catherine would have 

liked the other films on the list too. His son Max 

has finished his homework and is now immersed 

in his favorite science fiction game. He 

makes gestures as if dodging imaginary foes. 

Julian looks at the list of dishes his smart 

kitchen has put together on the basis of the ingredients 

available in the cooling and refresh- 

ment system. He decides to make spaghetti 

carbonara because there are still five eggs left 

and an organic dairy service will be delivering 

its next scheduled order the day after tomorrow. 

His wife’s ring tone interrupts him as he’s 

chopping onions. Her face pops up in a window 

on the big display in the kitchen. “Julian, 

sorry, there’s been a small change in our plans 

for this evening. I’ve just had a call from a clinic 

where the patient database is going crazy. It’s 

probably a server problem that has nothing to 

do with my software, but I can confirm that 

only together with my colleague Cynthia. I’ve 

just reached a broadband hot spot, so I have a 

good connection via the car-to-car network. It’s 

going to take a while. We’ll probably have to 

check all of the log files. I’ve invited Cynthia to 

come to dinner later, to show her how much I 

appreciate her help, so please make something 

special, O.K. Sweetheart? A meal that she’s 

never had before. Bye. Cynthia’s calling back, 

we’ve got to get started…“ 

Grumbling a little, Julian goes to the range 

and turns off the heat under the water for the 

spaghetti and then logs in to his cooking club. 

The web site window tells him there are 247 

members online. One of the hobby cooks will 

surely have a good idea for him. 

He drags and drops the available ingredients 

in a window and starts the messaging application. 

The first replies arrive quickly, including 

one from Rob in England. Julian knows him 

from an online course offered by the school 

founded by Ferran Adrià, the famous Spanish 

chef. With a click of his mouse, he selects Rob 

right away and opens a video connection in 

another window. 

Julian explains his situation. “I’m getting the 

impression that you don’t especially like Cynthia,” 

says Rob. “Then I recommend you make 

baked curry fish with a pepper crust in coconut 

milk, spinach, and steamed potatoes. I’ll order 

just the right korma paste and the coconut milk 

for you at ‘Bombay Kitchen.’ They also supply 

through dealers in Germany and deliver in 20 

minutes,” says Rob. Julian thanks him and gets 

the fish from the freezer compartment… 

One hour later, Cynthia, Catherine, Julian, 

and Max are sitting at the dinner table. “Wow, 

Dad! You’ve really outdone yourself,” says Max. 

“Really, it’s delicious,” adds Catherine. Cynthia, 

meanwhile, is busy scraping crushed peppercorns 

from her fish. Her cheeks are sprinkled 

with red spots, and beads of sweat glisten on 

her forehead. “Yes, very good,” she concurs. 

“Thanks again for the spontaneous invitation” 

“Our pleasure,” says Julian with a grin. “You are 

always welcome here…“ 


| Trends 

New 

Communications technology 

is increasingly 

impacting our daily lives. 

Bandwidths are expanding 

in wireless networks 

and on the Internet, creating 

new possibilities 

for social interaction. 

Meanwhile, the Internet, 

wireless networks, and 

fixed-line networks are 

converging. In spite of 

many changes, Siemens 

still plays a key role in all 

of these areas. 

Those who have found the rapid development 

of communications technology over 

the past few years to be breathtaking won’t be 

getting much of a breather over the next ten 

years. The number of Internet users around the 

world is expected to rise from the current one 

billion to five billion by 2015 (see p. 89). Most 

of this growth will be fueled by mobile Webenabled 

devices. As a result, data traffic is expected 

to increase by a factor of 100. Whether 

it’s cell phones or the Internet, at home or at 

work — seamless communication has become 

a permanent part of our lives, and data transmission 

routes are becoming as much of a basic 

need as the lines that bring electricity to our 

homes. Transmission technologies that use 

much higher bandwidths than ever before are 

opening up new possibilities not only for social 

interaction in near-real networked worlds, but 

also for forums that allow images, music, and 

videos to be exchanged in high quality while 

Researchers at Siemens Corporate Technology 

have succeeded in transmitting data at a 

speed of one gigabit per second using 

a single polymer fiber. 

Social Network 

on the move. Devices and systems that are still 

separate today, such as TV, the Internet, wireless 

networks, fixed-line networks, the office, 

and industrial facilities, are converging. 

Communication systems have always 

played a key role at Siemens. “Around half of 

our total R&D expenditure goes to software, 

which basically means communication applications,” 

says Prof. Hartmut Raffler, head of Information 

and Communications at Siemens Corporate 

Technology (CT). “All Siemens business 

areas — from Automation and Control to 

Power and Medical — are permeated by communications 

technology. After all, our products 

are not isolated solutions; they’re all linked via 

networks.” Since April 2007, the expertise for 

fixed-line and mobile network technology has 

been concentrated not only at CT but also at 

Nokia Siemens Networks (see p. 84). The establishment 

of Nokia Siemens Networks was 

Siemens’ reaction to growing consolidation, 

the idea being that the joint venture would enable 

the company to maintain its strong market 

position in communications. 

“We work with Nokia Siemens Networks in 

order to make its new technologies available to 

our business areas,” says Raffler. “It’s very important 

for us to have close contact with this 

technological pioneer, and to Siemens Enterprise 

Communications (SEN), which offers 

communication solutions for businesses.” 

Peer-to-peer networks offer an example of 

the effectiveness of this setup. Such networks 

allow computers to link up with one another independently 

of a central server. SEN used this 

technology to develop a telephone system in 

which terminals plugged into a fixed-line jack 

automatically join together in a network (see p. 

88). “This principle could also end up having a 

major impact on the energy technology sector,” 

Raffler says. “In the future, we’ll be seeing 

many types of small power generation facilities, 

and these will have to be linked together 

in intelligent systems that enable them to 

communicate with one another. Peer-to-peer 

networks offer an ideal solution.” (p. 90) 

Evolution, not Revolution. Although communications 

technology is developing rapidly, we 

are unlikely to experience major surprises. 

“There won’t be a revolution in wireless systems 

over the next few years,” says Torsten Gerpott, a 

professor of Telecommunications Management 

at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. 

“What you will see will be evolution in areas 

such as data transmission capacity.” The fastest 

theoretically possible commercial wireless connection 

today (UMTS with the HSDPA extension) 

achieves a transfer rate of 14.4 megabits 

per second (Mbit/s). However, experts believe 

this figure will increase to 200 Mbit/s by 2015, 

which is around 12 times more than the rate 

managed by today’s most powerful DSL connections 

in the fixed-line network. Siemens has already 

achieved a data transfer rate of one gigabit 

per second (Gbit/s) under lab conditions. 

Bandwidths in the Internet will also increase. 

Nokia Siemens Networks is the leader in glass 

fiber technology, and CT is currently conducting 

research into polymer fibers that can transfer 

data at a rate of one Gbit/s. In just a few years, 

backbone applications between servers will use 

the Ethernet format to achieve a transfer rate of 

100 Gbit/s — ten times higher than the norm 

today. Nevertheless, the Internet’s “volatile 

youthful phase has come to an end. Now it’s becoming 

mature, so to speak,” says Gerpott. 

In other words, we shouldn’t expect completely 

new technologies to hit the market; instead, 

we’ll be seeing new applications that will 

improve everyday life. One of the buzzwords 



Seamless Communication | Trends 

here is Web 2.0 — web sites where users can 

chat and interact. Wikipedia, the Internet lexicon, 

is a prominent example. “This is a trend 

that just about everyone is picking up on,” says 

Stefan Jenzowsky of Trommsdorff und Drüner, 

a media consulting agency. “For example, the 

share of MySpace profiles accounted for by 12 – 

17-year-olds is falling sharply because the 35 – 

55 age group is now the largest.” 

Web 2.0 also makes possible customized 

services such as Pandora Internet radio, which 

offers music precisely tailored to its members’ 

personal preferences after these have been determined 

during a “training phase” in which 

users rate various songs. “The software then 

suggests similar songs designed to please the 

user that he or she would not normally think 

of,” Jenzowsky explains. Such services can help 

Internet users handle the huge flow of information 

on the Web. “A key aspect here is the ability 

to make selections among the abundance of offerings 

on the Web,” says Dr. Manfred Langen, a 

knowledge management expert at CT. “With all 

the blogs and other social software applications 

out there, you really need to be media savvy to 

keep things in perspective.” CT is therefore 

working on projects geared toward a more 

clearly arranged online world. The Theseus 

project, for example, which is being funded by 

the German Ministry of Economics, seeks to 

develop and test the basic technologies and 

technical standards required for obtaining information 

in a targeted manner from sources such 

crucial issue, which is why CT has around 70 experts 

who specialize in making products and 

systems hacker-proof (see p. 94). 

Another buzzword these days is convergence 

— and not just within the Internet. The 

telecommunication, Internet, media, and entertainment 

sectors are now being referred to as 

Wireless and fixed-line networks will eventually 

completely merge with the Internet. 

as Web databases. The plan here is to use special 

software to determine which meaning of a 

term is correct in a particular context. For example, 

“Siemens” could refer to the company, its 

founder, or a unit of conductivity. 

The Theseus project includes Siemens, SAP, 

and several other German companies and research 

institutes. “We’re also helping to restructure 

the Internet,” says Raffler. “The network architecture 

for the Web has to be redesigned in a 

manner that will make it more robust, reliable, 

and able to handle a rapidly increasing data 

volume, while remaining secure.” The latter is a 

the “TIME industry.” Technically speaking, convergence 

means that mobile and fixed-line networks 

are merging. 

For example, there are services that permit 

cell phone calls to be made via a fixed-line 

number in the area around your home. Experts 

believe almost all data traffic will one day be 

carried via the Internet, whereby nearly all types 

of everyday devices will be linked to the Web. 

This will lead to convergence in the data world, 

as information from the most diverse sources 

will be accessible from anywhere using any type 

of communication device. 

The Internet as a community. Rapidly increasing data transfer capacities are leading to completely new services and the possibility of downloading large files to any 

mobile terminal. Communication islands such as airplanes, trains, and ships are being linked to the global data network via the Mogis satellite solution. 

“Users don’t want to worry about the technology 

behind services,” says Gerpott. Instead, 

they expect to have enough bandwidth to do 

what they want, regardless of their location and 

without the need for special transmission channels. 

Various devices — such as home and office 

PCs, vehicle navigation systems, and cell 

phones — should be able to understand one 

another, while data exchanges and comparisons 

should be either easy or automatic. 

Outstanding user-friendliness is a fundamental 

requirement here, which is why Jarkko 

Sairanen, Nokia’s chief strategist, says that the 

usability of devices such as cell phones is currently 

the biggest challenge (see interview). 

While Jenzowsky doesn’t expect to see any universal 

devices, he foresees three main interfaces 

with the data world in the future. “At 

home you’ll have a big screen for the TV, Internet, 

and home automation systems. Cars will 

have a medium-sized display for the onboard 

computer, which will be used to communicate 

with other vehicles, navigate, and call infotainment 

services. Finally, we will have pocket-sized 

computers for making calls, chatting on the 

Web, navigating, and sending and receiving e- 

mails,” he says. Maintaining social contacts via 

various channels will become more and more 

important in such a world. 

A similar development will occur in the 

industrial realm through the networked interaction 

of individual components in automated 

facilities — i.e. plug-and-play for factories. Here 

we will see online sensor systems, machines 

and control units that speak the same data language 

and are online. Seamless communication 

will also incorporate logistics chains and complete 

product life cycles through the inclusion of 

suppliers, partners, and customers (see p. 92). 

Jarkko Sairanen, 43, is 

responsible for Nokia’s 

business strategy and technology 

planning. Before 

joining the cell phone giant, 

Sairanen worked at Boston 

Consulting. He has an MBA 

from INSEAD and an M.Sc. 

from the Helsinki University 

of Technology. 

Usability is the Challenge 

Imagine that it’s ten years from now and 

you’re contacting a friend. What does 

your mobile phone look like? 

Sairanen: I believe that there will be a proliferation 

of mobile devices with different capabilities. 

For example, we will have phones in 

the form of watches and items that are more 

or less works of art, finely crafted and very 

high-end. There might also be an evolution of 

the new Nokia N95, which can run any applications 

like a computer, with full Internet 

access. It will be a phone that is as small as 

today’s phones, but it will be as powerful as 

the most powerful laptops are today. You will 

be able to talk with a friend, even as voice, 

data, and different images are transferred at 

a high data rate. And we will see bigger displays. 

One of the essential things will be the 

visual experience. 

Which mobile bandwidth will be 

available? 

Sairanen: More than 100 megabits per 

second. 

This would be about ten times the rate of 

HSDPA today. Who is setting the trends 

here? The network operators who provide 

higher data rates, more content, and more 

software applications, or the suppliers 

of the devices, who put more high-tech 

features into their mobile phones? 

Sairanen: Both. Besides those two, there’s a 

lot of innovation going on at software and 

Internet companies such as Google and 

Yahoo. And start-ups can innovate fast in the 

open Internet. 

What role does Nokia Siemens Networks 

play as an infrastructure supplier? 

Sairanen: We work closely with Nokia 

Siemens Networks in a number of ways. One 

area is the push to spread the benefits of 

mobility to new growth markets. In June, for 

example, our companies were at the EU-Africa 

Business Forum in Accra, Ghana, showing ways 

to increase communications access for urban 

and rural areas. For day-to-day business, Nokia 

Siemens Networks can leverage Nokia’s strong 

position in the mobile device market and tap 

into our deep understanding of consumers 

when they design solutions addressing the 

challenges of operators and service providers. 

Will you produce a phone that can handle 

every existing radio standard? 

Sairanen: You can already call our phones 

multiradio products. We support GSM, Edge, 

UMTS, Bluetooth, FM radio, DVB-H (digital TV), 

Near Field Communication (NFC), and GPS. 

What’s more, WiMAX is coming next year. As a 

result, we see challenges in areas like energy 

management and antenna design. 

Does a company that sells only mobile 

devices have a future? 

Sairanen: This is a very important question 

for us. Our strategy is to offer people more 

than just a mobile device. Consumers want 

simple, intuitive usability and comprehensive 

experiences. We have therefore launched a 

new Web portal called “Ovi.” It features Nokia 

Maps. Our customers can download maps 

from our website to Nokia phones and get 

instructions on how to get to a place, where 

the nearest restaurants or gas stations are, 

etc. We also have several devices that have 

full e-mail capability. We were also the first to 

bring full Internet on mobile devices with the 

Web Browser for S60. The S60 smartphone 

software is an open platform. Owners can add 

new applications and services to it to make 

them richer and more personal. 

What do you think will be the biggest 

challenges in the next two to five years? 

Sairanen: If I can highlight only one challenge, 

I would say it’s usability. Technology is 

evolving very fast. The challenge is how to 

integrate all this technology so that it creates 

a compelling experience for users, which in 

turn opens the door to mass adoption. A 

mobile phone must be so simple to use that 

you can use it intuitively without reading the 

manual. If we manage to do that well, we will 

have a huge impact on the lives of billions of 

people. 


Omnipresent Internet Siemens IT Solutions 

and Services creates wireless communication islands 

in aircraft, trains, ships, and remote areas. 

Mogis (mobile GSM infrastructure over satellite) 

uses mini mobile radio base stations from Nokia 

Siemens Networks in airplanes, for example, 

that are hidden behind cabin paneling. The stations 

bundle incoming and outgoing calls. “The 

signal range of onboard cell phone in such locations 

must be limited to only a few meters,” says 

Mogis project manager Stefan von der Heide. 

Special filters ensure that the signals do not interfere 

with aircraft electronic systems. The 

combined call data is sent from a modem to 

communication satellites, which transmit it to 

Earth, where it is fed into fixed-line and wireless 

networks via special Siemens servers. 

“Sophisticated data compression enables us 

to transmit seven phone conversations simultaneously 

over a single satellite channel that handles 

64 kilobits per second,” Heide reports. Mogis 

was approved for use in aircraft in June 

2007, and will soon be ready for mass application. 

Along with phone calls, the solution also 

supports GPRS and text messaging. Mogis is 

based on the Internet protocol and is also suitable 

for use in trains and ships in areas that 

have not yet been linked to a wireless network. 

“The system enables us to connect even the 

most remote area in the world to mobile networks 

via satellite,” says Heide. Now that’s 

seamless worldwide communication. 




Seamless Communication | Nokia Siemens Networks 

Billions Online 

Nokia Siemens Networks has what it takes to be 

successful in an extremely competitive market. 

The joint venture boasts a unique technological 

portfolio for creating a system that will ensure 

seamless communication for billions of people. 

Less than half of the world’s roughly one billion 

computers and three billion cell 

phones are linked to the Internet — which 

means we now have a historic opportunity,” 

says Dr. Stephan Scholz, Chief Technology 

Officer at Nokia Siemens Networks. “We envision 

a situation in which some five billion people 

will have permanent high-bandwidth Internet 

access by 2015, enabling them to talk to 

one another or exchange photos and videos.” 

However, turning this vision into reality poses a 

huge challenge for the communications industry. 

Among other things, it will require the 

merging of today’s separate fixed-line, mobile, 

and data networks, a process that has already 

begun. The Internet is taking on more and 

more data traffic. In just a few years, nearly all 

telephone calls and TV broadcasts will run over 

IP technology, which enables information to be 

sent in small separate data packages that are 

then reassembled when they arrive at their 

destinations. “This will lead to major changes 

for everyone in the industry — but we’re extremely 

well prepared,” says Scholz. 

That’s because Siemens and Nokia have 

joined forces to offer all types of relevant solutions 

as the sector undergoes this transformation. 

Nokia Siemens Networks is one of the 

world leaders in both wireless and fixed-line 

infrastructure and services. With sales of €17 

Be it optical fibers (large photo and small photo 

far right) or cellular radio (small photos left and 

center), Nokia Siemens Networks is a leader in 

transmission technologies. 

billion and a global workforce of approximately 

60,000 (including 17,000 in research and development), 

the joint venture counts among its 

customers 75 of the world’s top 100 telecommunication 

companies. 

The entire communications sector has been 

under tremendous cost pressure ever since the 

dot.com bubble burst. Although technological 

advances have helped cut costs, they have also 

reduced the number of people needed to operate 

telecommunications facilities. Thus the first 

order of business at the new joint venture is to 

further tighten control over expenditures. 

“We’re going to address this issue and use our 

leadership in innovation to create a foundation 

for business success,” says Scholz. “In any case,” 

adds colleague Lauri Oksanen, head of Nokia 

Siemens Network’s Product Technology in Espoo, 

Finland, “we’ve already got the most 

extensive portfolio in the industry.” 

Good-bye to Large Switching Cabinets. 

Most of the two billion people who are expected 

to become Internet users in coming 

years will probably be connected to the Web 

via mobile devices. With this in mind, Nokia 

Siemens Networks is working on a new type of 

mobile Internet architecture called Internet 

High Speed Packet Access (I-HSPA) technology. 

Today the fastest theoretical data transfer rate 

for wireless downloads (14.4 megabits per second 

— see p. 89 and Pictures of the Future, Fall 

2004, p. 11) is offered by HSPA. “I-HSPA technology 

enables us to directly link cell phones to 

the Internet via a base station, without using a 

radio network controller or RNC,” explains Antti 

Vuorinen, who heads the Application Laboratory 

in Espoo. A major telecommunications 

provider generally requires dozens of these 

man-sized switching cabinets to operate a nationwide 

network. Depending on the equipment 

setup, several hundred base stations 

might be connected to an RNC today. “I-HSPA 

By 2014, 4G cell phones are expected to have a 

data transfer rate of one gigabit per second. 

tecture, Nokia Siemens Networks is testing its 

mobile WiMAX system. Fixed WiMAX already 

exists for point-to-point transmission. This 

technology can in theory achieve transfer rates 

of up to 70 megabits per second (Mbit/s) over a 

distance of 50 kilometers. Mobile WiMAX represents 

a real wireless alternative to DSL in areas 

that can either not be hooked up to the Internet 

via cables, or where the costs of such a 

link would be prohibitive. But now, mobile 

WiMAX is being developed to provide service 

for devices that are on the move. To this end, a 

major field test will be launched at the end of 

this year, and Nokia plans to launch devices 

that use the technology in 2008. Working with 

industry partners, Nokia Siemens Networks is 

also building a WiMAX network for U.S. wireless 

provider Sprint that will serve some 100 

million customers. Sprint is investing $3 billion 

in the project. 

Dr. Egon Schulz, who heads Nokia Siemens 

Networks’ Future Mobile Communication Technologies 

department in Munich, is looking a lit- 

therefore allows providers to employ less 

equipment while still maintaining the same 

bandwidth,” says Vuorinen. This in turn will 

lower the cost of mobile broadband. 

To thoroughly assess its innovations, Nokia 

Siemens Networks operates a large test network 

in Espoo, where several base stations 

cover ten square kilometers. “Here, our developers 

can test the interaction between various 

devices, transmission technologies, and services,” 

says Vuorinen. Workers at the site are issued 

a special Nokia Siemens Networks SIM 

card, and the frequencies used are “loaned out” 

by the Finnish Communications Regulatory 

Authority. In addition to the new I-HSPA architle 

further down the road. Among other things, 

he and his team are working on Long Term 

Evolution (LTE), which operates with several 

antennas per base station and is expected to 

offer a data transfer rate of up to 170 Mbit/s in 

its initial version. Such high data rates will be 

necessary because many more pictures, songs 

and, above all, films will be downloaded from 

the Web in the future. “Users want movies to 

start immediately after they click them. They 

don’t want to wait,” says Schulz. Nokia Siemens 

Networks has in fact already built a corresponding 

demonstration system. “At the moment, 

we’re up to 170 Mbit/s using two antennas. 

With four we get 340 Mbit/s,” says Schulz. “But 

this was achieved in controlled laboratory conditions; 

there are too many possible sources of 

interference to reach that level in the field.” LTE 

employs the orthogonal frequency division 

multiplexing (OFDM) procedure, which uses 

radio bandwidths more efficiently and can 

therefore transfer more data. WiMAX also uses 

OFDM, as does WLAN, the DVB-T and DVB-H TV 

standards. Schulz believes mobile devices for 

LTE can be developed quickly, now that manufacturers 

have fully developed the underlying 

chip technology. 

He and his team have also achieved a wireless 

rate of one gigabit per second. They did so 

by combining OFDM with an intelligent antenna 

system consisting of three transmitting 

and five receiving antennas. The transmission 

bandwidth here was 100 megahertz, however, 

which is five times higher than what LTE was 

designed for. The system’s range of several 

hundred meters is also lower than that 

achieved with today’s radio cells. “For such high 

transfer rates, long range is currently not required,” 

says Schulz. That’s because Nokia 

Siemens Networks’ scenario involves using 

these high bandwidths mostly in hot spots, 

where mobile terminals automatically adjust 

data transfer rates in accordance with available 

bandwidth. “We’ve already got the rudiments 

down for such a system,” says Schulz. “At the 

moment, it can smoothly switch over from 14 

kbit/s to five Mbit/s and also transmit videos 

without any interruption.” 

Struggling for New Frequencies. Although 

LTE is far from ready for mass production, another 

completely new chapter in mobile communications 

is already beginning. This October, 

the World Radio Conference (WRC) will 

convene in Geneva, Switzerland. At the meeting, 

representatives of the member countries 

of the International Telecommunication Union 

(ITU) will conduct negotiations on the frequency 

spectrum for fourth-generation (4G) 

mobile radio. “This is going to be exciting, because 

it’s still not clear where the required frequencies 

might lie,” Schulz explains. “At the 

moment, they’re used differently in different 

countries.” Standardization probably won’t be 

achieved here until 2011. The first 4G cell 

phone prototypes could become available in 

2014. These new phones are expected to be 

extremely powerful by today’s standards, as 

the goal is a data transfer rate of one gigabit 

per second. 



Seamless Communication 

Such speed is the norm in the Internet backbone 

today, where large routers transmit data 

worldwide along lines that can accommodate 

between 2.5 and ten Gbit/s. However, the huge 

boom in video portals such as YouTube and 

other high-data services will require the introduction 

of even more powerful technologies. 

That’s why Nokia Siemens Networks is planning 

to expand glass fiber transmission technologies. 

“Customers are now asking for lines 

that can handle 40 to 100 Gbit/s,” says Ernst- 

Dieter Schmidt, who conducts optical systems 

research in Munich. The glass fiber lines transmit 

light signals (in the infrared range at a 

wavelength of 1,500 nanometers) thousands 

of kilometers. These light signals are then converted 

back to electrical signals when they 

reach their destination. 

Light Pulse. Optical-fiber networks also offer a 

further advantage in that once they’ve been 

laid, they can be equipped with new technology 

that increases bandwidth. “All you have to 

do is replace the optical transmitters and receivers,” 

Schmidt explains. Lines that can transmit 

40 Gbit/s will be ready for market launch at 

the end of 2008. With the help of amplifiers 

along their routes, they will be able to transmit 

data over a distance of up to 1,400 kilometers. 

The 100 Gbit/s lines will then go online in 

2010. “Transmitting such large volumes of data 

is an extremely complex process,” says 

Schmidt. For one thing, you need very fast 

modulators that can generate the required frequencies 

and thus the information bits. The individual 

light pulses are also unimaginably 

short. At one Gbit/s, a bit is a pulse 20 centimeters 

in length, but at 100 Gbit/s, it’s only two 

millimeters long — and traveling at 300,000 

kilometers per second. 

Regardless of which technology is used to 

transmit data, it will have to be of very high 

quality and extremely reliable. “Future users 

won’t be interested in what type of bandwidth 

they’re working with,” says Oksanen. “They will 

simply want to be able to use Internet services 

anytime and anywhere — without complications.” 

The challenge for wireless providers in 

particular, according to Oksanen, is that they 

will need to react more rapidly to Internet developments 

in the future in order to ensure 

that trusted services from Google, MySpace, 

YouTube etc. will function smoothly on cell 

phones as well. “We can help providers operate 

their networks as efficiently as possible and 

rapidly integrate new applications — whether 

it’s a fixed-line or a mobile network,” says Oksanen. 

“Once we do all this, the vision of five 

billion people online will become a reality,” 

adds Scholz. Norbert Aschenbrenner 

| Networked Living 

temperatures with predefined settings in every 

room and then adjusts heating system valves 

to bring temperatures to the desired level. 

Synco living is based on KNX, an open 

global standard for building system technology. 

The key aspect here, says Hauser, is that 

“depending on the needs of the resident, the 

heating system can be easily combined with 

electrical and security applications.” Some people, 

for example, don’t need a home security 

system right away, while adjustable heating 

systems are a fast-growing trend. Hauser also 

says that installation costs for Synco living are 

extremely low, thanks to battery powered components 

and wireless connections. Additional 

KNX-based products from other manufacturers 

can also be integrated into the system. 

In the realm of infotainment, the PC-Internet 

world is merging with devices like MP3 

players, digital cameras, cell phones, game 

consoles, and TVs. Fujitsu Siemens Computers 

(FSC) believes networked homes will require 

powerful data storage units that can handle 

photos and videos, as well as Web and television 

content, whereby users will access such 

content via WLAN and the Internet. FSC already 

offers an expandable home server with a 500- 

gigabyte hard disk. 

Internet pizza via cell phone? The new CAT-iq 

standard links mobile phones to the Internet, 

opening up many new application possibilities 

on the road to the networked home. 

Welcome to the Smart Home 

The rapid increase in 

broadband connections 

is resulting in a growing 

number of networked 

homes, especially in the 

realm of infotainment. 

Siemens solutions enable 

new comfort and security 

features, while new communication 

standards 

simplify the wireless 

networking of individual 

system components. 

Peter uses his cordless telephone to go on 

the Internet, where he notes the number of 

a pizzeria and orders two pizzas. His wife, Sally, 

has already sent a cell phone postcard to 

Peter’s TV to tell him that she and their two 

children, Anne and David, will soon be arriving. 

When the pizza delivery man arrives, he is recognized 

by the home security system, which 

opens the door before he can ring the bell... 

Technically speaking, this scenario could become 

reality tomorrow. However, to date, such 

a combination of communication, entertainment, 

and security systems — including the 

control of lights, heating, and blinds — has 

been implemented only in demonstration 

projects. “We still have individual systems that 

are very costly to install and require a lot of 

effort and expense to modify,” says Thomas 

Hauser, a building automation expert at 

Siemens Building Technologies (SBT). 

To improve things, in 2007 SBT launched 

Synco living, a radio-based home automation 

system. At the heart of the system is a central 

unit that enables residents to control all functions 

in up to 12 rooms and monitor everything 

on a display. There are room temperature sensors 

that radio temperature data to the central 

unit, whose heat regulator compares actual 

“The top priority for us at the moment is television,” 

says Björn Fehrm, head of FSC’s Digital 

Home unit. Fehrm emphasizes the importance 

of systems for recording television broadcasts 

onto hard disks, thus enabling users to view 

programs at any time. Then there’s “Follow Me 

TV,” which allows users to continue watching a 

program on a laptop that’s connected via 

WLAN and the Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) 

standard protocol, if they want to go into the 

garden, for example. 

Telecommunication companies are now 

also offering TV programming via Internet 

(IPTV), although channel surfing requires special 

solutions that interact smoothly with the 

network infrastructure and set-top boxes. 

“We’ve had an IPTV platform on the market 

since 2000. Today, four European and more 

than 80 U.S. providers use it to broadcast via 

broadband,” says Udo Biro, IPTV product manager 

at Nokia Siemens Networks. Depending 

on the provider, several hundred thousand 

viewers can thus now watch more than one 

hundred stations in high definition, download 

videos, or record programs, which they can 

watch anytime they want. “In the future, we’ll 

also see the convergence of IPTV solutions and 

mobile radio networks,” says Biro. This will 

make it possible for someone to take a picture 

with their cell phone, for example, and then 

send it to a Web portal, from which a friend can 

download the photo to his or her television. 

Finding your Favorite Shows. Lydia Aldejohann, 

who is responsible for innovative business 

models at Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), 

believes the television of the future will offer a 

large number of personalized services. NSN already 

has a TV service package known as Ivon 

that works with new types of hybrid set-top 

boxes that receive TV broadcasts via conventional 

cables, satellite, or DVB-T channels and 

are also equipped with a DSL connection for interactive 

functions. 

“We developed an intelligent software client 

for Ivon that creates dynamic user profiles,” 

says Aldejohann. Such profiles allow the system 

to register and assess user preferences, 

which enables the set-top box to make viewing 

suggestions on the basis of an electronic program 

guide (EPG). Ivon also automatically 

records programs that fit a given user profile. 

The solution is being tested in Finland with 

Connect TV Group Oy until the end of 2007 

and, as Aldejohann reports, “Ivon could become 

commercially available in 2008.” 

The merging of telephones with the Internet 

continues as well. CAT-iq (Cordless Advanced 

Technology – internet and quality) — 

the successor of DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless 

Telecommunications) — sends out radio 

signals worldwide in the unlicensed frequency 

spectrum and cannot be affected by WLAN or 

Bluetooth systems. “Internet telephony with 

CAT-iq is so clear that it sounds like the person 

you’re talking to is right next to you,” says Erich 

Kamperschroer, chairman of the DECT Forum 

and head of Innovation and Technology Management 

at Siemens Home and Office Communication 

Devices (SHC). What’s more, the batteries 

in CAT-iq devices last longer than those 

in WLAN phones and the system’s range of 50 

meters in the home is also much greater. 

CAT-iq makes it possible for cordless phones 

to directly access the Internet and future Internet-based 

networks. “For the first time, applications 

such as the direct dialing of numbers 

looked up in Internet telephone books will become 

possible,” says Kamperschroer. The technology 

could also open up Internet radio to a 

mass market. According to Kamperschroer, 

CAT-iq is the only radio technology that distributes 

audio signals at a continual high quality. 

CAT-iq can also be used to supplement LAN 

and WLAN as a home data distribution system. 

WLAN reaches its limit at the high transfer 

rates that are, for example, required when several 

TVs in a home are hooked up to the sys- 



Seamless Communication | Networked Homes 

Limitless Availability 

Work can be made 

more efficient if 

employees can always 

be reached, regardless 

of location, time of day, 

or the networks and 

terminals they utilize. 

One solution for speeding 

up communication 

processes in this manner is 

offered by Siemens’ Open- 

Scape system (Pictures of 

the Future, Fall 2004, 

p.14). “OpenScape uses 

the media-independent 

Session Initiation Protocol 

(SIP) to bring together 

separate networks like 

the company LAN, mobile 

radio, and fixed lines, says Karl Klug, an innovation manager at Siemens Enterprise Communications 

(SEN). SIP transmits voice communications over IP networks, determines the identity of callers, and 

routes calls to the phone where the employee can be reached at a given moment. OpenScape is used 

by many customers today, including Accenture and Telstra. The latter is Australia’s leading provider of 

communication services for businesses. IBM recently obtained a license to integrate specific OpenScape 

components into its Lotus telephony package. 

“We’ve been working with open interfaces — and therefore with SIP — since 2006,” says Klug. Utilization 

of SIP makes it possible even for small companies to combine Internet telephony (Voice-over-IP, or 

VoIP) with conventional telephone systems and mobile radio networks, as well as with software telephones 

in laptops. “We can do this with HiPath BizIP for up to 20 employees,” says product manager 

Franz Kneissl. OpenScape doesn’t even require a telephone system, as each telephone handles switching 

functions, configuring itself automatically using the Peer-to-Peer Protocol (Pictures of the Future, 

Fall 2005, p.32). 

SEN has also developed a solution known as HiPath Mobile Connect with Nokia. “HiPath Mobile Connect 

combines VoIP, Voice-over-WLAN, and mobile radio,” says Marcus Birkl. The system is able to recognize 

as extension lines special Nokia cell phones (dual-mode) that can operate with either the GSM network 

or WLAN. Employees can always be reached at one number and also have only one voicemail system. 

The system’s cell phones also offer the common features of a fixed-line system, such as call forwarding, 

call waiting, and conference calling. Calls can even be switched from a company WLAN network to a cell 

phone wireless network without any interruptions. HiPath Mobile Connect, which has already been successfully 

tested at ten medium-sized businesses and large corporations throughout Europe, has been on 

the market since the summer of 2007. “To ensure completely seamless communication, we can also integrate 

video, text messaging, and all types of online instant messaging services,” says Dr. Johann-Heinrich 

Schinke, who is responsible for system architecture at SEN. 

OpenScape is set to be expanded to include a solution for videoconferencing at the end of 2007. “We’ve 

developed a low-cost telepresence solution for the mass market,” Schinke reports. Telepresence refers 

here to a new generation of videoconferencing systems that utilize high-resolution cameras and large 

screens that make it appear as if conference participants from around the world are actually sitting opposite 

one another at the same table. The solution is based on SIP-enabled communication systems like 

HiPath 8000 that can be integrated into a company’s IT infrastructure and which make possible the convergence 

of voice and data services and multimedia applications. “With such a solution, it is possible for 

videoconference participants to make revisions to documents and exchange ideas via instant messaging,” 

Klug explains. 

Klug is convinced that such solutions will eventually include applications for the interactive Internet 

(Web 2.0), such as the joint indexing of images, commentaries, and geo-data (tagging). In fact, SEN is 

already working on the interfaces and products that will be needed for such applications. 

Wireless home automation is on the way. The 

modular Synco living system from Siemens Building 

Technologies can be installed in existing buildings 

that have up to 12 rooms. 

tem. With this in mind, SHC offers a broadband 

transmission system that utilizes plastic optical 

fibers for high-performance home networks. 

Up to now, the 1.5-millimeter-thick polymer cables 

have been able to transmit data at up to 

50 meters at a constant rate of 100 megabits 

per second (Mbit/s). “But if we can improve signal 

processing, we can increase the transmission 

rate tenfold to one gigabit per second and 

increase the range to 100 meters,” says Sebastian 

Randel of Siemens Corporate Technology 

(CT). Randel expects a prototype to be ready by 

the end of 2007. 

Dr. Joachim Walewski is currently working at 

CT in Munich on wireless data transmission using 

light. Unlike polymer fibers, which use red 

light, Walewski’s system employs the white 

light of an LED source, which is modulated too 

fast for the eye to register. Says Walewski: “An 

LED ceiling lamp with a DSL connection not 

only lights up; it can also send a video signal to 

a TV. But our current data transfer rates are too 

low.” His target is to get the rate up from 250 

kbit/s and to 100 Mbit/s by the end of 2008. 

Peter in our story already enjoys such high 

data transfer rates. After finishing their pizzas, 

he and Sally watch a recording of the news, 

while Anne watches Internet TV in her room — 

brought to her by polymer cables — and David 

chats via webcam with friends, with whom he 

also swaps home movies. Nikola Wohllaib 


Broadband Technologies Boom 

DSL is now the world’s favorite broadband technology 

for surfing the Internet, uploading photos and videos 

onto popular Web 2.0 sites and, more and more, for 

watching TV. According to Point Topic, in December 2006 

two thirds of the world’s 281 million broadband users 

were connected via DSL. And by 2009, according to the 

Stanford Group, there will be 258 million DSL users. Cable 

modems, satellite connections, and optical fibers are less 

widespread. 

In the meantime, many experts believe that most connections 

to the Internet will soon be made via mobile terminals 

instead of stationary computers. After all, the number 

of cellular phone connections worldwide exceeded 

three billion in August 2007 according to the European 

Information Technology Observatory market research institute 

(EITO). Furthermore, EITO forecasts that this number 

will hit four billion by 2010, with another billion 

to come by 2015. This figure not only includes SIM 

cards for cell phones and smart phones, but also data 

cards for notebooks. Most of the growth is occurring in 

Asia (especially in China and India) and in Latin America. 

In India, six million new cell phone subscribers sign up 

every month. 

Cellular radio networks still have enormous potential 

in terms of data rates. Third generation (3G) networks, 

currently with 114 million UMTS users worldwide, are 

Source: Yankee Group, Point Topic Research, Stanford Group 2005 

DSL dominates fixed-line broadband 

connections worldwide 

Millions of connections 

300 

250 

200 

150 

100 

50 

0 

DSL 

Cable 

FTTx 

2005 

*Compound annual growth rate 

2006 2007 2008 2009 

now being upgraded from 384 kilobits per second 

(kbit/s) to higher data speeds. According to the GSM Association 

(GSMA), the international industry association of 

more than 700 cellular radio operators, 155 UMTS networks 

are now “on air” in 68 countries worldwide. 

High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) has already been 

switched on by 110 of these networks in 57 countries, and 

another 52 network operators are planning to start using 

the technology soon. HSPA boosts transmission capacity 

from its current 7.2 megabits per second (Mbit/s) downlink 

(DL) and 1.46 Mbit/s uplink (UL) to up to 14.4 Mbit/s 

(DL) and 5.72 Mbit/s (UL) over a range of upgrade steps. 

According to estimates, HSPA is set to become the leading 

UMTS technology, with around a billion users worldwide 

by 2012. 

Chip manufacturers and suppliers of network technology 

both expect more powerful UMTS networks to offer 

even higher bandwidths starting in 2009. In combination 

with special transmission methods such as OFDM (orthogonal 

frequency division multiplexing) and multi-antennae 

systems, they expect to see 42 Mbit/s (DL) and 11 Mbit/s 

(UL). Fourth generation cellular radio networks, whose 

standardization is about to begin, are expected to offer 

100 Mbit/s and more, starting in 2011. 

Networks are also being launched with wireless 

WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) 

CAGR* 

2005-2009 

in percent 

11,1 

9,7 

57,4 

Demand for Ethernet 

connections 

Millions of units 

8 

7 

6 

5 

4 

3 

2 

1 

0 

CAGR* 

51,4% 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 

technology. Analysts from Credit Suisse First Boston estimate 

that mobile WiMAX will usher in data rates of 2 

Mbit/s to 70 Mbit/s, while experts from Arthur D. Little expect 

peak rates of 16.8 Mbit/s. 

Around the world, terminal manufacturers are reacting 

to the coexistence of different mobile broadband technologies 

and offering cell phones, smart phones, handhelds, 

and notebooks with multiple technologies on 

board. Frost & Sullivan’s market researchers are highlighting 

in particular cell phones capable of phoning via both 

cellular networks and, at lower cost, WLAN connections. 

Experts from Strategy Analytics forecast that around 15 

million notebooks with integrated 3G modems will be delivered 

in 2009. Competition comes from Intel’s WiMAX 

chipsets, which are also being used in notebooks. 

The industry also sees great advantages in high bandwidths, 

for example in the use of industrial Ethernet in factories. 

The market for industrial Ethernet equipment is 

growing by more than 51 percent per year, according to a 

2005 study from the ARC Advisory Group. This suggests 

that the number of industrial Ethernet units will grow 

from its current 3.1 million to 6.6 million in 2009. Industrial 

Wireless Lan (IWLAN) is also making progress. According 

to the ARC Advisory Group, the market for wireless industrial 

equipment will grow from $453 million in 2007 to 

$1 billion in 2010. Nikola Wohllaib 

Demand for wireless 

technologies in industry 

Sales of hardware, software, services, millions of US$ 

1200 

1000 

800 

600 

400 

200 

0 

CAGR* 

26% 

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 

Source: ARC Advisory Group, 2005 



Seamless Communication | Power Plant Management 

It’s half time during an international soccer 

match. Throughout Germany, demand for 

electricity soars as people go to the rest room 

or to the kitchen to get a bite to eat. But such 

demand spikes are no problem since operators 

have made sure that their power plants have 

sufficient reserves to deal with such situations. 

Careful preparation is required to deal with 

peak loads. Conveyor belts have to supply more 

coal so that boilers can generate more steam, 

which in turn, results in more electricity. In 

some cases, such sequences have to be carried 

out with rigorous precision in which every second 

counts. “A human being could barely manage 

it,” says Dr. Rainer Speh, CTO for control 

systems at Siemens Power Generation (PG). 

However, a fully automated control system can 

easily handle the task. 

Seamless integration and communication 

are essential for power plants. After all, in the 

energy sector a fast decision can be worth millions 

of euros. This is the case, for example, 

with Vienna’s Spittelau plant, which incinerates 

waste to generate district heating. The plant 

has a wireless communications system that allows 

it — along with several other facilities — 

to be operated from a remote central control 

room. 

One of the most modern control systems on 

the market at present is Siemens’ Power Plant 

Automation SPPA-T3000, which was developed 

by PG. This fourth generation system starts up 

the plant and provides an up-to-date overview 

of its operating status. When used in a 1,000- 

megawatt block of a large modern power 

plant, for example, the SPPA-T3000 continuously 

monitors up to 100,000 process inputs 

and outputs. “Customers quickly notice if 

something isn’t running properly and can take 

countermeasures,” says Speh. Thirty of these 

innovative systems are already in use worldwide, 

and 200 more are on order. 

Up to 150 programmers worked on the new 

control system, whose special architecture is 

similar to the three-tier system used for the Internet. 

And that’s a big advantage. The first tier 

manages data. It consists of a network of sensors 

and actuators that covers the entire power 

plant. The next tier is the processing level. This 

is where plant control takes place. Here, sensor 

data is processed and commands are sent to 

the actuators that control the operation of 

pumps, motors, and valves. The plant’s data is 

stored on an integrated web server. All user 

data and access rights are centrally managed 

and each user receives only relevant data. The 

third tier is a presentation level. This is where 

interaction with power plant processes takes 

place. Unlike other systems, SPPA-T3000 does 

not require users to install special software. 

At Vienna’s Spittelau plant, a Siemens wireless 

communication system helps control heat generation 

facility. The T3000 control system (small 

picture) can be operated online via a web browser. 

Networked Power 

Today’s power plants are dynamic facilities that can 

be supervised and managed via the Internet. One of 

the most powerful control systems on the market is 

made by Siemens. It consolidates all of a plant’s 

functions and is easy to use, thereby increasing 

efficiency and cutting operating costs. 

Instead, control room operators can access the 

system via a web browser. 

The system’s intuitive navigation feature 

makes it easy to operate. “We can process data 

and functions more efficiently by using templates,” 

says Frank-Peter Kirschning, head of 

the Rheinhafen steam power plant in Karlsruhe. 

This is crucial when a fault occurs, because 

malfunctions have to be quickly located 

and diagnosed. Once the source is discovered, 

the control system indicates its location. The 

SPPA-T3000 system was recently installed at 

the Karlsruhe plant as part of a comprehensive 

upgrade. “We used to have many different systems 

that were linked through interfaces — a 

set-up that often caused faults,” says Kirschning. 

“The new control system is completely homogenous 

and a lot simpler to use.” As a result, 

plant operation is more efficient and less costly. 

Another advantage of SPPA-T3000 is that it has 

been designed to serve as a platform that can 

be expanded through the addition of further 

software modules. 

For customers with long-term service contracts, 

Siemens offers a remote monitoring 

service. Here, operating data related to turbines 

and other systems is transferred via the 

Internet to Siemens’ Power Diagnostics Centers 

in Erlangen, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, or 

to Orlando, Florida (Pictures of the Future, Fall 

2004, p. 67 / Spring 2005, p. 48). The underlying 

software for this service was developed by 

PG’s Dr. Hans-Gerd Brummel together with a 

team headed by Dr. Claus Neubauer, project 

manager at the Intelligent Vision & Reasoning 

Department at Siemens Corporate Research 

(SCR) in Princeton, New Jersey. Known as Power- 

Monitor, the diagnostic software can detect 

hidden faults in any of a turbine’s key components 

early on by continuously evaluating data 

supplied by hundreds of sensors. 

Extreme Stresses. It’s pretty hot in the interior 

of a gas turbine. Exhaust gases with temperatures 

of 1,500 degrees Celsius are thrust 

into the turbine from the combustion chamber 

at pressures of more than 15 bar. The gases 

cause the turbine blades to rotate at up to 

3,600 rpm. Such thermal stresses can create 

cracks and fissures, and, in extreme cases, even 

cause metal parts to break off. These parts 

would severely damage the turbine if they got 

inside, causing up to a week’s down-time. 

“But if a crack is discovered early, the damaged 

part can be replaced when the turbine is 

not in use,” says Dr. Hans-Gerd Brummel, manager 

for R&D at Power Diagnostics. “If the repair 

is carefully planned, it can be performed within 

two days.” To detect faults, the turbine is continuously 

monitored by about 500 sensors. The 

resulting data is analyzed by PowerMonitor. To 

make all of this possible, the self-adaptive software 

is first trained on the turbine. During this 

phase, PowerMonitor calculates expected values 

for all of the sensors. These values are then 

compared with current measurements and 

deviations are reported. “In the past, such malfunctions 

appeared without any prior warning,” 

says Brummel. 

Such surprises are no longer possible, since 

remote diagnostics allow operators to determine 

precisely where a turbine fault is about to 

occur. Siemens currently monitors 260 gas turbines 

worldwide. In addition to early detection 

of faults, Siemens specialists assist plant operation 

— for example, when turbines undergo 

periodic vibration analysis to ensure that they 

are perfectly balanced. Here, PG’s power plant 

team works with Power Diagnostics, particularly 

following installation of new turbine 

blades. Until recently, such analyses were performed 

by specialized technicians on location. 

But today, with the assistance of the plant’s 

own technicians, such evaluations can be performed 

remotely. 

Good communication is also essential for 

distributed power generation. This is the case, 

for example, when a wind turbine, a landfill 

gas facility and a geothermal power plant are 

linked to create a virtual power generation facility. 

Such a network can supply energy in a 

particularly economical and reliable manner 

and helps to conserve resources (Pictures of 

the Future, Spring 2002, p. 58). To control the 

network, operators can use technology such as 

the Decentralized Energy Management System 

(DEMS) from Siemens. 

The first step is to make an in-depth plan of 

the facility’s operation. To determine what kind 

of load the virtual power plant has to cover, a 

day of operation is divided into a grid of 15- 

minute periods and loads are calculated for 

each of these. Other relevant factors are 

known times of peak demand and weather 

conditions, which affect photovoltaic facilities 

and wind turbines. Everything else is taken 

care of automatically. The DEMS uses the resulting 

data to draw up a plan of operation for 

the distributed power plant. The network is 

controlled automatically, and the DEMS transmits 

the commands to the individual power 

generation facilities via data lines or mobile radio. 

Much of the data that is collected is not 

transmitted, however, because DEMS does not 

need to analyze the operation of the individual 

facilities as closely as does the SPPA-T3000 system. 

“The focus in the virtual power plant is not 

on the optimal operation of the individual facilities 

but on the overall power generation network,” 

says Dr. Thomas Werner, DEMS Product 

Manager at Siemens Power Transmission and 

Distribution (PTD). 

At present, only large-scale facilities can be 

economically integrated into virtual power 

plants. However, PTD and energy utility RWE recently 

developed a new model for organizing 

the technical and economic aspects of virtual 

power plants. This new concept will make it 

possible to integrate facilities that are not 

owned by the network operator. Once a uniform 

communications standard has been established, 

it will even be possible to feed electricity 

into virtual power plants from private 

homes. “That’s the vision we’re working on,” 

says Reinhard Remberg from the Strategic Marketing 

Department at PTD. Werner Pluta 



Seamless Communication | Production 

Seamless factory communication — from the paint 

shop to the office — is becoming increasingly 

common, and now includes wireless systems 

such as industrial WLAN (small pictures). 

Kuk. “If just one roller fails to operate completely 

in synch with the others, you can throw 

away the result. That’s why we’ve developed an 

Industrial Ethernet system that always keeps a 

high-priority lane open for time-critical data.” 

(see Pictures of the Future, Fall 2005, p. 34). 

Because Industrial Ethernet is based on the office 

network standard, it has no problems with 

interface linkage. 

But not all production areas can be connected 

via cables, which is why wireless solutions 

should be employed in difficult-to-reach 

areas, not to mention when it comes to driverless 

transport systems and rotating components. 

Audi, for example, uses IWLAN (Industrial 

Wireless Local Area Network) in the 

production of its R8 sports car. Here, the vehi- 

The seamless factory foresees information convergence 

between assembly lines and offices. 

IWLAN technology is very complex because 

factories contain a lot of equipment that can 

interfere with signals. There are metal machines, 

devices that emit electromagnetic 

waves, and areas with very high temperatures 

and vibrations. Uninterrupted connections can 

be ensured by using special materials for receiver 

housings and secure installations for circuit 

boards from Siemens’ Scalance W product 

family. In addition, encryption and access control 

systems do their part to protect against external 

computer attacks. At the 2007 Hannover 

Intelligent algorithms and growing computing 

power on chips open up completely new 

application possibilities for these sensor networks, 

as they are now capable of self-organization. 

Individual sensors can start themselves 

up, recognize neighboring sensors, and communicate 

with them, meaning that if one sensor 

fails, another can pass on the information 

that would otherwise have been lost. 

Such systems are known as mesh networks 

because they link sensors like a lattice, which is 

what distinguishes them from previous star- 

Factory Data Democracy 

Reliable communication systems that extend from the factory floor to plant offices 

are the key to faster, more efficient, and more flexible production. Whether it’s 

wireless or wired systems — Siemens has the right technology for every situation. 

Let’s say you want to buy a new sports car. 

How would you order it? In black with lightcolored 

seats, or maybe white with a silver side 

frame, or red with a manual transmission? The 

variety of consumer tastes has a major impact 

on industrial production, as it forces manufacturers 

to become more flexible and react to the 

growing demand for different designs. A stateof-the-art 

automotive paint shop today paints 

one body green, the next blue, and a third 

white. Bumpers and seats matching the vehicle 

color also need to be mounted. 

Such individualization is just one trend 

that’s changing production processes. “The 

time from original idea to finished product is 

getting shorter,” says Dr. Heiner Röhrl, head of 

Industrial Communication at Siemens Automation 

and Drives (A&D) in Nuremberg, Germany. 

This is having an impact on everyone in the 

production process — from product designers 

to production managers, suppliers, and distributors, 

all of whom need to access relevant 

product data more quickly than ever before. 

“That’s why all production-related data 

should be collected only once, and then stored 

in a database accessible to everyone,” says 

Röhrl, referring to merchandise management 

systems, development, production control, and 

accounting (see pp. 13, 16). Production floors 

and offices are thus set to converge globally. 

“That’s the vision of the seamless factory,” says 

Röhrl. “It’s a vision of a a common data library 

that allows production processes to be configured 

more rapidly and flexibly.” 

It is, in short, a vision of a virtual world of 

communication in which data flows from the 

factory paint shop to the executive suite. But 

for this vision to be translated into reality, local 

partner networks need to be able to exchange 

data — something they can’t do now because 

most networks have separate standards. What 

is needed, therefore, is a medium that communicates 

information across all local interfaces. 

“This medium will be Ethernet,” says Röhrl. Ethernet 

is nothing new. It’s been used for more 

than 30 years to link office computers, while 

Industrial Ethernet has been networking production 

control systems for over 20 years. 

Now, however, Ethernet is set to take control of 

individual machines in factories. 

Data that’s Always There. Yet significant 

challenges remain to be overcome. “The big issue 

is real-time data transmission,” says Ewald 

Kuk, head of Product Management at Industrial 

Communication. “In office Ethernet systems, if 

a data packet has to wait a couple of seconds 

because the information highway is occupied, 

no one will notice.” But that can’t be allowed to 

happen with production machines, the control 

processes for which often occur in the space of 

milliseconds or even microseconds. “Imagine a 

printing machine with several rollers,” says 

cle body is mounted on a device that can rotate 

360 degrees, enabling bolting robots to reach 

every corner. Because IWLAN is based on the 

WLAN standard, it can easily be integrated into 

existing networks and Ethernet systems, 

whereby the wireless connection presents a 

challenge in addition to the real-time issue in 

that it needs to be reliable at all times. “If your 

cell phone drops a call, you can redial, but an 

interruption to the radio signal in a factory will 

result in expensive losses after just a few 

minutes,” Kuk explains. IWLAN therefore uses 

redundant antennas, reserved data transfer 

packets, a time-monitored signal transmission 

system and a roaming function to ensure continuous 

connections. “Thanks to its patented 

innovations, Siemens has a lead of at least oneand-a-half 

years on the competition when it 

comes to reliable wireless data communications,” 

says Kuk. 

trade fair, Siemens presented a new wireless 

emergency cut-off security feature. “Our 

IWLAN system makes it possible for the first 

time to not only securely monitor a facility but 

also securely operate it,” says Kuk. Emergency 

shut-down circuit breakers are usually triggered 

via separate cables. With Siemens’ 

IWLAN system, however, the emergency signal 

is securely transmitted within fractions of a 

second in the reserved data transfer packet. 

Thanks to the increasing performance capability 

of a broad range of components, industrial 

communication systems are becoming 

ever more seamless — all the way down to the 

level of sensors and actuators. Sensors register 

parameters such as proximity, speed and ambient 

conditions, thus making it possible to monitor 

equipment. They also contribute to the effectiveness 

of control processes through their 

connection with actuators. 

shaped architectures in which each node could 

only communicate with neighboring devices. 

“Self-organization makes wireless systems 

more flexible and robust, and also significantly 

lowers planning and operating costs,” says 

Dr. Rainer Sauerwein, a self-organization researcher 

at Siemens Corporate Technology. 

“This is especially helpful when the network 

topology cannot be planned in advance.” This 

would be the case, for example, if a truck driving 

between two oil tanks at a refinery had its 

wireless connection interrupted. 

Sauerwein and his colleagues are developing 

new wireless technologies to ensure that 

sensors can be utilized as flexibly as possible in 

production. But such systems need to be immune 

to disturbances from other radio fields in 

the factory environment. “The most interesting 

standard here at the moment is ultra-wide 

band, or UWB,” Sauerwein says. “Unlike nar- 



Seamless Communication | Production 

At Spain’s Grupo Leche Pascual, RFID tags monitor the entire process chain for dairy and pasta products. 

Things are running smoothly in the plant. A 

robot moves car bodies to the next work 

station, where assembly workers are waiting, 

and the IT officer has informed the production 

manager that the robot control system is completely 

secured against hacker attacks. “We’ve 

got effective passwords, secure encryption, 

and an impervious firewall,” he announces. As 

it turns out, he’s wrong. A hacker has just entered 

the system by using a Google search to 

find the production control home page. He 

tries out a couple of simple passwords, but to 

no avail. Then he launches what’s known as an 

SQL injection. Instead of using a password, he 

copies into the entry mask a short piece of program 

code and manipulates the database, 

which contains security-related information. 

He is thus able to open the lock without using a 

key, as it were. Now things begin to move 

quickly. The hacker has found his way into the 

production line control system. He issues a 

command to stop a robot, which then proceeds 

to open its gripping arm, causing a heavy body 

shell component to fall directly on top of a 

worker. 

Murmuring can now be heard in the auditorium 

as the lights go on, and the 300 people at 

an in-house Siemens fair in February 2007 are 

completely shocked at how easily Dr. Konstanrow-band 

IWLAN, UWB operates on a very 

broad frequency, is suitable for use with mesh 

networks, and provides for more precise localization.” 

With UWB, sensor network data can 

be sent to an IWLAN receiver or directly to an 

Ethernet system via a gateway that preprocesses 

the information. It can then be forwarded 

to all downstream systems and, if necessary, 

even to the accounting department. 

RFIDs for Eggs. Information like supplier data 

would definitely be of interest to accounting 

departments, however. And radio frequency 

identification (RFID) technology can provide 

exactly such data. Tiny RFID transponders, 

which can be affixed to goods or components, 

store production and identification data, which 

can be sent to reading devices (see Pictures of 

the Future, Fall 2005, p. 28). 

Up until recently, RFID technology was used 

mainly in closed factory cycles. Now, however, 

it’s moving into other areas. Spanish company 

Grupo Leche Pascual, for example, which 

processes around two million eggs per day into 

dairy and pasta products, has been using RFID 

technology from Siemens for its supplier chain 

since mid-2006. The vehicles that transport the 

eggs are equipped with RFID transponder systems 

that register the origin, amount, and 

weight of each truck shipment. The system has 

sensors that record temperature, and it also 

utilizes the Global Positioning System (GPS) to 

track trucks. When a shipment arrives at the 

factory, the data is checked for irregularities in 

order to avoid any loss of quality or materials. 

The origin of the ingredients is thus thoroughly 

documented, and the plant accounting department 

receives supplier data in real time for its 

accounts payable system. 

Standardization measures need to be implemented 

before this type of system can be used 

across national borders and in different industrial 

sectors. “Ultimately, there’ll be a mix of 

wireless and wired technologies that we’ll be 

able to select from to create an optimal communication 

system for a given production 

process,” Röhrl explains. 

The seamless integration of these media 

will lead to ever more tightly knit global 

production networks. Repairing your car in the 

future might then involve having an RFID 

transponder telling mechanics when and where 

the vehicle was made and what’s wrong with it 

on the basis of sensor data. Spare parts will be 

ordered automatically, and suppliers will know 

when to plan component shipments. All the 

repair shop will have to do is install the replacement 

parts. 

Dagmar Braun 

Machines that Talk to Each Other 

Machine-to-Machine-Communication (M2M) refers to the automated exchange of data between 

machines. While M2M enables the transmission of data over great distances via mobile radio, it cannot 

provide for the real-time transfer needed in production. That’s why long-distance M2M networks are 

best employed in areas where IWLAN or Industrial Ethernet are not economically viable options and 

there are no time-critical applications to consider — such as, for instance, monitoring giant pipelines in 

open country. M2M technology from Siemens can be used for systems such as beverage machines that 

notify a central warehouse when they need to be refilled, or electricity meters that radio readings to 

utility companies. Freight-forwarders can also utilize M2M to have truck data radioed to headquarters. 

| Security 

Raising 

the Bar 

for 

Hackers 

Many production plants 

are linked to the Internet 

and utilize standard 

software, which makes 

them a potential target 

for hackers. Siemens is 

making these systems 

more secure. 

tin Knorr has been able to shut down a factory 

production system. They’re relieved, though, 

that the robot is only a prop and the “injured” 

worker merely a plastic figure. “Still, it gets 

their attention,” says Knorr, who uses this 

demonstration to make his colleagues more security 

conscious. Knorr is one of approximately 

70 people at Siemens Corporate Technology 

(CT) in Munich who provide advice on security 

issues to various Siemens units. Those who 

work in this area need not be former hackers or 

ex-cons; they only need to be in possession of a 

college degree “and have a well-developed 

sense of morality,” according to Dr. Johann 

Fichtner, head of the CERT (Siemens’ Computer 

Emergency Response Team) Center. 

The goal of such CT demonstrations is to 

raise security awareness among people who 

work with IT systems, and support secure planning 

measures for future Siemens products. Security 

requirements have risen dramatically in 

recent years — and not just at Siemens. 

Whereas control systems for production lines 

and power plants used to be completely 

isolated from the outside world and employ 

specialized software, they now often run on 

standard software like Windows and utilize offthe-shelf 

databases. More importantly, however, 

they are increasingly being linked to the 

Mock hacker attack. Security experts at Siemens 

Corporate Technology use a model production 

facility to demonstrate how easy it is to 

compromise the security of some systems. 

Internet for remote maintenance and other 

services. The risk of external attack is therefore 

greater than ever before. In addition, tax depreciation 

periods for factories, power plants, and 

hospitals are now longer, which means IT systems 

are not replaced every three-to-five years 

as is the case with office PCs. As a result, the 

latest security updates are not always available. 

Robust IT Systems for Power Distribution. 

Just how important cyber-security can be is 

demonstrated by a system failure that occurred 

at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio 

on January 25, 2003, when the Slammer worm 

entered the facility’s IT network through the Internet 

and shut down parts of it for nearly five 

hours. Fortunately, nothing happened because 

the plant happened to be shut off for repairs at 

the time. Whoever launched the attack took 

advantage of a security hole in a database that 

Microsoft had actually offered an update for six 

months earlier. But unfortunately, the software 

programmers in charge of security at the plant 

didn’t know about that. 

To prevent such an event from happening 

with software from Siemens, the company’s 

Corporate Technology department, which Fichtner’s 

team is a part of, offers sophisticated solutions 

for all Siemens operations. One such 

system is being used at Siemens Power Transmission 

and Distribution’s (PTD) Energy Automation 

unit in Nuremberg, where Bernd Nartmann 

serves as a product manager whose 

responsibilities include security issues. Two 

years ago, Nartmann asked CERT to look for 

weak spots in the product portfolio through 

which hackers might enter the system. This examination 

was necessitated by the fact that the 

unit’s customers (in most cases major power 

supply companies) were increasingly utilizing 

public communication networks to collect data 

and issue switching commands. Some components, 

such as switching and fuse modules for 

high-voltage facilities, are more than 30 years 

old, but “back then nobody could have known 

they would someday be controlled through the 

Internet,” Nartmann points out. Working together 

with specialists from CERT, automation 

experts succeeded in significantly enhancing 

the security of all the products, thereby enabling 

them to meet security standards. 

Retrofitting such solutions can be extremely 

expensive, however. “That’s why we now look 

at security as early as the product development 

stage,” says Dr. Stephan Lechner, head of the IT 

Security Center at Corporate Technology. “We 

analyze the system architecture of planned 

products and search for security risks.” The center 

does this by simulating entire systems as 

abstract mathematical models and then running 

mathematical and logical processes on 

them that can reveal security deficiencies. “The 

results show us where we need to take action,” 

Lechner explains. 

The advice of security experts at Corporate 

Technology is increasingly in demand for product 

development and component procurement 

processes. “Security is a sensitive issue, which 

is why it’s very important to have a relationship 

of trust,” says Nartmann. “But you also need to 

have in-depth knowledge of the entire IT security 

landscape. Siemens is clearly the leader 

here, as demonstrated by the great demand 

from customers.” 

Bernd Müller 


Seamless Communication | Healthcare 

Providing doctors with access to electronic patient 

data will ensure that the same examination won’t 

be conducted twice. Costs will also decline as 

healthcare cards are introduced (small picture). 

Data that’s Always There 

Tremendous advances have been made in networking communication systems in the 

healthcare sector. Patients are benefiting from this progress, as they can now receive 

better quality treatment faster, more comfortably, and at a lower cost. 

Walter Bauer suddenly feels a sharp pain in 

his chest. It’s Saturday evening and 

Bauer’s wife calls for a paramedic, who is 

quickly on the scene. Having performed an 

ECG, the paramedic instructs Bauer to go to a 

hospital. This is the first time Bauer has been to 

this particular hospital, which is why he’s given 

a second examination and re-diagnosed. All of 

the resulting data is then entered into the hospital’s 

information system. 

That’s today’s status quo. But in just a few 

years, Germany will have an integrated healthcare 

system that will link doctors, pharmacies, 

and hospitals in a network. When this happens, 

patients like Bauer will be treated more rapidly, 

and fewer examinations will be required. 

Here’s a scenario of how things will change: 

The paramedic can view patient information 

that Bauer’s family doctor entered into his 

office administration system six months earlier, 

and which is now contained in a centralized patient 

file. He can access this information because 

Bauer would have signed a release beforehand. 

The doctor at the hospital can also 

access relevant data from this centralized file, 

including ultrasound images, X-rays, and lab 

results, thereby enabling a more rapid diagnosis. 

The diagnosis will then be entered into the 

hospital information system and Bauer’s patient 

file, ensuring that other authorized users 

can access the data. In order to exploit the benefits 

of electronically supported integrated 

healthcare, doctors and patients will first have 

to be registered in a telematics infrastructure 

system. 

This can be done with a special healthcare 

card currently being tested in pilot projects in 

Germany (see Pictures of the Future, Spring 

2005, p. 24). “An important element in this system 

is the connector, which is an electronic 

component that ensures secure data transfer 

and the automatic launch of additional data 

processing applications,” says Dr. Michael 

Meyer from Siemens Medical Solutions (Med). 

The connector makes it possible to transfer 

data from healthcare providers (for example, 

doctors and hospitals) to the telematics infrastructure 

in encrypted form. 

Among other things, the electronic patient 

file simplifies cooperation between the out-patient 

and in-patient segments of the healthcare 

sector. 

“We’ve entered into strategic partnerships 

with leading providers of medical office software 

such as DOCexpert in order to create an 

interface for linking doctors and hospitals to 

our Web-based Soarian Integrated Care e- 

health solution,” says Dr. Volker Wetekam, head 

of Med’s Global Solutions division, who is also 

responsible for electronic patient files. “Just 

how well this kind of seamless communication 

can work,” he adds, “is exemplified by a project 

with Rhön-Klinikum AG in which we will introduce 

an electronic patient file system to 46 of 

the company’s clinics.” With over one million 

patients per year, Rhön-Klinikum AG is Germany’s 

largest private hospital company. 

Total Data Availability. In our scenario, Walter 

Bauer’s family doctor might use his PC to enter 

an appointment for a catheter examination 

into the local hospital’s electronic calendar. 

“Cardiologists used to get a referral from the 

patient’s doctor saying that, for instance, a 

coronary angiography examination should be 

performed — and that was it. There was no further 

information,” says cardiologist Friedrich 

Fuchs, who works at Siemens Medical Solutions 

(Med). With an electronic referral, on the other 

hand, a family doctor can enter detailed information 

on the patient’s medical history into a 

digital document, and can also use his or her office 

administration system to add relevant lab 

results or images to a patient’s file — information 

that is in turn forwarded to the hospital. 

In our scenario, Bauer’s preliminary tests 

turn out to be inconclusive. As a result, he is 

sent to radiology for a CT scan. There, a software 

development from Med known as Fast 

Data Link enables the layered images of Bauer’s 

heart to be sent in special DICOM format from 

the CT scanner to a server at a speed of up to 40 

individual pictures per second — or practically 

in real time. That’s like transmitting the content 

of a full CD every second. By comparison, current 

procedures that work with the DICOM standard 

can transmit only four images per second. 

Only seconds after Bauer’s scan, syngo Web- 

Space software installed in the hospital’s central 

server automatically generates a three-dimensional 

depiction of his heart. Bauer’s attending 

physician can call up this 3D model from practically 

any PC in the facility, and can also obtain 

an opinion from a colleague who is authorized 

to access the data. “Developing this solution in- 

Up to 90 percent of all hospitals in Germany will 

offer data via WLAN systems in five years. 

volved taking advantage of the opportunities 

our latest client-server software offers for storing 

complex 3D images at a central server. Once 

in the server, the images can be accessed from 

PCs and notebooks,” says Dr. Louise McKenna, 

head of Global Marketing for CT Oncology at 

Med. 

Many doctors can already receive CT images 

via a wireless network as well. Werner Reinhold, 

a Healthcare Solutions manager at Siemens Enterprise 

Communications, believes that 80 to 90 

percent of all German hospitals will be 

equipped with a WLAN (wireless local area network) 

within five years. 

Medical staff at facilities such as Leipzig Hospital 

now use tablet PCs from Fujitsu Siemens 

Computers (FSC) to document treatment and 

care right at the patient’s bedside. The PCs are 

in such demand that Med is working on a version 

that can be disinfected, thereby enabling it 

to be used in sterilized areas. 

The data recorded on such PCs is transferred 

via WLAN to the hospital information system. 

Conversely, nurses can call up relevant treatment 

information from a patient’s bedside, thus 

avoiding potential medication errors. At the 

clinic of the University of Munich, all of the operating 

rooms have been equipped with WLAN. 

the clinic decided to do so because expanding 

the existing network infrastructure in operating 

rooms would have been too expensive due to 

fire protection considerations. “Our experience 

with WLAN in operating rooms has been very 

positive,” says Dr. Bernhard Pollwein, head of 

Anesthesia. “Challenges have been limited to 

factors such as metal walls and doors and to the 

large number of people in the OR.” 

But with so much information available at 

portable terminals, doctors need special assessment 

software to ensure that they recognize interrelationships 

and maintain a clear overview 

of each patient’s status. One such software 

package is called Soarian Quality Measures. The 

package utilizes artificial intelligence to extract 

relevant medical information on a patient from 

numerous independent data sources in a hospital. 

The software is based on REMIND technology 

(Reliable Extraction and Meaningful Interference 

from Non-Structured Data), which can 

read and interpret all image and text information 

regardless of data format. The program 

operates in a manner similar to a CAD (computer-aided 

diagnostics) system, which autonomously 

assesses image data sets and generates 

a diagnosis (see Pictures of the Future, Fall 

2005, p. 67). “CAD systems are now accepted in 

the U.S. as a second opinion for certain examinations, 

such as mammographies,” says Fuchs. 

“That’s because studies have shown that the 

use of such systems enhances diagnostic quality.” 

Soarian Quality Measures can similarly help 

improve the quality of medical care. 

Medical Care via Television. Walter Bauer 

has now been released from the hospital, and 

his family doctor gets right to work on follow-up 

care measures. All of the important information 

from Bauer’s hospital visit has been entered into 

his electronic patient file. 

But if Bauer lived in the Madrid metropolitan 

area, he’d have even better chances of staying 

well. That’s because a telemedicine pilot project 

called AmIVital is developing procedures for 

remote monitoring of patients and elderly persons 

in need of care. 

Among other things, the project has given 

patients sensors that monitor their vital functions. 

“Our goal is to enable such patients to live 

on their own in normal surroundings, regardless 

of which type of illness they may have,” 

says Luis Reigosa, who is managing the project 

for Med in Spain. Medical data is sent via mobile 

phone to a hospital or care provider. Consultations, 

on the other hand, take place on the patient’s 

television set. For example, a doctor can 

send the patient a form that he or she fills out 

on a TV using a special remote control unit. 

Such seamless communication between doctors 

and patients will one day constitute an important 

element of integrated healthcare. 

Michael Lang 



Seamless Communication | Buenos Aires 

Buenos Aires’ Puente de la Mujer bridge shines 

courtesy of Osram. Siemens is also helping to build 

the City’s new subway and has made the country’s 

health care system more transparent (small photos). 

fers a solution that is smoothly coordinated 

with hospital systems. “A total of 7,200 pharmacies 

are connected to the IMED network, 

along with 3,000 doctors and hospitals, 20 private 

health insurance companies, and six million 

insured individuals,” says Simcic. “We’re 

also incorporating a payment feature for medications 

and treatment into our system.” “Every 

health insurance company has its own billing 

procedure, which IMED is able to classify and 

process,” adds Jorge Arriaga, who, as managing 

director of Farmalink, coordinates contracts 

between insurance companies and the pharmaceutical 

industry. One company, PAMI, which 

insures 2.5 million retirees, is the country’s 

largest health insurer. 

Knowledge Cuts Costs. Argentine health insurance 

companies can use their access to data 

on the medications distributed by pharmacies, 

treatments, and lab tests to compare the information 

and thus control their costs. A netof 

our 16 registry offices,” says Gorgal. Since 

2003, Siemens has been responsible for converting 

the administrative processes from 

paper to electronic documents, as well as networking 

the city’s 16 registry offices. 

“We have finished scanning 3.5 million entries 

from the last 28 years,” says Arturo 

Carpani Costa, a manager responsible for public-sector 

projects at Siemens. The project also 

includes a special digital signature system that 

provides information on who last viewed each 

file. The system ensures that no entry is falsified 

or deleted. “When we had to rely on the 

books, it could sometimes take up to two 

weeks to obtain information,” says Carpani 

Costa. Today, the same procedures take only a 

couple of minutes, even if the search involves a 

name as common as Fernandez, for example. 

Siemens Argentina has also taken on an additional 

project for the municipality of Buenos 

Aires in the area of IT outsourcing. Gorgal plans 

to use information and communication tech- 

images of motorists who violate speeding and 

parking regulations. Siemens handles everything 

from recording the violation and assessing 

its severity to producing and distributing 

tickets. 

Maximum Capacity. Around the world, urban 

planning experts agree that the top priority for 

megacities should be intelligent solutions for 

dealing with huge volumes of traffic (see 

Pictures of the Future, Spring 2007, p.14). 

That’s why Buenos Aires is now focusing on 

expanding its mass transit system, especially 

the Subte, as the city’s subway is known. 

The subway system is already overcrowded. 

“Every day 1.2 million people ride 50 kilometers 

of track on our five subway lines — and 

that’s our maximum capacity,” says Subte chairman 

Edgardo Kutner. The city’s goal, he says, is 

to transport around 2.2 million passengers on 

nine lines covering 80 kilometers by 2012 to 

2013. 

The Music is Back 

Five years after Argentina was shaken by a severe financial crisis, Buenos Aires, the 

city of the tango, is booming again. Among the forces behind this rebirth are infrastructure 

technologies from Siemens. At the same time, economic growth is creating 

major challenges in the power generation and transportation sectors. 

Traffic is bumper-to-bumper on the Illia freeway 

in Buenos Aires. The capital’s metropolitan 

area is now home to 13.5 million 

porteños, as the region’s residents are known, 

and greater Buenos Aires also houses nearly 

half of the country’s industrial plants. As a 

result, the city is the undisputed center of 

Argentina’s commercial, industrial, and cultural 

life. For Matthias Kleinhempel, the five million 

private vehicles, taxis, and diesel buses that 

make their way through “the Paris of Latin 

America” every day are evidence of an economic 

upturn. But there’s a downside: “Nearly 

all the cars have only one person in them,” says 

Kleinhempel, who took over as head of 

Siemens Argentina in 2002, at the peak of the 

economic crisis that led to the collapse of Argentina’s 

financial system. “These days, many 

people can afford their own car again.” 

Indeed, most Argentine citizens are doing 

better now. “We’ve got an excellent communication 

infrastructure. The educational level of 

tions and Services, referring to the situation 

when IMED was launched at the end of the 

1990s. With IMED — the most extensive communication 

and IT solution in the Argentine 

healthcare system — patients can use the Internet 

to have prescriptions authorized by their 

health insurance company and processed by a 

pharmacy. Siemens has provided smartcards to 

individuals with health insurance throughout 

the country. The implementation of this project 

required the harmonization of dozens of different 

software solutions in use at the country’s 

pharmacies to ensure that all of them could access 

the central authorization system operated 

by Siemens. But now that the system has been 

implemented, even small pharmacies can now 

place their orders via a call center set up for this 

purpose. The same solution also accommodates 

large pharmacies in Buenos Aires that operate 

according to the American “drugstore 

principle” and need to process hundreds of prescriptions 

per hour in real time. IMED also ofthe 

Argentinians is above average and we have 

very well-trained engineers,” Kleinhempel says, 

adding that this is why Buenos Aires is now 

such a popular location for software factories 

operated by major global IT companies such as 

SAP, IBM, EDS, Accenture, Motorola, Sun, and 

Tata (India). The companies’ logos can be seen 

along with those of many new four and fivestar 

hotels that have opened in the swanky 

new harbor district known as Puerto Madero, 

as well as along the Rio de la Plata. The construction 

boom in these areas reflects the 

country’s average nine percent economic 

growth over the last few years. 

Kleinhempel says that the communication 

sector was the first to recover from the crisis. 

“Half of the communication infrastructure in 

Argentina was built by us and more than 35 

million medical prescriptions are processed 

each year using Siemens technology.” 

“Things looked different ten years ago,” says 

Gabriel Simcic, a director at Siemens IT Solu- 

worked system also allows insured individuals 

to get medications more rapidly. IMED currently 

serves six million Argentinians — or 

around half of all privately insured individuals. 

“We’ve also developed a concept for integrating 

the state-run insurance program into our 

system,” says Simcic. The country’s Ministry of 

Health has not yet, however, made a decision 

on the matter. 

The municipality of Buenos Aires is already a 

step ahead. “Investing more in information and 

communication technologies is not a luxury,” 

says Diego Pablo Gorgal, a representative of 

Buenos Aires City. “On the contrary, such investment 

helps us optimize limited resources 

and become more efficient.” His favorite example 

here is the digitization of all entries into the 

central civil registry office, which since 1866 

has been recording births, marriages, divorces, 

and deaths in huge, hand-written books. “But 

today young porteños can order a birth certificate 

via the Internet and then pick it up at one 

nology to bring the huge amount of traffic in 

the city under control and improve traffic 

safety. “There are more traffic fatalities in Argentina 

than deaths resulting from crime,” says 

Gorgal. Last year, an average of 21 traffic fatalities 

per day were recorded. Siemens was commissioned 

back in 2000 to monitor major thoroughfares. 

Today, fleets of cars equipped with 

radar and high-resolution cameras capture 

At the moment, Line A (built in 1913 as 

Latin America’s first subway) and Line B are being 

lengthened to include two and four more 

stations, respectively, in order to link booming 

districts. Kutner is most proud of the new Line 

H, however, which is the first with air conditioning. 

Line H is also known as Paseo del 

Tango because every station features artwork 

and is dedicated to a famous tango dancer. 

A Hundred Years in Argentina 

Siemens will celebrate 100 years of operations in Argentina in 2008 with a gala event at the newly 

restored and reopened Teatro Colon opera house, which itself will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2008. 

Even before its subsidiary was founded in 1908, Siemens installed Argentina’s first telegraph system in 

Buenos Aires in 1857. Further large projects included construction of the city’s C and D subway lines in 

1934 and 1936. With Siemens’ help, the Obelisco — the city’s trademark monument — was built in 

1936, to be followed shortly afterwards by the world’s broadest avenue, the 140-meter-wide Avenida 9 

de Julio. Today, over 3,500 people work for the six Siemens Groups operating in Argentina. 



Seamless Communication 

“After 60 years without any new construction, 

we’re completing a six-kilometer subway line to 

link the Pompeya bus station in the south with 

the Retiro train station in the north,” says Kutner. 

The first five stations opened in May 2007, 

and the entire line will be completed in 2009. 

New F, G, and I lines are planned. 

Siemens is involved in all of these subway 

projects, for which it is providing its entire 

range of technical expertise. Experts are modernizing 

the electrical equipment for the nearly 

100-year-old Line A at night during the three 

hours when the trains do not operate. “The 

new Paseo del Tango (Line H) is also being 

equipped with state-of-the-art signaling technology 

and intelligent systems, such as Automatic 

Train Operation (ATO),” says Eugenio 

Real, Argentina’s Transportation System director. 

ATO automatically reduces the speed of 

trains traveling too closely in sequence. 

“We’re off to a good start, but we still need 

to make public transportation more attractive,” 

says Andrés Borthagaray, an architect who is 

also executive director of the Buenos Aires 

2010 strategic planning council, where he 

serves as an advisor to the city government. 

Borthagaray believes that intelligent IT solutions 

are the key to improvement. “We need 

real-time information for passengers so they’ll 

know when the next bus is coming,” he says. 

His concern extends beyond the porteños to include 

the many tourists who are returning to 

Buenos Aires, the world capital for tango enthusiasts, 

now that the city is booming again. 

In 2006 four million people visited the city. 

Major Projects. Kleinhempel also sees huge 

potential for growth in the area of transport 

projects, especially now that the Argentine government 

has launched a broad nationwide plan 

(Plan Integral Tránsito y Transporte) that addresses 

all transport modes. “We received major 

orders in 2006,” says Kleinhempel, reflecting the 

generally robust state of the national economy. 

In 2006 Siemens was awarded a US$1 billion 

contract to build two new gas-and-steam turbine 

power plants. One third of Argentina’s electricity 

output of 24,000 megawatts is generated 

at power plants equipped by Siemens. 

The two plants will be handed over in 2008. 

Siemens is supplying two gas turbines, a steam 

turbine, and control technology for both facilities. 

It’s also providing a heat-recovery steam 

generator. Experts estimate that Argentina’s 

total electrical output will reach 38,000 

megawatts by 2015. Kleinhempel is confident 

that “growth in the energy market will be 

followed by investment in transport and medical 

systems, with the latter being significantly 

financed by hospitals.” Nikola Wohllaib 

Transportation 

A driverless subway in Nuremberg. Inter-modal 

traffic involves linking all forms of transport. 

Intelligent image analysis systems like Railcom 

Manager (small photo) make rail platforms safer. 

Trouble-Free Travel 

A pioneering traffic 

concept that encompasses 

all forms of transport — 

from cars and trains to 

planes and ships — is 

designed to make travel 

as easy and convenient 

as possible. 

If only Steven Meyer had consulted his travel 

assistant earlier. Now he’s stuck in a traffic 

jam near a construction site. A sales director for 

energy-saving motors, Steven is en route from 

a suburb in Nuremberg, Germany, to a trade 

fair in Paris, France. His travel assistant, an intelligent 

application in his mobile phone, handled 

all the planning for his trip, from train and 

airline tickets to hotel reservations. And it also 

would have recommended an alternative route 

in time to avoid the traffic congestion, if Steven 

hadn’t turned it off. Now he’s about to miss his 

train to Frankfurt Airport. Steven calls up the 

software, which quickly informs him he’s going 

to be on time for his flight after all. “The flight 

will be delayed two hours,” says a voice. “You 

can take a later train. I have booked it for you.” 

This scenario, which is entirely feasible using 

no more than current technology, could 

make traveling easy and carefree. But, due to 

the many connections between different forms 

of transportation, travel is often a journey into 

uncertainty. “The system transitions have to be 

designed for maximum fluidity, and networked 

in an integrated traffic management system for 

what’s called ‘inter-modal’ traffic,” says 

Friedrich Moninger, head of Innovation Strategy 

at Siemens Transportation Systems. This 

would enable the electronic travel assistant of 

tomorrow to have at its disposal all relevant 

travel-related information, including arrivals, 

departures, delays, platform and airport gate 

numbers, as well as convenience services such 

as tourism tips or help with bargain-hunting. 

Universal Ticket. Steven has arrived at the 

suburban commuter station, and his travel assistant 

directs him to the nearest empty parking 

space. It got this information from a parking 

management system developed by 

Siemens, which is already installed in many 

parking garages — for example in Munich, 

Toulouse, Oslo, and Singapore. An automated, 

driverless subway brings him to Nuremberg’s 

central rail station. Before boarding the highspeed 

ICE train to Frankfurt, Steven strolls 

through the station. Suddenly his electronic 

appointment planner reminds him to buy a 

birthday present for his wife, so he stops at a 

boutique. He likes the shop so much that he 

recommends it to friends by marking the establishment 

with “digital graffiti,” a virtual note 

that “sticks” to the shop, remaining invisible to 

other passersby. But if one of Steven’s friends 

passes the store, his or her travel assistant will 

convey the original message left behind. 

Regardless of how we travel in the future, 

everyone will find that traveling is much more 

comfortable and convenient. In the comfort of 

his or her home or office, anyone with a digital 

assistant — either in a mobile device or a personal 

computer — will be able to plan and 

book trips using all forms of transport. What’s 

more, a single electronic ticket will cover the 

entire trip. “Whenever possible, a trip should 

not require moving from building to building or 

from one level of terminal or station to another,” 

says Moninger. “Ideally one ticket 

should suffice and the connections should be 

on time throughout the trip.” Once inter-modal 

travel becomes available, the safety and security 

of passengers and freight will be ensured 

by fully automatic monitoring systems like 

those in airport and train stations. And in coming 

years, electronic bills of lading will allow 

freight not only to be easily transported across 

borders, but also located and identified any 

time using GPS. Many of these technologies 

are already in use today. Others, like the digital 

travel assistant and digital graffiti and electronic 

bill of lading have yet to be realized; but 

a standardized travel ticket might well be available 

soon. 

You Forgot Your Suitcase! “Today’s information 

systems already do a lot, but problems will 

always arise if, for example, a train is delayed 

and essential information isn’t delivered dynamically 

— in other words, when and where 

it’s needed,” explains Moninger. In terms of 

technology, navigation devices could be made 

smarter. But the problem is more a question of 

legal issues because someone must bear responsibility 

for the accuracy of the information. 

That’s the biggest problem with the majority of 

communication systems on the market today, 

which are characterized by a multitude of displays, 

formats and standards. 

Steven places his suitcase to one side in the 

boutique. He is so engrossed with composing 

his digital graffiti note that he forgets his bag 

and walks away. Immediately, a smart camera 

equipped with Railprotect image analysis software 

from Siemens (already available) automatically 

detects the unattended luggage and 

even assigns it to its owner. The software 

continually compares the distances between 

people and pieces of luggage. If the maximum 

permitted distance is exceeded for a certain 

duration, which can be set as desired, the bag 

is considered unattended. 

The system then sounds an alarm at a security 

control center and automatically arranges 

for the luggage to be removed if necessary. 

Automatic detection by means of software has 

become so sophisticated, that it can be used 

even in heavily frequented areas. The software 

is an element in Railcom Manager, a seamless 

network of information and monitoring systems 

with intelligent image recognition and a 

very high detection rate that has been installed 

in Hanover, Germany, and other locations. With 

its alarm management, incident management, 

and call center, the system enables security 

personnel to react to crisis situations with maximum 

speed. 

Fortunately, Steven is a member of a travel 

service, where he has left his personal ID. So 

the neglected piece of luggage is clearly linked 

to him. His travel assistant receives a message 

and it, in turn, reminds Steven to retrieve his 

bag. Now, although he’s really got to hurry to 



Seamless Communication | Transportation 

In Siemens Corporate Technology’s transportation 

vision all modes of transport and their users are 

seamlessly interlinked and have access to the same 

information, regardless of time or location. 

| Control Centers 

Roadside service assistants from Austria’s ÖAMTC 

automobile club are supported by a Siemens IT 

system. Staff members are dispatched on over 

2,000 assignments every single day. 

the platform, Steven quickly finds the shortest 

route by using a newly developed augmented 

reality solution, which superimposes arrows in 

the correct perspective on a live image seen on 

the travel assistant, pointing to the destination. 

Such technologies, which can determine locations 

and perspectives based on a photo, are 

available now. 

Once at the station platform, Steven boards 

the ICE. A further development of this highspeed 

train is the Velaro, the world’s fastest 

mass-produced train. It has been running between 

Madrid and Barcelona since May of 

2007. Even when carrying half of its passenger 

capacity, the Velaro uses only about two liters 

of gasoline per passenger seat and per 100 

kilometers, emitting two thirds less carbon 

dioxide than a typical airliner. 

Steven is able to quickly find his seat with 

the help of his assistant, which uses WLAN positioning 

to determine where he is in the train. 

A friendly voice guides him in the right direction: 

“Now to the right, please.” As soon as he is 

about three meters from his seat, the seat’s display 

greets him with the words, “Welcome 

Steven!” Then a greeting image appears, like 

those commonly seen in hotels, announcing the 

films and Internet radio stations that are available. 

Now Steven can read and sort his e-mails. 

Standardized Rail System. Steven’s ticket, 

although tucked away in his jacket pocket, is automatically 

“punched” by means of RFID (Radio 

Frequency Identification). Now Steven can enjoy 

his trip to the airport at 300 kilometers per 

hour. His train is monitored by Trainguard ETCS 

(European Train Control System), the standard 

rail safety system throughout Europe. The system 

monitors the position, speed, and direction 

Networked transport systems avoid delays and 

are environmentally friendly and efficient. 

of travel of every individual train, ensuring maximum 

safety, and shorter intervals between 

trains. Backed by all this technology it’s not surprising 

that Steven reaches the airport on time. 

ETCS is the standard rail control and safety 

system for Europe, and it already is in use on a 

number of routes, for example Madrid- 

Barcelona, Amsterdam to the Belgian border, 

and between Halle and Leipzig. At the airport, 

Steven’s travel assistant is again guiding him, 

this time directly to his boarding gate. The flight 

ticket is checked without contact. As a registered 

frequent flyer, Steven needs only to place 

his index finger on a fingerprint scanner. 

Parking management 

Current timetable information 

Telematics for smooth traffic flow 

thorities in the United States, which want to 

know exactly what is in each container. The European 

Rail Agency (ERA) is responsible for uniformity 

throughout the EU. “This task includes 

ensuring the uniformity of technologies that 

form the basis of freight hubs, where goods can 

be transferred back and forth between different 

forms of transport, including ships, trains, 

trucks, and aircraft,” says Moninger. 

Millions of kilometers of travel take a toll on 

trains, which must be repaired or replaced without 

affecting passenger service. This is why 

Siemens and rail operators are concentrating 

on preventing predictable down time and ad- 

Intelligent traffic information 

Current traffic information 

Inclusion of trains and airports 

Aboard the plane, he takes his seat and is 

served his favorite drink. 

And there’s no cause for concern regarding 

the goods to be exhibited at the trade fair. 

Thanks to a Vicos CM cargo management system 

installed at the Hamburg South rail station, 

the exhibits departed on time and are safely on 

their way. “One of the most formidable challenges 

in freight transport is to create a uniform, 

electronic bill of lading for all transport 

systems and countries — a system that can 

overcome technical and regulatory obstacles,” 

says Moninger. Effective control of the global 

flow of transport requires overarching logistics 

management combined with GPS tracking and 

the ability to identify a freight shipment and 

provide its up-to-the-minute position. Electronic 

bills of lading are being called for by security aujusting 

logistics processes accordingly. The key 

is prevention by means of remote diagnostics. 

In this connection, Siemens has developed a 

system for supplying replacement parts that is 

based on predicted maintenance measures. 

Such a system was realized for the more 

than 160 Siemens Eurosprinter ES 64s used by 

several European rail companies. Here, for example, 

if a train’s remote fault-monitoring system 

announces that “The filters will need to be 

replaced after the next 5,000 kilometers,” the 

replacement parts system automatically locates 

the site where the replacement parts are stored 

and determines the best place for exchanging 

the filters, without detours if possible. The system 

also notifies service technicians and commissions 

a logistics service provider to supply 

the parts at the replacement site on time. 

The remainder of Steven’s trip to Paris proceeds 

according to plan. Despite traffic congestion, 

Steven quickly reaches the exhibition center 

in Chatelet-Les-Halles. He takes Metro Line 

14, a driverless train built by Siemens, which 

departs every 105 seconds during peak hours. 

His containers with their energy-saving motors 

have arrived on schedule, and the rail-airline 

connections went smoothly. 

It remains to be seen when, or if, such 

enhanced, integrated transportation with 

customer-friendly services will become a reality. 

But one thing is clear: The technologies to make 

it happen are here today. “Networking of services 

and different modes of transportation is 

absolutely necessary if we want to make transport 

in densely populated regions more convenient, 

punctual, environmentally friendly, and as 

efficient as possible,” concludes Moninger. 

Harald Hassenmüller 

On Call 

Around the Clock 

Whether they’re run by police, fire departments, or traffic assistance services, control 

centers benefit from comprehensive networks. Intelligent Siemens software handles 

complex requirements and ensures that help is rushed to wherever it’s needed. 

Katharina Wojtowska sets out to pick up her 

son at a kindergarten in Vienna, Austria, 

only to discover that her car won’t start. She 

calls ÖAMTC — the Austrian automobile club. 

Half an hour later, roadside assistance specialist 

Andreas Brezina arrives. He discovers that 

the alternator in Wojtowska’s car isn’t working 

and proceeds to jump start the vehicle. With 

the engine now running, Wojtowska can drive 

to the nearest repair shop. While Brezina inserts 

Wojtowska’s ÖAMTC membership card in 

his portable reader she talks about how thrilled 

she is by the club’s service. “I was really impressed 

by how quickly ÖAMTC got here,” she 

says. 

Such praise is a source of pride for the club 

and its roadside assistance team, the “yellow 

angels” (dubbed so because of their yellow 

cars), especially as Brezina and his colleagues 

are called into action nearly 800,000 times 

every year. 

Sometimes the job can be anything but 

heavenly for the angels. For example, during 

many nights in January 2006, a thick layer of 

ice covered thousands of cars out in the country. 

“We’re constantly on the go in such situations,” 

Brezina says. In these and other types 



Seamless Communication | Control Centers 

of emergencies, ÖAMTC needs to plan driver 

assignments as efficiently as possible and 

organize other mobile services that utilize 

ambulances, helicopters, and even an ÖAMTC 

ambulance jet — a kind of flying intensive care 

unit. 

“It’s not just about assisting our members 

quickly when they have a breakdown or an accident 

outside the country,” says Peter Koller, 

head of ÖAMTC’s telephone service. “It’s also 

about making sure they realize they’re of the 

utmost importance to us, while at the same 

time focusing on keeping costs in check.” The 

club is able to do this through a harmonious interplay 

between motivated employees and IT 

solutions from Siemens. 

Around ten years ago, all calls received at 

ÖAMTC’s Vienna headquarters were noted 

down by hand and sent via a conveyor belt to a 

dispatcher who contacted a driver by radio. 

The dispatcher thus always had to know where 

all drivers were at any given time. Not infrequently, 

there were misunderstandings that either 

resulted in long waiting times for stranded 

motorists, or drivers being dispatched to the 

wrong places. “The software solution from Siemens 

has enabled us to consistently boost efficiency 

over the last few years,” Koller reports. 

Today, the ÖAMTC headquarters is housed 

in a new building in a residential area on the 

outskirts of Vienna. The ground floor is home 

to the stationary roadside assistance and technical 

testing departments. 

One floor up is the call center, where staff 

member take calls and record information on 

vehicle locations. This data, along with a preliminary 

diagnosis of whatever problem has 

been reported, is displayed to dispatchers on 

digital street maps in an adjoining room. Two 

other screens show them the current status of 

assignments, enabling them to find the right 

driver to handle each call. 

Palcom’s Palpably Better Security 

“The most powerful things are 

those that are effectively invisible 

in use.” This vision of ubiquitous 

computing was penned around 20 

years ago by Mark Weiser, former 

head of the world-renowned Xerox 

Research Laboratory. Weiser’s vision 

is getting very close to reality 

today — and as part of the European 

Union’s Palcom project, some 

100 researchers and developers 

from all over Europe are taking the 

idea a step further and giving it a 

new name: “palpable computing.” The term refers to open software architecture that makes ever more 

extensive information technology solutions easier to work with and more understandable to users. It gets 

its name from the fact that computing power is always readily available, and thus becomes more tangible 

or palpable as time goes on. Dr. Reiner Schmid from Siemens Corporate Technology is working with his 

team on the software architecture currently being used in initial projects. The University of Aarhus, which 

is also a member of the Palcom project, employed this software to develop a pioneering operational 

control system for the July 2007 Tall Ships’ Race in Scandinavia. Researcher Preben Mogensen and his 

team distributed mobile terminals to participants at the three-day event, which was attended by around 

700,000 people and involved some 100 ships. The devices enabled staff to collect up-to-date information 

— including photos — and send it to the control center. GPS also kept the control center constantly informed 

of the whereabouts of staff members. A giant screen displayed the harbor area as well as the 

positions of the ships and personnel. WLAN connections even enabled video images of key areas, such 

as the main stage, to be transmitted live to the control center. A click of a mouse was all it took to extract 

a particular image from the overall depiction (see picture above). Mogensen is proud of what his team 

accomplished, because although each of the technologies employed is already on the market, they had 

never before been combined in such a user-friendly way and in an operational control center of such 

complexity. “Using the software architecture developed by Siemens and other partners, our project 

showed how networked systems and user-friendly interfaces may help to determine security solutions 

in the not too distant future,” said Mogensen. 

Certain routine jobs are automatically assigned 

by the system to specialized drivers, 

whereby the dispatcher only needs to confirm 

the assignment. 

Drivers have touchscreen displays in their 

vehicles that show them their next assignment. 

If they’re only a few minutes away from the vehicle 

in question, they can simply touch a point 

on the screen to connect them automatically 

with the member’s telephone number via mobile 

radio. 

Since the driver knows exactly where the 

vehicle is, club members also no longer have to 

wait right next to their cars for an ÖAMTC specialist 

to show up. “I can enter the entire operation 

— including my diagnosis and repair attempts 

— right into a mobile organizer,” says 

Brezina. “This saves time with documentation 

and also allows us to move on to the next assignment 

more quickly. The mobile unit even 

shows me whether or not a member has paid 

his or her annual dues.” 

Constant contact between headquarters 

and drivers via GPRS and a Siemens modem ensures 

that everyone involved in the process has 

the same information. The system also makes 

it possible to collect and process breakdown 

statistics more rapidly and accurately, which in 

turn improves the efficiency of both short-term 

and long-term personnel planning. 

Data with a Smile. Insurance services offered 

by ÖAMTC are also linked to the comprehensive 

software solution. That means members 

don’t have to tell their story over and over 

again — for example, if their car is taken to a 

repair shop by ÖAMTC and they then have to 

call in additional car-rental coverage they have 

with the club. 

Staff in Vienna simply see everything on 

their screens. Moreover, if the member happens 

to be in Italy, for example, the system will 

also automatically display the most important 

service numbers in the country, which means 

call center staff don’t need to waste time looking 

them up. 

“One key advantage of the software solution 

is its flexibility,” says Ralf Mahnkopf from 

Siemens SBT SES, which has provided software 

support to ÖAMTC from the beginning. ÖAMTC 

is also constantly coming up with new ideas on 

how to further improve its processes. In such 

situations, Koller likes to incorporate new ideas 

into the system as quickly as possible — and 

without having to bring in Siemens specialists 

to reprogram everything. 

Easy-to-use masks enable trained information 

technology specialists at ÖAMTC to change 

features such as the colors or symbols used to 

display available service vehicles to dispatchers. 

“It’s only when things get really complex that 

we need to call in Siemens for help,” says Koller. 

Similarly flexible software solutions are increasingly 

being used in operational control 

centers all over the world. And to an increasing 

extent, emergency call center services are coming 

together into a single, central location. 

One country with such a setup is Finland. 

There, Siemens provided the infrastructure 

that enables the centralized dispatching of 

police, fire departments, and ambulance services. 

“The benefits here aren’t limited to catastrophic 

situations,” says Peter Löffler, research 

and development coordinator at Siemens 

Building Technologies. “Operational centers 

are increasingly becoming decision-making 

centers where people are subjected to permanent 

stress. To ensure optimal interaction 

between software and the people who work 

with it, it’s best to have modular programs that 

can quickly and flexibly be adapted to new 

requirements.” 

The networking of operational centers and 

field staff as practiced by ÖAMTC creates additional 

benefits, as do systems that bring together 

several operational centers. That’s because 

the data collected can be used to 

simulate serious incidents. “These scenarios are 

becoming more and more precise and can help 

with staff training, assignments, and resource 

planning,” says Löffler. 

In addition, there’s a lot more high-quality 

information available these days from sensors 

in temperature monitors and smoke detectors 

in buildings, for example, as well as from video 

cameras that autonomously register and report 

movements (see Pictures of the Future, Spring 

2007, p. 25). “In a few years, we’ll be seeing 

cameras that can recognize conspicuous patterns 

— for example, in the way passersby act 

— and then inform the authorities of a potentially 

dangerous situation,” says Löffler. This 

could involve criminal activity or something as 

mundane as traffic jams that police cars, fire 

trucks, and ambulances need to avoid. 

One thing is clear for Löffler and his team, 

however. Intelligent systems are there only to 

provide assistance to trained personnel when 

it’s necessary to make routine decisions. In 

matters of life and death, on the other hand, 

human beings will continue to make decisions 

and take action. That’s how it is at ÖAMTC in 

Vienna, says Koller, adding that, “Our job 

ultimately doesn’t involve cars as much as it 

does people — people who need help quickly.” 

Katharina Wojtowska has picked up her 

three-year-old son, whom she has already registered 

as a junior member of ÖAMTC for free. 

After all, you’re never too young to get help 

from an angel. Andreas Kleinschmidt 

In Brief 

The Internet is becoming a comprehensive 

medium for the transport of all data. In particular, 

due to mobile web-enabled terminals, 

the number of broadband Internet users will 

grow to around five billion by 2015. A large 

number of them will use Web 2.0 to develop 

new social networking applications or exchange 

films, music, and images. (p. 81) 

User-friendliness is the key. If large numbers 

of people are to use equipment and services, 

then these must be as easy to operate as possible. 

Displays are also getting bigger. (p. 82) 

Companies such as Nokia Siemens Networks 

are boosting cellular radio bandwidth to 

hundreds of megabits per second by further 

developing UMTS and WiMAX. They are also 

working on solutions for the fourth generation 

of cellular radio, which will offer bandwidths 

of one gigabit per second. (p. 84) 

Communications technology is a competitive 

factor in all areas of business. If industry 

is to produce goods efficiently and flexibly, 

data must be universally available at all times. 

Power plants are operated with modern control 

systems to optimally conserve resources. 

Siemens not only offers technology for all of 

these tasks but also secures all kinds of facilities 

against hackers. (pp. 90, 92, 94) 

Industry is making increasing use of wireless 

data transfer, while wireless networks are 

complementing bus technology in factories. 

Siemens’ industrial WLAN solution offers 

maximum reliability and guaranteed bandwidth. 

(p. 92) 

Networked information technology helps 

healthcare providers to treat patients more efficiently 

and cut costs. Siemens offers a wide 

range of solutions, from electronic patient 

records to telemedicine. (p. 96) 

Electronic assistance and traffic management 

systems will make travel much more 

comfortable in the future. Road, rail, and air 

transport will form a seamless whole, characterized 

by smooth transitions between 

systems. (p. 100) 

PEOPLE: 

Communications / general contacts: 

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Raffler, CT IC 

hartmut.raffler@siemens.com 

Nokia Siemens Networks: 

Dr. Stephan Scholz, stephan.scholz@nsn.com 

At home: 

Thomas Hauser, SBT 

hauser.thomas@siemens.com 

Björn Fehrm, FSC 

bjorn.fehrm@fujitsu-siemens.com 

Udo Biro, NSN, udo.biro@nsn.com 

PBXs: 

Karl Klug, SEN, karl.klug@siemens.com 

Energy technology: 

Dr. Rainer Speh, PG, rainer.speh@siemens.com 

Dr. Hans-Gerd Brummel, PG 

hans-gerd.brummel@siemens.com 

Dr. Thomas Werner, PTD 

thomas.werner@siemens.com 

Production: 

Dr. Heiner Röhrl, A&D, 

heiner.roehrl@siemens.com 

Ewald Kuk, A&D, ewald.kuk@siemens.com 

Dr. Rainer Sauerwein, CT IC 

rainer.sauerwein@siemens.com 

IT Security: 

Dr. Stephan Lechner, CT IC 

stephan.lechner@siemens.com 

Dr. Johann Fichtner, CT IC 

johann.fichtner@siemens.com 

Healthcare: 

Dr. Michael Meyer, Med 

michael-meyer@siemens.com 

Dr. Friedrich Fuchs, Med 

friedrich.fuchs@siemens.com 

Transportation: 

Friedrich Moninger, TS 

friedrich.moninger@siemens.com 

Operations control centers: 

Peter Löffler, SBT, peter.loeffler@siemens.com 

LINKS: 

Wireless World Research Forum: 

www.wireless-world-research.org 

Further development in UMTS: 

www.3gpp.org 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

William Webb, Wireless Communications: 

The Future. John Wiley & Sons (2007) 



Pictures of the Future | Feedback 

Preview Spring 2008 

Would you like to know more 

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Please give the subject as “Pictures of the Future, Fall 2007.” 

Brochure on the Pictures of the Future method and the results of 

this strategic visioning and future planning method at Siemens 

Megacities study: Megacity Challenges — A Stakeholder 

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Tailor-Made Solutions 

Every customer has his or her own special wishes — and that’s 

just as true for rail and aircraft manufacturers, power plant 

operators, the service industry and healthcare organizations as it 

is for individuals. In response, manufacturers have to incorporate 

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Book: Innovative Minds — A Look Inside Siemens’ Idea Machine 

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Additional information 

about Siemens’ innovations is also available on the Internet at: 

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www.siemens.com/megacities (Solutions from Siemens for large cities) 

Energy for Billions 

By 2020, eight billion people will live on Earth. Thanks to rising 

standards of living, this huge population will have a vast appetite 

for energy. How can its energy needs be met while minimizing 

their impact on the environment? To what extent can renewable 

energy sources provide a sustainable solution? What are the 

prospects of successfully separating the carbon dioxide produced 

in fossil fuel-fired power plants and reliably sequestering it? 

What’s the best way to store energy? And will intelligent networks 

and virtual power plants be sufficiently developed to ensure a 

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Some questions are just too difficult for people to solve. Where, 

for example, in hundreds of anatomical images of a patient’s 

body, could a tiny tumor be hidden? Which messages, out of a 

flood of data pouring into a control center during an emergency, 

are really relevant? When do the measurement values collated 

from a vast number of sensors indicate that a specific machine is 

about to fail? And how high is the risk associated with a particular 

financial decision? In the future, computer intelligence will play 

a crucial role in helping to answer these and a vast range of 

additional questions. 

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Publisher: Siemens AG 

Corporate Communications (CC) and Corporate Technology (CT) 

Wittelsbacherplatz 2, 80333 Munich 

For the publisher: Dr. Ulrich Eberl (CC), Arthur F. Pease (CT) 

ulrich.eberl@siemens.com (Tel. +49 89 636 33246) 

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Editorial Office: 

Dr. Ulrich Eberl (ue) (Editor-in-chief) 

Arthur F. Pease (afp) (Executive Editor, English Edition) 

Dr. Norbert Aschenbrenner (na) (Managing Editor) 

Sebastian Webel (sw) 

Ulrike Zechbauer (uz) 

Additional Authors in This Issue: 

Bernhard Bartsch, Dr. Dagmar Braun, Bernhard Gerl, Harald Hassenmüller, 

Andrea Hoferichter, Ute Kehse, Andreas Kleinschmidt, Michael 

Lang, Katrin Nikolaus, Bernd Müller, Werner Pluta, Gitta Rohling, 

Dr. Jeanne Rubner, Tim Schröder, Rolf Sterbak, Dr. Sylvia Trage, 

Dr. Evdoxia Tsakiridou, Harald Weiss, Nikola Wohllaib 

Picture Editing: 

Judith Egelhof, Irene Kern, Jürgen Winzeck, Publicis Munich 

Photography: Kurt Bauer, Natalie Behring, Thomas Langer, Andreas 

Messner, Bernd Müller, Norbert Michalke, Ruppert Oberhäuser, 

Andreas Pohlmann, Karsten Schöne, Marc Steinmetz, Volker Steger, 

Jürgen Winzeck 

Internet (www.siemens.com/pof): Volkmar Dimpfl 

Historical Information: Dr. Frank Wittendorfer, Siemens Corporate 

Archives 

Address Database: Susan Süß, Publicis Erlangen 

Layout / Lithography: Rigo Ratschke, Büro Seufferle, Stuttgart 

Illustrations: Natascha Römer, Stuttgart 

Graphics: Jochen Haller, Büro Seufferle, Stuttgart 

Translations German — English: TransForm GmbH, Cologne 

Translations English — German: Karin Hofmann, Heiner Weidler, 

Publicis Munich 

Printing: Bechtle Druck&Service, Esslingen 

Picture Credits: DLR (5 t.l.), G2 Microsystems (6), Eclipse Aviation 

(17), Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg (33 l., 34), private (39, 40), 

Airbus S.A.S. (48, t., 71 l.b.), F1online / Fancy (59 b.), Toho Tenax 

Europe (71 b.r.), Acciona (76 t.l.), ecopix / Lou Linwei (83 l. ), 

Manfred Klimek (84 b.), Dürr AG (86), travelstock44.de / Jürgen 

Held (90), OSRAM / Jorge Verdecchia & Hernán Verdecchia (98), 

Nikola Wohllaib (99), Palcom / University of Aarhus (104) 

All other images: Copyright Siemens AG. 

Pictures of the Future, syngo, PlantCalc, NX, Teamcenter, Tecnomatix and 

other names are registered trademarks of Siemens AG. ICE ist a registered 

trademark of Deutsche Bahn AG. Second Life is a registered trademark of 

Linden Research, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned in 

this magazine may be registered trade marks of their respective companies. 

The editorial content of the reports in this publication does not 

necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher. This magazine contains 

forward-looking statements, the accuracy of which Siemens is not able 

to guarantee in any way. 

Pictures of the Future appears twice a year. 

Printed in Germany. Reproduction of articles in whole or in part requires 

the permission of the editorial office. This also applies to storage in 

electronic databases or on the Internet. 

© 2007 by Siemens AG. All rights reserved. 

Siemens Aktiengesellschaft 

Order number: A19100-F-P113-X-7600 

ISSN 1618-5498

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