Obama & Merkel Visit Lapp Group at Hanover Trade Fair

Obama and Chancellor Merkel learned about the latest technology innovations from Lapp, a family-owned wire and cable manufacturer with US headquarters in Florham Park, N.J.

President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visit Lapp Group at Hannover Messe 2016.
President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visit Lapp Group at Hannover Messe 2016.
Lapp Group

Florham, Park, N.J. - April 25, 2016 - The Lapp Group today 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 US 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 ÖLFLEX ROBOT 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 1400 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 (IoT) 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’s ETHERLINE TORSION Cat.6A for example can transmit up to 10 Gigabits of data per second even under permanent twisting. “Only Lapp can deliver such complete solutions, in this we are a world market leader,” declared Lapp.

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

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

In conversation with President Obama, Andreas Lapp highlighted the US market’s significance for the Lapp Group. “In the USA we’ve recently experienced particularly good growth of more than 20%," he said. 

U.S. importance to the Lapp Group 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.

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