ZIE 2023, March 21st, the central meeting place for the tech industry
Whether it concerns shipping, space travel or agriculture and horticulture, our society cannot do without the technological manufacturing industry. One of the keynote speakers is Jan van der Tempel,
CEO of Ampelmann Operations. He talks about how his company, a supplier of offshore walkway systems, grew from a start-up to a global player.
Another branch of sport
Collaboration has been a key theme at Ampelmann from the very beginning. That is one of the messages the CEO wants to convey during his presentation. The company, which once started as a spin-off at TU Delft, makes gangways that are hired to cross the sea from a ship to a drilling platform. Van der Tempel, inventor of the system, was inspired for the design by a completely different branch of sport: that of airplane simulators. ''A presentation at a conference in Berlin brought us to the problem of safe transfer at sea: the ship moves in all 6 directions. An airplane simulator can make the same movements, but also countersteer. The Ampelmann concept was born. As you can see, the start of Ampelmann actually started right away with a cross-sectoral idea. Ampelmann has now grown into a real world player, with great ambitions. Currently, the arrows are aimed at making the footbridge more energy-efficient. We are now working on electrifying the Ampelmann, as the system is called. At the moment it still runs on diesel, but it appears to perform exactly the same with 90 percent less energy. So a huge leap forward.”
Working together with other companies is exciting and challenging, but ultimately takes you much further, thus an van der Tempel.
Program
The ZIE2023 program is broad in scope. In addition to lectures by various keynote speakers, visitors on the exhibition floor get to know dozens of companies and organizations, for example at the Space, Robotics and Metal pavilions. A Startup & Scale-up square has also been set up. Rabobank, TNO and various schools are also present.
