{"id":243323,"date":"2026-09-11T13:37:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/?p=243323"},"modified":"2026-09-11T13:37:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:37:54","slug":"wenn-technik-unsichtbar-wird-berlins-elektro-boom-und-die-fertigung-im-hintergrund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/2026\/09\/11\/wenn-technik-unsichtbar-wird-berlins-elektro-boom-und-die-fertigung-im-hintergrund\/","title":{"rendered":"When technology becomes invisible: Berlin’s electric boom and production in the background"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Tempelhofer Feld, race cars with electric drive race across the asphalt, in Friedrichstra\u00dfe, visitors admire concept vehicles in the DRIVE showroom, and on Berlin’s streets, more and more electric cars glide almost silently through rush hour traffic. The city is experiencing its electric boom visibly and vividly. What is almost never seen: the technology that makes all this possible in the first place.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Anyone standing in front of a festival stage or waiting at the charging station sees results – not the production behind it. Behind battery management, sensors and control units are electronic assemblies, and they are rarely created in the middle of the metropolis. They are built in manufacturing halls, just like those around Berlin in the suburbs – far away from spotlight light and festival atmosphere.<\/p>\n

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\"Tontechniker
Image of AS Photography<\/a> on Pexels<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Berlin’s electric boom needs manufacturing in the background<\/h2>\n

Berlin is considered a stage for new mobility. Festivals such as the Reload.Land on Tempelhofer Feld show electric two-wheelers, showrooms present tomorrow’s vehicles, and Formula-E races<\/a><\/span> Bring high voltage technology right into the city. The network of charging stations is also growing year by year. For the audience, the experience counts: speed, design, atmosphere. The fact that dozens of electronic modules are working in each of these vehicles and in each charging column is easily forgotten.<\/p>\n

It is precisely this invisible level that is crucial. Charging stations require control electronics, stage and lighting technology at festivals runs on precisely manufactured printed circuit boards, and in medical technology diagnostic devices hang from modules, each solder point must be in place. Without a manufacturing infrastructure that reliably produces such electronics in large quantities, some Berlin trends of the future would remain a concept on paper. It is precisely here that so-called EMS service providers come into play – companies that manufacture electronic modules and complete devices on behalf of others. For manufacturers from mobility, medical technology or event technology, this means: they can focus on their actual innovation, while manufacturing partners in the background ensure that the electronics work.<\/p>\n

From the wiring diagram to the finished assembly unit: What happens in batch production<\/h2>\n

EMS stands for Electronic Manufacturing Services and describes the order production of electronic assemblies – from prototype to mass production. The process usually begins with the documents of the customer: wiring diagram, parts list, layout data. From these, a production plan is created that coordinates material procurement, assembly and testing. Because before assembly can begin, hundreds of individual components often have to be procured and their availability checked – an organizational effort that the customers completely delegate to the service provider. Those who want to catch errors early also rely on digital processes, such as an automated testing of the parts lists even before production starts. This allows delivery bottlenecks or faulty components to be detected before they slow down production.<\/p>\n

The actual manufacturing step is precision work. Parts that are sometimes barely larger than a grain of sand land precisely at their intended positions on the printed circuit board in a tight space. In order for the printed carrier material to become a functional assembly, it is important to Careful SMD assembly<\/a><\/span> At which the solder paste printing, assembly machines and reflow soldering must be precisely coordinated with each other. Larger or mechanically more stressed components are often additionally placed on the PCB using classic THT technology, where wire connections are inserted and soldered through drilled holes.<\/p>\n

After that, the quality control follows: Optical inspections check every soldering joint, X-ray procedures also make hidden connections under component housings visible. Only when all tests have passed does a assembly group go into device assembly or directly on its way to the customer.<\/p>\n

\"Pr\u00e4zise
Image of FreeWhaleMedia<\/a> on Magnificent<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A manufacturing partner from the Berlin area<\/h2>\n

One of these manufacturing partners is just a short hour’s drive west of the Berlin Ring: MEBATRON Elektronik GmbH in Brieselang. The company has been active as an EMS service provider for over three decades and manufactures electronic assemblies and complete devices – from the first prototype to the mass production. According to the company, around 50 employees process more than 815 projects per year on about 2,650 square meters of production space. The range of orders is wide: control devices for the mobility sector are on the production plan as well as assemblies for medical technology or electronics for automation systems and machine engineering. Thus, the company is manufacturing precisely for those industries whose products are currently shaping the Berlin cityscape – from charging technology for electric cars to sensors in diagnostics. For the clients, this usually runs as a full service: development, material management, assembly and logistics remain under one roof, instead of being distributed across several service providers and locations. Especially for undertake<\/a> From the region, this proximity is a practical advantage – the distances between the laboratory, development department and production remain short. Anyone who stands at a charging station in Berlin today or uses a diagnostic device in a clinic may therefore be unconsciously in contact with a construction group that has emerged on exactly such production lines in the surrounding area.<\/p>\n

Quality and sustainability as a location factor<\/h2>\n

In order for the populated printed circuit boards to become reliable devices, test technology at several levels is needed. Many errors are hardly noticeable to the naked eye: a component is a millimeter away, a soldering joint is cold, a connection is hidden under the housing. In the Brieselanger production, a 3D AOI inspection therefore visually controls every assembly group, an X-ray system also makes hidden soldering connections under the components visible, and the first-piece inspection of each new series is now carried out using AI. Three procedures, three tasks:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • \n

    3D-AOI:<\/strong> Optical control of assembly and soldering points in three dimensions<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    X-ray inspection:<\/strong> Testing of concealed soldering connections, for example under processors<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    AI-supported first piece inspection:<\/strong> Comparison of each first component of a series with the target data<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Only when a construction group has successfully completed all test stages without errors does it leave the hall. In addition to precision, the energy consumption of production is now also coming into the spotlight. In Brieselang, a photovoltaic system with a capacity of 170 kilowatts peak generates a significant portion of the electricity needed – according to the company, around 44 percent, which saves about 88 tons of CO2 per year. And the paperwork that used to wander through the hall with every construction group has largely disappeared: digital manufacturing documents replace printed work orders and save around 50,000 sheets of paper per year, according to the company. Such steps may seem unspectacular, but over hundreds of projects per year, they add up to a noticeable difference.<\/p>\n

    Why this counts for Berlin as an innovation location<\/h2>\n

    Berlin’s reputation as an innovation hub is based on the visible: on trade fairs, festivals, showrooms and new mobility projects. But each of these stages is built on a foundation of suppliers and manufacturing service providers who do most of their work largely in the background – and often sit directly in the surrounding area. This very interplay between metropolis and region is a location advantage: short distances between the development department and manufacturing speed up prototypes as well as production runs, and new ideas from the city quickly find their way into production. So next time you wait at the charging station or admire the lights in front of a festival stage, you can think of the people behind the spotlights – and of the manufacturing halls around the city where Berlin’s future in electric vehicles has long been being built.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    At Tempelhofer Feld, race cars with electric drive race across the asphalt, in Friedrichstra\u00dfe, visitors admire concept vehicles in the DRIVE showroom, and on \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":244195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1206],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lesenswert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berlin030.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}