A veritable hotbed for business success; a fantastic window onto the global market; a pacesetter for the future of manufacturing − those are just a few of the ways in which participating exhibitors have described the outcome of EMO Hannover 2017.
“EMO has once again lived up to its reputation as the leading global tradeshow for the world of metalworking,” remarked Carl Martin Welcker, General Commissioner for EMO Hannover 2017, adding that it was also the definitive exhibition for machine tool makers worldwide and a pacesetter for the future of production technology. Welcker also pointed out that EMO had had a major impact on business activity, quoting a survey in which EMO visitors indicated their intent to invest a total of over 20 billion euros in production technology over the course of the next 24 months. Deals worth 8 billion euros were sealed during the one-week event.
The show’s chosen motto of Connecting systems for intelligent production proved to be right on the mark, effectively pulling in the crowds, especially from abroad. In this spirit, most exhibitors were touting connectivity solutions, data analysis applications and innovative services. The emphasis was on systems capable of interconnecting multiple partners, cloudbased machine monitoring solutions, simulation software, augmented reality for machine maintenance, blockchain technology for secure data transfer, new business models and much more.
Foreign industry professionals were particularly keen on attending EMO Hannover to get a grip on the future of manufacturing. More than half of the show’s total of approximately 130,000 attendees came from abroad, with 70 percent of these foreign visitors originating from European countries. Attendance from Asia, in particular, was found to have risen sharply. “Foreign visitors were keenly interested in seeing how the market leaders are leveraging digitization to benefit the various process chains. They were also eager to see how new business models are growing up out of all the harvested data,” explained Welcker. Alongside digitization and connectivity, additive manufacturing was also very high on the agenda for a great many EMO visitors.
The show’s supporting program provided even more insight into today’s and tomorrow’s manufacturing technology trends. 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 U.S. and Mexico and everywhere in between. The supporting program was a major magnet for anyone keen on grasping and gearing up for tomorrow’s realities.
Industry is already looking forward to another edition of EMO in the year 2019. “The themes of digitization and connectivity will still be high on the agenda in two years’ time,” reported General Commissioner Welcker. “And by then we will have an even better grasp of what lies ahead.”
The next EMO Hannover will be staged from 16 to 21 September 2019.
