Image: The CEOs of the founding partner companies of MUNDA: Rolf A. Königs (CEO Aunde, right), Wido Weyer (CEO Mentor, left)
AUNDE and MENTOR have combined their core capabilities to establish a joint venture, working together on the development, production and delivery of textile lighting systems.
AUNDE’s expertise in technical textiles and MENTOR’s experience in LED lighting technology come together at the Erkrath site in the newly-founded business “MUNDA Textile Lichtsysteme GmbH” (MENTOR und [= and] AUNDE). Innovative technical lighting applications in the automotive industry as well as in many other industries will be developed. The two companies are to become equal partners with 50 per cent shares each in the new joint venture. The German competition authority, Bundeskartellamt, has already given its approval.
Previously, functional perspectives were the focus of automotive interior lighting, but today “emotional” aspects such as ambience and mood are given much consideration. And the desire for individual lighting that adapts to the preferences of the respective driver, for example, or that can be adjusted by the driver according to mood is also gaining in importance. In future, there will be an even greater fusion of functional and emotional aspects, with new functions emerging that are becoming more and more dynamic.
This trend is set to gain a lot more momentum autonomous driving becomes more common, with virtually no area of a car’s interior being left out. “The textile lighting systems from MUNDA will meet these new requirements and help create entirely new customer experiences,” says Rolf Königs, CEO of the AUNDE Group.
But it is not just the automotive industry where state-of-the-art lighting solutions are used. Demand for product-integrated lighting is also on the increase in many other industries due to the rise of increasingly multi-functional products. The aim is to generate practical added-value in the products of tomorrow through meeting the functional, aesthetic and emotional aspects.
The technology of textile lighting systems offers huge benefits and creates entirely new possibilities. Requiring hardly any component-specific tool costs, this technology enables short development times and is suitable even for quantities where a tool-based technology is no longer cost-effective.
Textile lighting systems can be folded into (almost) any shape, providing designers with new design options and giving developers greater flexibility in how to use installation space, which is often very tight. “The technology under development at MUNDA will open up new areas of application and further growth opportunities in many industries,” says Wido Weyer, Managing Director of MENTOR.
For more information please go to the Original Press Release
