SBT on excursion in East Tyrol

Smart Building Technologies visits partner companies HELLA and iDM

On April 23, students and faculty of the dual Bachelor's degree program “Smart Building Technologies” were guests in East Tyrol. For the second time, the students in their 4th and 2nd semesters (this year the 2023 and 2024 cohorts) were able to visit the two partner companies HELLA and iDM at their production sites in Abfaltersbach and Matrei in East Tyrol.

The students were able to spend an entire day gaining insights into industrial production at the headquarters of these two partner companies. In the course of two factory tours and product presentations, the dual students got to know the entrepreneurial processes of these two partner companies, both headquartered in East Tyrol, on site.

After the tour of the HELLA halls in Abfaltersbach, Robert Weitlaner and his InnovationLab team rounded off the company presentation with insights into the diverse product portfolio. Graduate Tobias Schneider and Shpetim Gashi, a student in the final 6th semester, explained to the students their respective professional development steps through their collaboration with HELLA. Finally, student Florian Roos (class of 2024) was delighted with his success in the HELLA quiz.

Change of location after a shared lunch: at the iDM headquarters in Matrei, Technical Managing Director Christoph Bacher gave a detailed presentation on the development of heat pump technology in Austria and showed the current prototypes from the initial planning stages to the product ready for delivery. In order to convey iDM's production processes in a sustainable way, Michael Steiner, trainee lecturer at the iDM Academy, guided our students and team through the iDM production facilities. The fully automated high-bay warehouse was particularly impressive in terms of logistics.

In this way, all students were able to get to know the plants and work processes of these partner companies with a focus on sun and weather protection technology (HELLA) and heat pump technology (iDM) and experience the respective expertise in the everyday working environment.

The detailed insights, especially into the current production processes, will certainly stay with the students for a long time. The course is looking forward to further visits and would like to thank everyone involved for their generous support!

About the partner companies:

HELLA is one of Europe's leading suppliers of sun, light and weather protection systems for buildings. Headquartered in Abfaltersbach in East Tyrol, the company has 1,300 employees and is represented in nine European countries with its own subsidiaries, in two of which it operates production plants. The product portfolio includes coordinated exterior and interior solutions, security systems and their electronic controls in the field of building equipment and is constantly being expanded in line with architectural trends. The products create individual lighting profiles, protect against the effects of the sun and weather, contribute to the security of buildings and help to reduce energy consumption.

iDM Energiesysteme GmbH is a pioneer in intelligent heat pump systems and provides sustainable heat that makes you independent. Headquartered in Matrei in East Tyrol, iDM has been supplying cutting-edge technology in the field of renewable energy for over 45 years and is Austria's largest manufacturer of heat pumps from 2 to 1,500 kW. It is part of the PLETZER Group, a family-run group of companies with its roots in Tyrol. In addition to iDM, other companies in the PLETZER Group offer a wide range of career opportunities as part of the study program. These include Pletzer Immobilien – real estate throughout Austria, Pletzer Anton GmbH, which specializes in building and heating technology, and APL Apparatebau GmbH, a leading manufacturer of heat exchangers.