Event review EMO Hannover 2019: bold, smart and innovative

EMO Hannover made headlines as more than 2,200 exhibitors showcased their most recent technologies and innovations at the industrial trade fair. For the first time ever, the event also witnessed a live demo of the universal machine tool interface – umati.

EMO Hannover 2019 was all about smart and innovative technologies for the manufacturing industry. Kick started from September 16 in Germany, the six day show witnessed the participation of 2,200 plus exhibitors from across the world and in terms of footfalls, about 117,000 production specialists from 150 countries. “In the context of subdued economic expectations over the past several months, the moderate decline in attendance has to be viewed as a success. We are particularly delighted at the further increase in the percentage of foreign attendees,” said Carl Martin Welcker, General Commissioner of EMO. Under the motto – ‘Smart technologies driving tomorrow’s production’, global industry players displayed their latest solutions for industrial production.

umati @EMO Hannover 2019

The main highlight of this edition was the introduction of umati – the universal machine tool interface. The brainchild of VDW and 17 of its partners, umati enables machine tools and peripherals to connect to customer-specific IT ecosystems – easy, secure, and seamless. At the trade fair, 70 companies from ten countries connected 110 machines and 28 value-added services via the umati standard interface.

Market report

Growth of the digital twin market

Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Prokop, Chairman of the VDW (Verein Deutscher Werkzeugmaschinenhersteller – German Machine Tool Builders' Association), at the umati press conference said, “umati is opening up a new chapter in production. The interface enables machine tool manufacturers to fulfill another Industry 4.0 promise: the simple, fast and secure exchange of data.” Creating a connection and providing a uniform language for machines, systems and software are essential prerequisites for reaping the benefits of digitalisation in production. The fact that individual companies no longer have to concern themselves with the correct functioning of the network interconnection represents a tremendous step forward, added the German Machine Tool Builders' Association.

IoT in production

The mega show also hosted a dedicated area for ‘IoT in Production’ in which the latest standards of internet of things (IoT) were exhibited. This zone offered an overview on several important concepts such as industrial security, data analytics, industrial cloud services, process monitoring, predictive maintenance, artificial intelligence & machine learning and big data management.

In addition to this, the Industry 4.0 zone offered an insight into digital as well as future developments wherein industry leaders exhibited many interesting solutions. Numerous expert lectures were also held in this zone. Concepts such as IoT, cloud computing, digital twins, artificial intelligence, and other digital technologies dominated the show.

Start-ups at EMO Hannover

The industrial trade show also made arrangements for fresh start-up companies to exhibit their ideas and technologies to industry leaders. Many well established companies were surprised by the unique AI solutions and stunning innovations showcased by these budding firms. To encourage these young tech enterprises further, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) had organised the ‘Founder Competition – Digital Innovations’ wherein in cooperation with the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders' Association) and the VDI Nachrichten magazine it gave out total prize money of over 300,000 euros to 21 start-up businesses from the digital industry.

Six teams received a cash prize of 32,000 euros each and 15 other start-up teams received prize money of 7,000 euros each. An exclusive ‘Digitalisation in Production’ award was also presented at the fair to the‘Etalytics’ company for its software which aims to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions for companies. Etalytics was also one of the six teams that received a cash prize of 32,000 euros and with the additional award received another 10,000 euros. Via this event, the start-ups were able to garner several new contacts and projects.

For more news visit our facebook page or twitter.

(ID:46157894)