More than 200 journalists from across Europe—and as far away as the United States and China—came to today’s press preview for the Hannover Messe 2018, scheduled for April 23-27 in this northern German industrial city.
This year’s event will see some differences to prior fairs. In previous odd-numbered years, there was a special focus on fluid power technology as part of Hannover Messe’s Industrial Automation and Motion Control sections. Following the 2017 event, event organizers announced that with the growth and increasing importance of fluid power technology, that it would remain a focus every year—meaning that 2018 will be the first under this new plan. CeMAT, a biennial logistics event, now will co-locate with the Hannover Fair in even-numbered years, allowing visitors to experience the convergence of production and logistics for themselves.
“Given the lightning pace of integration between logistics and production processes, we will be offering visitors from all around the world an unprecedentedly comprehensive overview of current and emerging solutions for the future of logistics,” said Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Managing Board at Deutsche Messe. Previous iterations of CeMAT (which was held triennially until 2014) ran later in the year at the Hannover grounds, generally in late May or early June.
This year’s theme is “Integrated Industry” and there promises to be a continued focus on Industry 4.0—Hannover Messe officials insist the world prefers their spelling of “Industrie 4.0” and that the term has become synonymous with “made in Germany.” Integrated energy is another core focus, and there will be six parallel show areas, as in the past: Industrial Automation, Motion & Drives, Digital Factory, Energy, Industrial Supply and Research & Technology.
Mexico is set to shine as this year’s official Partner Country. S. E. Rogelio Granguillhome, Ambassador of the United Mexican States, Berlin, spoke to the assembled journalists in English, proudly noting that his country was the first-ever Spanish speaking nation so honored. With a $1.3 trillion GDP, Mexico is the 2nd largest economy in Latin America and is aggressively looking for new trading partners.
Robotics will also be in the mix, of course. With advances in machine learning, robots are increasingly able to make autonomous decisions.
“Hannover Messe is the place to go to experience the rapid rise of Industry 4.0 and its benefits first-hand,” said Köckler. “The world’s leading manufacturers of automation technology, big-name robotics providers and global IT and software corporations will all be there, making the show an absolute global hotspot for Industry 4.0.”
Several dozen companies had a presence as the event, with tabletop booths describing some of what they’ll be focusing on at the event. They included: Aventics, Beckhoff, Bosch Rexroth, Festo Corp., Harting, ifm efector, igus, KUKA Robotics, Lenze, Omron, Pepperl + Fuchs, Schaeffler, SICK AG, Siemens, and Stäubli.
Hannover Messe
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