The competition is based on a scientific selection process. Innovation researcher Prof Nikolaus Franke from the Vienna University of Economics and Business examined the company on the basis of more than one hundred criteria from five categories: innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovative processes and organization, external orientation/open innovation, and innovation success. It is particularly important that a company’s innovations are not just a product of chance, but are systematically planned and thus repeatable in the future.

Evosys is now among the top innovators for the second time; the first award was in 2020. The company is well-known in the field of mechanical engineering and has made a name for itself in the area of laser welding of plastics: The Erlangen-based company develops and manufactures laser welding systems for processing plastics. These are used, for example, in the automotive, medical technology or consumer product industries. Laser welding of plastics is an established and widely used manufacturing process. It is valued above all for its reliability, cleanliness and cost-effectiveness.

The Top 100 Innovation Competition has now been held for the 30th time. The comparison is primarily concerned with the question of how important the innovation goal is within the company. Do routines and habits dominate, or is the company capable of questioning the existing, thinking creatively and in new ways.

The award ceremony will take place on June 23 in Augsburg as part of the German SME Summit.

Just some weeks ago, the company won the Best of Industry Award in the plastics technology category for their patented advanced quasi-simultaneous welding (AQW) process.

Further reading: Lea Sauerwein, Christian Ebenhöh, and René Geiger: Evosys’ advanced quasi-simultaneous welding – A new approach to the joining of polymers, PhotonicsViews 18(5), 34 – 37; DOI: 10.1002/phvs.202100057 • Frank Brunnecker & Christian Ebenhöh: Efficient Connective Solutions – Automation solutions for the laser welding of plastics, PhotonicsViews 17(5), October 2020, Pages 30–33; DOI: 10.1002/phvs.202000040