Research and Development

NORMA Group’s research and development activities aim to identify technological trends at an early stage and address them in a targeted manner. This is intended to optimally support the achievement of strategic corporate goals. The focus is on opening up new markets, gaining new customers and developing new products and system solutions. NORMA Group’s approach is to assess new technologies based on the extent to which they serve to optimize existing processes, minimize the use of materials or further improve the functionality and sustainability of the end products. The focus is on innovative and high-quality solutions for the global challenges of the respective end markets. In addition to water management and electromobility, these include topics such as digitalization, stationary battery storage systems and hydrogen as an alternative energy source. By specifically considering the relevant global megatrends in close coordination with customers, NORMA Group is able to identify technology developments at an early stage and launch corresponding product and technology innovations. The protection of resources and the environment plays an important role in this.

Further general information on the central activities of NORMA Group’s research and development department is described in detail in the ANNUAL REPORT 2023.

The organizational structure of the R&D departments, aligned with the three strategic business units Industry Applications, Water Management and Mobility & New Energy, enables optimized cross-regional collaboration between teams and better integration of development activities with sales and application engineering. This creates space for more targeted and efficient handling of upcoming tasks such as defining the prioritized fields of activity, evaluating new ideas and dividing research and development capacities into individual development processes. The intent is to ensure that global research and development capacities are equally available to the strategically important areas. The Innovation Council and Global Product Management continue to prioritize tasks and projects. In the first six months of 2024, further scouting and innovation projects on technologies, product concepts, manufacturing techniques and materials were driven forward in a focused manner in key areas. A key aim here remains to further increase NORMA Group’s competitiveness by expanding the product portfolio and developing unique selling points.

The focus of research and development activities in the three strategic business units Industry Applications, Water Management and Mobility & New Energy in the first half of 2024 was as follows: One of the many application areas in the Industry Applications division also includes products for cooling systems in the field of stationary charging infrastructure and energy storage. NORMA Group is continuously working on the development of new, improved solutions in the field of thermal management. In the first six months of 2024, the activities in Industry Applications also focused on identifying synergy potential in order to create adapted application options for NORMA Group’s products already established on the market. Recent examples of this include metallic joining and sealing elements for thermal management systems in solar parks, as well as for piping systems in alternative

heating systems, which reflect the result of close cooperation between the Industry Applications and Mobility & New Energy divisions.

In Water Management, research and development activities continued to focus on global, market-oriented and innovative solutions for the efficient use of water as a resource. The focus was on control solutions for irrigation applications and product extensions in Stormwater. In line with NORMA Group's objectives with regard to its social and ecological responsibility, further initiatives were also pursued in Water Management to expand the use of sustainable and recycled raw materials and plastics in product and process design. Finally, another focus was on cross-functional and cross-regional collaboration between research and development teams in order to be able to offer NORMA customers valuable and differentiated business solutions worldwide.

In Mobility & New Energy, thermal management for batteries and systems in the field of electromobility remains one of the core topics. The associated research and development processes aim at new solutions for improved efficiency and performance. In addition, Mobility & New Energy continued to work on the continuous improvement of products in terms of standardization, robustness, resource conservation and weight savings in the current reporting period. NORMA Group is also active in the field of fuel cells and already supplies piping systems, as well as joining and fastening elements. Projects already underway that help prepare the use of existing and new business solutions in fuel cell technology were further implemented in the period from January to June 2024. Many new product ideas and resulting patent applications underline the previously described focus of the research and development teams’ work.