The Lapp Group recently received a visit from President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the company's 2016 Hannover Messe trade fair booth. President Obama and Chancellor Merkel learned about the latest technology innovations from Lapp, which is a family-owned wire and cable manufacturer with U.S. headquarters in Florham Park, N.J.

One of the major highlights at the booth was a basketball-playing robot made by Lapp’s customer Comau, which incorporates Lapp’s own ÖLFLEX Robot cables. “The cables, which are laid inside the robot arm, must withstand quick and precise movement under high torsion, tight bending radii and severe acceleration. Over a robot’s service life, this means that cables will be twisted 15 million times over 1,400 degrees along their own axis,” explained Lapp Chairman, Andreas Lapp. “Typically, a cable cannot possibly withstand that kind of punishment but our engineers made it possible. This way, Comau can give a full eight years of warranty on their robots.”

Lapp also presented the President and the Chancellor with a set of data and power cables for robots. The escalation of the Internet of Things means that robots and other machines increasingly need to be networked. The resulting rising data volumes and challenging mechanical requirements are extremely challenging for the cables.

Lapp accompanied his guests as they strolled through the cable specialist company’s “Walk of Fame”. The ‘walk’ featured actors dressed up as film stars Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin, in honor of this year’s partner country, the USA – and also revealed the latest highlights from the Lapp portfolio.

“I am impressed at how a family-owned business like Lapp has found international success,” said Chancellor Merkel.

President Obama added: “Lapp serves as an excellent role model for U.S. businesses.”

In conversation with President Obama, Andreas Lapp highlighted the U.S. market’s significance for the Lapp Group: “In the United States we’ve recently experienced particularly good growth of more than 20 percent. This was also underlined by the fact that one of its key areas of focus at the trade fair is Lapp’s UL-certified products, which are accredited especially for use in North America."