Paving the Way for Future Manufacturing

With economic indicators pointing upwards, the time for EMO Hannover 2017 proved to be just perfect: the IMF recently confirmed its growth prognosis of 3.5 percent for global GDP. British-based Oxford Economics have also predicted the global machine tool consumption to grow at a rate of 3.2 percent.

In the backdrop of this vibrant economic growth, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier inaugurated EMO Hannover 2017 and noted, “An open society and prosperous economy rests on a foundation of communication and trust. Trade fairs like EMO embody this in a concrete and tangible way. Fortunately, this tradition continues to flourish, even in an age of digital catalogs, video conferences and just-in-time production.”

Understandably upbeat, Stephan Weil, Premier of the German state of Lower Saxony, remarked, “Germany’s and Lower Saxony’s economic dynamism is a direct result of our industrial strength. EMO exhibitors are demonstrating ways not only of maintaining, but also expanding this strength by concentrating on the factors of precision, quality, productivity and above all new solutions dedicated to the issues of connectivity and digitization.”

2,200 exhibitors from 44 countries

Deals worth € 8 billion sealed

130,000 visitors from abroad

Joining the dots

With the theme of ‘Connecting systems for intelligent production’, the event hosted around 2,200 exhibitors from 44 countries who unveiled their newly developed machines, solutions and services for industrial production. EMO ignited a spark for production connectivity, while focusing on numerous innovations in the traditional production engineering disciplines. In this context, Carl Martin Welcker, EMO General Commissioner stated, “The machine tool industry demonstrated that its high-tech offerings are in perfect alignment with the latest
market requirements.”

International Shows in 2018

MACH 2018

April 9-13, 2018

NEC, Birmingham, England

31.BI-MU

Oct 9-13, 2018

Fieramilano, Italy

JIMTOF

Nov 1-6, 2018

Tokyo Big Sight, Japan

TIMTOS

March 5-10, 2019

TWTC, Taipei

Shop window for innovation

Along with digitization and connectivity, additive manufacturing was also high on the agenda for many EMO visitors seeking solutions for their production requirements. The inventiveness displayed ensured to take care of the factors such as precision, quality, speed, and repeatability which are essential when producing products high in demand. For example: Marposs presented the latest addition to its VTS line, VTS WF85 with the capability to measure any tool up to 80mm in diameter, significantly reducing the number of pictures needed to obtain the diameter and length. It can also display the surface integrity of the tool, inside the machine tool. Also, on display was the company’s new software in the Robodrill’s HMI. Known as Ready2Probe, the software simplifies and makes programming error free. It assists the users in creating codes and commands while guiding them at every step of the way, until a program block is generated.

Hub for dialogue and networking

A rich array of conferences, seminars and special displays put the spotlight on key topics like industry 4.0, future production scenarios, additive manufacturing, intelligent tools, machine safety, training for factory workers and promising markets from India to the US and Mexico, and everywhere in between.

To celebrate India’s growth in the manufacturing sector, a session, ‘India Day’ was hosted by the German Machine Tool Builders’ Association (VDW) and German Engineering Association (VDMA). Speaking on the occasion, V Anbu, Director General & CEO, Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association (IMTMA), said, “Game-changing initiatives such as ‘Make in India’, opening up of strategic sectors to foreign direct investments, and the implementation of ‘One nation, one tax’ for goods and services have spurred manufacturing growth.” According to Anbu, in 2018-2019, there is an estimate of the Indian machine tools worth $1299 million and $2259 million to be produced and consumed respectively.

India’s presence

Around fourteen-member companies of the IMTMA such as: Ace Designers, Ace Manufacturing Systems, Pragati Automation, Emkay Tools, Forbes, Ind-Sphinx Precision, Sphoorti Machine Tools, Chennai Metco, Rajamane, Precision MachineKraft, UCAM, Grind Master Machines, Jyoti CNC Automation and Shobha Industries participated in EMO displaying its best product profiles to the global market place.

Mark your calendar

This edition of EMO created a major impact on business activity with visitors indicating their intent to invest a total of over € 20 billion in production technology over the course of the next 24 months. The entire industry is already looking forward to another promising edition of EMO in the year 2019. “The themes of digitization and connectivity will still be high on the agenda in two years’ time,” concluded Welcker. “And by then we will have an even better grasp of what lies ahead.”