Karl von Wedel receives lifetime achievement award, Germany
As part of the Technical and Scientific Meeting of German Cement Works Association (VDZ) in Düsseldorf, Dipl.-Ing Karl von Wedel was awarded the Klaus-Dyckerhoff Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of cement production.
Von Wedel, founder of IKN, was commended by judges for his innovation in clinker cooler developments, and praised for his contribution to increasing energy efficiency in clinker production and linking economic and environmental benefits.
Von Wedel was a graduate of the Bergakademie Clausthal, today’s Clausthal University of Technology, first worked in the lime industry. He then became head of development of Claudius Peters. In the late 1970s he started his own business and in 1982 founded IKN in Neustadt on Rübenberge. After a short start-up phase, he was successful in the market with a new clinker cooler technology, based on a refined casting techniques, a better and more intensive air distribution as well as a distribution module specially-designed for the cooler inlet.
Further technological developments, such as the pendulum suspension of the moving cooler grates, were added, making IKN a complete supplier of clinker coolers and enabling the company to gain a leading global position in cooler reconstruction and modernisation.
This is the third time the EUR30,000 prize has been awarded by the Dyckerhoff Foundation, which was founded in 1994 by Dr Klaus Dyckerhoff and his wife, Dr Edith Dyckerhoff to promote young scientists and honour outstanding performances in cement-related construction technology.
Published under Cement News
