OBD Log, a small innovative device for connecting to car diagnostic plugs, earned the company that produces it the Gold Trophy in the “garage equipment” category at the 2009 International “Grands Prix” Awards for Automotive Innovation in Paris. It is produced by Texa (www.texa.it), which was founded in 1992 and is today a European leader in the design, engineering and construction of diagnostic instruments for motor vehicles, motorcycles and trucks, with an ever-increasing turnover. The company has a global distribution network and markets directly in France, Germany, Great Britain, Poland, Russia, Spain and United States through subsidiaries. There are currently around 420 Texa employees around the world, comprising a young workforce (the average age is 32 years old), 45% of who are graduates, with approximately 90 engineers and specialists employed in research and development. The company (based in Monastier, in the province of Treviso) started off with 10 employees and immediately found a favourable market, managing to produce 70,000 sophisticated instruments for diagnosis, tele-diagnosis, recharging car air-conditioning units and exhaust fume analysis in the space of 15 years. It also signed important partnership agreements with Magneti Marelli, Johnson Controls, Sagem, Siemens, AD Parts, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Laverda, Benelli and Pagani, and received important prizes and awards, including those of the International Committee for Automobile Innovation, Frost & Sullivan (in 2006 and 2007 for the most innovative company) and Intel.

Their latest star product, the OBD Log, is designed to provide mechanics with a new investigation tool for use alongside the more standard ones, providing helpful new elements for solving the “intermittent” problems that are sometimes found in vehicles. It is, in fact, a “classic” situation that once a car is brought inside a workshop, it stops showing symptoms of malfunction, which start up again when the customer has taken it away. These unpleasant situations waste time both for the workshop and customers. Now the car repairer can simply install the OBD Log in the car and then leave it with the owner. The instrument measures all the parameters connected with the running of the engine and automatically memorises any errors detected while travelling. At the following appointment, the mechanic will be then able to download all the data to his own computer and understand where to intervene, saving time and helping to solve problems.

The Venetian company, founded by Bruno Vianello and Manuele Cavalli, closed 2009 with a turnover of 48 million Euros and at the end of May this year won the "Le Tigri del 2009" (Tigers of 2009) prize, an award promoted by the auditing company Tickmark, supported by Demoskopea and Altea and with the contribution of Asseprim, Cerif and Global Strategy. The prize is awarded to small and medium enterprises that have shown the necessary qualities to overcome last year’s crisis.