Cooperation with TH Cologne and Ostfalia HAW

Since Feb­ru­ary 2020, there has been a coop­er­a­tion with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jür­gen Bet­zler from the Insti­tute of Auto­mo­tive Engi­neer­ing at Cologne Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences, the lab­o­ra­to­ry man­ag­er for chas­sis and sim­u­la­tion tech­nol­o­gy. Since the begin­ning of 2021, there has also been col­lab­o­ra­tion with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robin Van­haelst, the head of the Alter­na­tive Propul­sion Work­ing Group at the Insti­tute of Auto­mo­tive Engi­neer­ing at Ost­falia Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences. The two renowned uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sors are our high­ly respect­ed mentors.

A group of inter­est­ed stu­dents is par­tic­i­pat­ing in the pre-devel­op­ment of the nov­el pow­er­train and sus­pen­sion con­cept for scoot­ers by writ­ing engi­neer­ing research papers as exam­i­na­tions for their stud­ies. The team is led by Dr.-Ing. David Koebel as an exter­nal part­ner of the Traction‑X com­pa­ny. With­in the frame­work of ongo­ing project and bach­e­lor the­ses, an addi­tive­ly man­u­fac­tured demon­stra­tor has already been devel­oped and analy­ses of the char­ac­ter­is­tics and dri­ving sta­bil­i­ty of the over­all con­cept and the sus­pen­sion have been car­ried out. The first ver­sion of Traction‑X was designed accord­ing to pre­lim­i­nary spec­i­fi­ca­tions and ver­i­fied by means of finite ele­ment struc­tur­al analy­sis. In the process, a large num­ber of insights were gained, which are now being incor­po­rat­ed into two fur­ther Bachelor’s the­ses as well as a Master’s the­sis on the devel­op­ment of the first prototype. 

See also the blog post Ven­tures in times of Coro­na.

COOPERATION WITH INDUSTRY

Win³ — Together we turn your end customers into eternal fans

As a renowned man­u­fac­tur­er of scoot­ers and in coop­er­a­tion with Traction‑X, you will devel­op the same-named com­bi­na­tion of swing arm and hub­less wheel. Take advan­tage of the oppor­tu­ni­ty to deter­mine the future of ride com­fort and secu­ri­ty in an ear­ly B2B coop­er­a­tion between indus­tri­al partners.

This part­ner­ship serves to coor­di­nate and define the inter­faces as well as the design and pro­gram­mat­ic require­ments in a time­ly man­ner. If you too are look­ing for a trust­ing coop­er­a­tion that goes beyond the mere role of a sup­pli­er and pro­motes an open and effi­cient exchange of infor­ma­tion, then Traction‑X is the right part­ner for you.

This part­ner­ship between sup­pli­er and inter­me­di­ate cus­tomer or pro­duc­er is for the ben­e­fit of all par­ties, and the cus­tomer in par­tic­u­lar also prof­its from it. We there­fore speak of a “win3″ or “win-cubed” sit­u­a­tion.

Togeth­er, we cor­rect­ly under­stand the wish­es of the end cus­tomer and define them as prod­uct require­ments in the specifications.

As a man­u­fac­tur­er of scoot­ers, become part of the next new tech­ni­cal rev­o­lu­tion in the field of dri­ve tech­nol­o­gy. Work togeth­er with Traction‑X to cre­ate a com­plete­ly new prod­uct that is out­stand­ing in every respect and meets the high­est qual­i­ty stan­dards. Your end cus­tomers will thank you for the safe rid­ing com­fort!

EXIST

An invitation to enthusiasts

Option­al is a fund­ing from the Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Ener­gy (BMWi) as part of the so-called EXIST research trans­fer pro­gram. 

EXIST aims to sup­port tech­nol­o­gy-ori­ent­ed com­pa­ny founders. Via EXIST stu­dents, grad­u­ates and sci­en­tists are pro­vid­ed with finan­cial resources and start-up-relat­ed know-how. The goal is to use sci­en­tif­ic results for the devel­op­ment of prod­ucts to mar­ket matu­ri­ty, to pre­pare the start-up and to enter the market.

The basis of EXIST busi­ness start-ups from sci­ence is a part­ner­ship with a research insti­tu­tion as the ini­tial appli­cant. There should be a team of aca­d­e­mics or grad­u­ates and an expe­ri­enced project man­ag­er from indus­try. The Master’s degree is the pre­req­ui­site for mem­ber­ship with­in this research team, with the excep­tion of one tech­ni­cian or lab­o­ra­to­ry assis­tant, which is quite remark­able. Fur­ther­more, it is required to request sup­port by expert advice from a pro­fes­sion­al men­tor or coach with­in a start-up network.

https://exist.de/programm/exist-forschungstransfer/

The pro­gram­mat­ic of the EXIST research trans­fer pro­gram sched­ules a phase 1 (“pre-seed”), i.e. an imple­men­ta­tion phase of 18 to 36 months. The patent DE10 2011 117 388 (ref­er­ence) and espe­cial­ly the ani­mat­ed demon­stra­tor of Traction‑X yield the basic proof of fea­si­bil­i­ty, i.e. the required “proof of prin­ci­ple”. In this phase the real­iza­tion of the prod­uct idea through devel­op­ment work is pend­ing, result­ing into the pro­duc­tion of an engi­neer­ing mod­el, i.e. the pro­to­type of a scoot­er with Traction‑X. The exchange of infor­ma­tion and require­ments with an indus­tri­al part­ner and man­u­fac­tur­er is cru­cial. In addi­tion, the busi­ness idea is devel­oped up to a final busi­ness plan. A total of up to € 250,000 in fund­ing can be applied for.

Phase 2 of the EXIST research trans­fer lasts 18 months, at the begin­ning of which the new­ly found­ed tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny (cor­po­ra­tion) sub­mits an appli­ca­tion for an ear­marked max­i­mum of € 180,000. In this phase, the fur­ther devel­op­ment and test­ing of the engi­neer­ing mod­el and of the prod­uct idea takes place, up to the con­struc­tion of a prod­uct pro­to­type (“proof of con­cept”). Exter­nal cor­po­rate financ­ing and mar­ket entry are also to be prepared.

For fol­low-up financ­ing at mar­ket entry, i.e. after the EXIST fund­ing pro­gram is com­plet­ed, the fol­low­ing options are considered

  • Kick­starter crowdfunding
  • A devel­op­ment loan from the Bre­mer Aufbaubank