Many adults still know fishing techniques from childhood. For young people interested in technology this modular system is – simply a toy. But that’s not all: The German manufacturer now also has an offer for professional applications.
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Anyone who studies mechanical engineering, production technology, electrical engineering, logistics or industrial engineering or has completed training as an automation technician will have to deal with processes in a factory at some point. How do you learn to deal with this without breaking anything?
Building Sets for Kids and Engineers
With a recent model from Fischertechnik, which is about one cubic meter in size, “I can represent an entire factory system, from logistics through the various production stages to outgoing goods,” says Felix Witzelmeyer of Fischertechnik GmbH.
But the manufacturer also continues to look after the next generation. An “E-Tech” construction kit for children aged eight and over has been available since this July. The Federal Association of Toy Retailers nominated it for the “Top 10 Toys 2024” and it was nominated for the “Games & Technology” category at the German Toy Prize 2024.
The package includes 112 individual parts for 11 models – for example the “throwing game”. A grey perforated plate forms the base for the individual components. If you just want to tinker together, you can make do with the enclosed manual; the system is easy to understand. If all the components and cables are plugged in as they should be, the game can begin: set up the target area, throw the ball. The ball hits, a circuit closes, a light flashes!
E-Tech: Construction Weights for Kids.
(Image: Fischertechnik)
Apart from the throwing game, there are ten other models with which children learn the most important concepts of electricity, such as simple circuits, AND circuits, OR circuits, series/parallel circuits, skill games, etc.
The building instructions also include a QR code that explains the models in more detail. There is still room for improvement here with regard to the target group. For example, the term “electron” is used but not explained until the next chapter; terms such as “anode” or “cathode” also lack explanation. On the other hand, the explanation of the “pole reversal switch” is very good.
Product developer Jonathan Auer explains that for didacticness, the engineers worked with “a group of professors”. As a rule, children have a routine after one or two models: “There are even five-year-olds who can cope with it and sometimes eight-year-olds have a hard time. But in general we have good experience with eight-year-olds when choosing components.”
toys, school, industry
If it works with eight-year-olds, it will certainly work with 18 or 28-year-olds as well, which brings us back to the model mentioned at the beginning. “We bring out new products in every line every year – whether for the school market, the toy market or for factory simulation systems,” explains Sandra Roth from Corporate Communications, “In total there are at least 10 construction sets per year.”
Models with complete factory systems are new on the topic of accelerated production. The first models are delivered to customers in March 2024. “Our most important model at the moment is the factory of tomorrow,” says Witzelmeyer, “in a small way, to see how it would work.”
To this end, Fischertechnik works with experts from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the Institute for Conveyor Technology at the University of Stuttgart and the software company OMM Solutions, says Witzelmaier. There are four main topics: Agile Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Automation.
Digital twin of an industrial plant
You can use it to test how rapid manufacturing works or how AI works in quality assurance, etc. You can then see the results “from a bird’s eye view and in a safe learning environment. You can’t try things out in a real factory, but you can on a model.”
There is also a digital learning platform that is based on the digital twin of the physical system and includes various learning modules on the topics. “Then you can choose: do you prefer to solve a task with a digital twin or with a physical system?”
(vbr)
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