In fiscal 2014, Siemens filed 4,300 patent applications – a year-over-year increase of nine percent. In addition, the company intends to boost investments in research and development (R&D) by around €400 million. In fiscal 2014, R&D expenditures totalled roughly €4 billion. Twelve Siemens researchers and developers who together account for more than 900 inventions and 842 granted individual patents played a leading role in the company’s success. They were honoured by Siemens as Inventors of the Year 2014 in Munich on December 3.
“Innovation is a cornerstone of our Siemens Vision 2020,” says Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens AG. “Valuable creative ideas are the basis for our innovations. With their ingenuity and their drive to create new technology solutions, these 12 inventors and their 30,000 colleagues worldwide have played a key role in safeguarding our company’s technological future and market success.”
Eight of the Siemens researchers honoured are from Germany; the others are from the U.S., Denmark and China. Their inventions range from wireless sensors that monitor rail-car position on the track to a new cooling system that enables wind power installations to generate more electricity to a gas turbine whose components have been recombined, thus making turbine production considerably more economical than in the past.
