– By Ranjana Konatt, Editor (Brand Positioning)
The Hannover Messe 2020 Preview was held on February 12th at the Hannover Exhibition Center in Germany. The event was a precursor to the upcoming Hannover Messe 2020 to be held from the 13th to the 17th July (postponed dates). The conference programme organised proved to be a platform for riveting discussions among industry representatives.
Dr Jochen Koeckler, Chairman of the Managing Board, Deutsche Messe AG, Hannover, while talking about Indonesia as the partner country for the upcoming event, said: “Indonesia is expected to be the largest digital economy in Asia by the year 2020. The government is introducing new technologies and it is in the process of carrying out investments in electromobility.” Arif Havas Oegroseno, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin, said: “I would like to extend my thank you for working closely with us as the official partner country of Hannover Messe 2020. 25% of our population is under 15-years of age and this is a strong aspect of economic development for the future. Our economy has grown by one trillion dollars in the last 20-years and this shows resilience.” He focused on how digitalisation and industrialisation was the focus for Indonesia as a country, and how the event will have 25 start-up companies showcasing their best in technological innovation. “By the year 2045 we will be in our centennials and we are happy working with industries to transform the country,” he added.
In addition to special presentations by tech startup companies, there was a special segment delivered by Christoph Berlin, Partner Program Manager, Azure Industrial IoT, Microsoft Corporation. He said: “We have been driving up innovation and I’d like to stress on the need for responsibility in manufacturing. Digital transformation and industrial transformation today function with the help of technology. There is also a need to conceptualise things and have the ability to gather data.” He added: “We as Microsoft talk considerably about technology and it would be great if we use machine learning and apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) to it. Technology by itself is not enough and this means that technology can solve everything but approaching it by working with an ecosystem and enabling new systems is essential.” Also, for the first time, visitors at Hannover Messe will experience various drone solutions for logistics and industry.
Few excerpts from interviews conducted at the event…
Angela Yeh, Head of Product Management, MDSBU, Industrial Automation BG Delta EMEA
“We focus on power supplies. Delta is a pioneering company in switches within the scope of power supply, and we have been manufacturing since the year 1971. To mention in brief about our product range, we have compact drives, and we are number one at manufacturing drives concerning quantity. We also manufacture quite a few varieties not all under our name but also under brand labelling. Our compact drive series is bifurcated into small, medium and high level. A unique selling point is that we are compact and are 60% smaller as compared to the average size of the drives by our competitors. The efficiency of the drive is 97% which means that it is more efficient than the average market product. We have met the IE4 standard and are on our way to the IE5 standard which is the highest energy-efficient motor in the market right now.”
Claudio Geisert, Deputy Head of Department, Fraunhofer IPK
“We are located in Berlin and are one among the many institutes who are from the Fraunhofer Society in Germany. Our company works along the value chain and we offer research services, which means that we collect data and can perform predictive maintenance. We also retrofit with sensors that are connected to the IoT cloud and we use machine learning. We are present across industries and also serve the HVAC industry. We have wholistic software-based systems where-in we can collect and study data, this enables our clients to can carry out maintenance activities. Everything on our system is documented and with this, you can build up a complete database. As you know in Industry 4.0, smart maintenance plays a big role and we face issues where we have data and we learn from failures.”
Tobias Schlagenhauf, Research Associate, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
“We have a camera-based system and that is used to detect the defects on a ball-screw spindle. So, what we do in principle is that we have a camera system that looks on top of the spindle, the pictures taken are then given to a machine learning model where any failure can be detected. The system can be applied to various industries. For instance, in factories, you have machines with access and you have ball screw drives that are built into the machines. So far, there are no camera-based systems in the market, we are the first and we have other systems for acoustic based condition monitoring.”
Dr Manuel Thoma, Head of Media Relations, Spokesperson for Industry 4.0, Trumpf, Omlox
“Omlox aims to present a new standard at the Hannover Fair for the positioning of technologies. The idea is to offer customers the possibility of technology and have a standard so that we can use the data effectively. The standards range from ISO to many others that are related to navigation technologies. The need to bring about standardisation within the industry is obvious and now customers demand more in terms of technology that comes with a good standard.”
Kyle Kippenbrock, Director – Product Line, Schunk
“We are a family-owned German manufacturing company and we produce grippers and clamps for work-piece and tool-holding. We have subsidiaries in 35 countries worldwide, and 60% of our business is outside of Germany. A trend that we see is the increase in the demand for light-weight robots and co-bots. This is something we will be presenting at the Hannover trade show. We have a portfolio of grippers called co-act grippers that can be seamlessly integrated into cobots. Our goal is to offer grippers that have can be integrated in 15 minutes.”
Steffen Sinn, Area Sales Manager, Sales International, Ventilation Technology, Ziehl-Abegg
“Ziehl-Abegg is over a 100-year-old company and we put special focus on the air conditioning, refrigeration industry. We have a new piece of technology called the solar-powered ice maker and the machines produce block ice on solar power. We have a new piece of technology called the solar-powered ice maker and the machines produce block-ice on solar power. The machine is easy to install and can produce 1.2 tonnes of ice per day.” At the Hannover Fair, we expect to show to the International participants the possibilities to bring technologies together to support each other and to support the business in the economy itself.”
