Fischertechnik: Building sets for children and engineers

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Many adults still know Fischertechnik from their childhood days. It is a construction kit system for technically-minded youngsters – a toy. But that's not all: the German manufacturer now also has a range for professional applications.

Anyone who studies mechanical engineering, production engineering, electrical engineering, logistics or industrial engineering or has completed training as an automation technician will at some point have to deal with the processes in a factory. How do you learn to deal with them without breaking anything?

Building sets for children and engineers

Recently with a model from Fischertechnik, about one cubic meter in size. "I can represent an entire factory plant from logistics to outgoing goods via various production steps," says Felix Witzelmaier from Fischertechnik GmbH.

But the manufacturer also continues to look after the next generation. Since this July, there has been an "E-Tec" construction set for children from the age of eight. The Federal Association of Toy Retailers nominated it for the "TOP 10 Toys 2024" and it was nominated for the "Play & Technology" category at the German Toy Award 2024.

The package includes 112 individual parts for 11 models – for example, the "throwing game". A gray perforated plate forms the base for the individual components. If you just want to put it together, you can get by with the enclosed booklet; the system is easy to understand. Once all the components and cables are in place as they should be, the game can begin: Set up the target area and throw the ball. The ball hits, a circuit closes, a light flashes!

In addition to the throwing game, there are ten other models that children can use to learn about the most important electrical concepts, such as simple circuits, AND circuits, OR circuits, series/parallel circuits, games of skill and so on.

The building instructions also include a QR code that explains the models in more detail. With the target group in mind, there is still room for improvement here. For example, the word "electrons" is used but not explained until the next chapter; terms such as "anode" or "cathode" are also missing an explanation. In contrast, the explanation of "pole reversal switch" is again very good.

For the didactics, the engineers worked with a "pool of professors", product developer Jonathan Auer explains. As a rule, children have a routine after one or two models: "There are even five-year-olds who get to grips with it and sometimes eight-year-olds find it difficult. But we generally have good experience with eight-year-olds when selecting components."

Toys, school, industry

If it works with eight-year-olds, it will certainly work with 18- or 28-year-olds, which brings us back to the model mentioned at the beginning. "We bring out new products every year in every line, whether for the school market, the toy market or for the factory simulation systems", Sandra Roth from Corporate Communications explains, "there are at least 10 construction kits per year in total."

The models with a complete factory system on the subject of agile production are new. The first models were delivered to customers in March 2024. "Our most important model currently is the factory of tomorrow," says Witzelmaier, "on a small scale to see How will it work?"

To this end, Fischertechnik is working with experts from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the Institute for Materials Handling Technology at the University of Stuttgart and the software company OMM Solutions, says Witzelmaier. There are four main topics: Agile manufacturing, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and automation.

Digital twin of the industrial plant

It can be used to test how agile production works or AI in quality assurance and so on. The result can then be seen "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, which is based on a digital twin of the physical plant and contains various learning modules on the topics. "Then you can choose: Do you solve a task with the digital twin or would you rather do it with the physical plant?"

(vbr)