Hidria and its employees again prove to be among the most innovative in Slovenia. Two of our innovations, the control module for the “after-treatment” system (Hidria AET) and the motorcycle frame welding simulation (Hidria Mototec) were awarded silver prizes of the Chamber of Commerce of Slovenia (GZS).

The control module for the “after-treatment” system on the exhaust pipe was developed by the innovators from Hidria AET –Jaka Kleč, Jani Čebokli, Matija Gaberšček, Aleš Kranjc, Jernej Rejc, Dean Kravos, Andraž Gregorčič, Rok Bizjak and Črtomir Juren, for the American Caterpillar Corporation. This system achieves a significant decrease in harmful gas emissions. Its advantage is that it can simultaneously control several sub-systems connected to the catalyst that enable a smooth and less environmentally burdensome operation of the combustion engine.

A GZS silver award was also given to our colleague at Hidria Mototec, Branko Stanič. He developed a unique motorcycle frame welding simulation that enables Hidria as the first supplier to obtain extremely reliable information about deformations that occur in the welding process. In this way, Hidria has managed to significantly reduce the testing and industrialisation time of the welding procedure (from 3 months to only 6 weeks). Now we can deliver the first samples to the customer much faster than the competition. All this has helped us to acquire an important order of four types of frames for prestigious BMW motorcycles.

In the context of the trademark Innovative Slovenia, GZS covers the entire support process for innovation – from the idea and development, the protection of intellectual property, connections with partners and the placement of the innovation on the international market, up to the promotion of innovations. GZS has been giving out national awards for the best innovations since 2003; during this period it has awarded over 8,400 innovators and almost 2600 innovations, many of them coming from Hidria.