The weather in the Arctic Circle is inhospitable. It is bitterly cold there in winter. Such conditions pose challenges for people and machines – including electric locomotives, which in future will have to transport iron ore in Sweden under difficult conditions. The locomotives have a system that saves energy when braking. For this, cables and plug connections have to be particularly robust, says Matthias Lapp, CEO of the Lapp Group in Stuttgart. The family company sees great opportunities in railway technology and has been expanding this area for years. The market potential for such connection solutions alone is around 500 million euros a year.
With around 40,000 products, Lapp is one of the most important manufacturers and suppliers of connection technology. Among other things, it produces connection and control cables, data cables, fiber optic cables, cable glands and industrial connectors. The main customers are mechanical and plant engineering, the food industry, the energy sector and the mobility sector. There, Lapp is benefiting from the trend towards electric drives. “Every electric car needs a charging cable,” says the managing partner.