The “Schlaue Fuchs” (‘Clever Fox’), a safety prize from the German wood and metal processing trade association “Berufsgenossenschaft Holz und Metall”, has been awarded to Multivac for a testing system the company has developed for application across every aspect of packaging machinery assembly. The system makes it possible to use an inching mode for the controlled lifting and lowering of mechanical movements and it contributes to reducing the danger of accidents in assembly. The Multivac Group Chief Technology Officer Bernd Höpner accepted the prize.

“Receiving the ‘Schlaue Fuchs’ is a great honour for us. It motivates us to continue our work on increasing workplace safety and ergonomics, and to constantly look for new possibilities for improvement,” said Multivac CTO Bernd Höpner.

The idea for the new testing system came from David Walter, the thermoform packaging machinery team leader. Mr. Walter commented, “Testing activities for pneumatic hoists up to now didn’t offer the prospect of steering them into every desired position, and the previous control unit was operated by trained employees with one hand. Since there was no technical solution available on the market that met our requirements, a project team made up of people from the assembly, construction, technical documentation and work safety departments worked together to come up with a suitable solution.”

“The new testing facility makes it possible to use an inching mode for the controlled lifting and lowering of mechanical movements, and it can only be operated with both hands, which significantly reduces the danger of accidents,” added André Wagner, Work Safety Officer at Multivac.