At yesterday's best regional innovation award ceremony, organised in Ajdovščina by the Northern Primorska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the achievements of Hidria's innovators once again ranked among the top. They received no fewer than four awards – one gold, two silver and one bronze.

The gold award of the Northern Primorska Chamber of Commerce and Industry was received by the innovators of Hidria Dieseltec for the innovative fuel heater for Hengst. The team of developers developed a new diesel fuel heater for the German company Hengst. The heater is installed in MAN vehicles. The innovation that encompasses numerous ground-breaking solutions, such as a two-level switch with a safety function, the innovative heating element design, the integration of the PCBA control electronics into housing and own software code is one of the few products of Slovenian automotive suppliers that meet the demanding functional safety standard.

In addition, Hidria's innovators also received the silver award of the Industrial Automation Competence Centre for the Wetting line for hydrophilic coated urine catheters. The authors of the innovation developed an innovative solution of controlled and repeatable urine catheter wetting process in the framework of the newly designed competence centre. TIK Kobarid, the buyer of our innovative solution, thus received an advanced automated line allowing for industrialisation of a new product family of coated catheters, while Hidria's Industrial Automation Centre gained an exceptional reference in medical industry and its first to cover an extremely demanding field of ATEX standards (presence of an explosive atmosphere). The silver award was received by Hidria Alutec for the innovative solution for shortening the cycle for preparing the die cast tools. The authors replaced the standard industrial procedure of die cast tool oxidation with a shorter one. Two process steps were combined into one in an innovative way. Furthermore, material costs will be significantly smaller and financial savings greater.

In addition, Hidria received the bronze award, owing to the HR team who developed the system for establishing comprehensive integrated, IT-supported HR management and recruitment process. The innovation constitutes a brand new IT model with own software code, providing integral support to the entire HR management and recruitment process. The new application allows for comprehensive monitoring of the HR management process according to the principle of "one data item - one entry", giving the HR department a completely new, scouting function. Hidria now has at its disposal a greatly improved high-quality process for talent hunting and candidate selection. This enables us to attract, in a very short time, the best new employees with first-rate competence as required by our departments and business units.