We invest around seven per cent of our turnover every year in research and development to create innovative solutions that give our customers a clear competitive edge. The result: we have 100 new products per year ready to be patented, more than 2,600 patents worldwide and we won the German Future Award in 2010. At our Research and Development department we work on the tomorrow's innovations. New ideas, from intelligent components to integrated systems, are continually emerging as we look to the future.