Physik Instrumente (PI) inaugurated the PI Technology Hub in Karlsruhe, Germany in July. On an area of 500 sqm, the hub offers space for ten employees of the central department “Global Research” as well as ten additional places for more extensive project work and for Ph.D. students and working students. It is equipped with special laboratories to allow for hands-on experiments. The strategic proximity to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and other research institutions will promote an intensive exchange and close cooperation.

“The Technology Hub will bring together the latest findings from basic research with decades of practical experience in the global high-tech industry,” says Salah Benamira, SVP Global Research of PI. For more than fifty years, the company has been a leading supplier of products and systems that perform motion to within a millionth of a millimeter. The focus of the PI Technology Hub is on the further development of existing drive technologies to significantly increase positioning accuracy and dynamics, as well as the development of new, innovative drive principles. This includes numerous sub-areas ranging from mechanics, sensors, metrology, and electronics to algorithms and software.

“KIT and PI have been working together on numerous projects for many years, and we look forward to further intensifying this exchange. We wish the PI Technology Hub every success and are eager to see the latest developments there,” emphasizes Professor Dr. Thomas Hirth, vice-president transfer and international affairs of KIT.

“The technological advances we are striving for are essential to meet the ever-changing needs of the industry,” explains Salah Benamira. “This is the only way we can maintain our own claim of making the seemingly impossible possible in the long term.”

The PI Group holds more than 560 patents and has been listed among the top positions in the Handelsblatt's “Hidden Champions” ranking of unknown world market leaders in the German SME sector for years.

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