Taking place in Munich from 22 to 25 May, Automatica 2012 consolidated its position as the international meeting place of the automation industry and the world’s largest trade fair for robotics with 31,000 visitors from more than 100 countries. Five halls with plenty of visitors, many project enquiries and a very positive mood made it clear that the manufacturing industry is confident and everything points to growth.
With trade fairs being considered the place to go in order to see the latest trends and technology in Germany, it was no surprise that this year’s Automatica held in Munich was the biggest and busiest yet. There were queues of people waiting to get in on the first day, with one-third of the visitors coming from foreign countries. The highest number of visitors came from Germany, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Turkey, France, Poland and the Russian Federation. The global reach of the trade fair has increased: there were strong increases from the Russian Federation, Turkey, Poland, Brazil, the Republic of Korea and Japan.
The current figures of VDMA Robotics and Automation prove that the general economic conditions for automation technology are excellent. Following growth of 35 per cent in 2011, the association expects further growth of four per cent in the current year. This market situation was obvious at Automatica, and the fair scored in all survey results with a good business mood and satisfied participants.
The independent market research institute, tns infratest determined that 96 per cent of the visitors were impressed and enthused by the completeness of offers, and 95 per cent confirmed the leading trade fair character of Automatica in the industry. A total of 84 per cent praised the topic sustainable technologies and welcomed the VDMA initiative Blue Competence for this.
Top grades from exhibitors
The exhibitors praised the great number of people at the fair as ideal for their sales activities. More than 720 exhibitors from 40 countries showed their solutions for the manufacturing industry, 30 per cent of them from foreign countries. The five top exhibitor countries in addition to Germany were (ranked in order) Italy, Switzerland, Austria, the USA and France. The satisfaction of the exhibitors is reflected in the good survey results. A total of 91 per cent cited the quality of visitors and confirmed the high degree of decision-making competence of visitors. The leading trade fair character was often praised, and 94 per cent indicated that they will participate in the trade fair again.
Exhibitor Thomas Visti, Vice President at Universal Robots ApS from Denmark said: “Automatica is extremely important for us as robot manufacturers. To put it succinctly, it is the right trade fair in every aspect. The general level of visitors is very high, and we are really very satisfied with the number of visitors too.”
Industry solidly supports its leading trade fair
Thilo Brodtmann, managing director of VDMA Robotics + Automation, said: “Automatica did complete justice to its role as the leading international trade fair for robotics and automation. It ignited innovation fireworks with pioneering solutions for production optimisation, energy and resource efficiency, future mobility and lightweight construction. Visitors do not get such a comprehensive overview anywhere else of how they can increase their competitiveness and consequently business success in the long term.”
Service robotics: new exhibition focal point starting from 2014 Norbert Bargmann, deputy chief executive officer of Messe München International, announced: “Automatica is going to be one of the top trade fairs in the world in the area of service robotics starting from 2014. We are going to expand this area together with our partners.”
The fact that the trade fair was already well positioned in this respect could be seen by the great number of visitors at the booths of research institutes such as the German Center for Aerospace, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation as well as the European platforms such as euRobotics and EUnited. Dr Michael Wenzel, managing director of Reis Group Holding and CEO of VDMA Robotics + Automation, said: “I have seen the clear commitment of association members to Munich and Automatica. There is a clear decision for Automatica 2014 to put service robotics more strongly in the limelight. I am very pleased that there has been a closing of ranks in the industry – especially in robotics – for this strategic further development. There are already commercially successful applications in professional service robotics.”
Armin Wittman, exhibition director said: “Automatica is certainly a showcase for the latest in Automation technology. There were many interesting new innovations at this year’s fair. Our biggest challenge for the future is in attracting visitors from vertical markets that use automation and robots. I’m sure we will achieve this aim and the fair will be even bigger in 2014.”
Praise from the political sphere
Robert Madelin, director general for the Information Society of the European Commission, opened the trade fair visibly impressed as EU representative: “Automatica has quickly established itself as one of the leading international trade fairs in robotics and automation. This is my first time here, and I am hugely impressed by what I am seeing from the hundreds of exhibitors, the majority of whom are from Europe.”
Dr. Bernhard Heitzer, undersecretary in the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and keynote speaker, said: “Robotics and automation have become indispensable in our modern industrial society. Automatica has become the showcase for modern robotics and automation technologies in the meantime. It has become the largest of its kind in the world. Exhibitors prove their innovative force impressively here.”
Coming to India from 2013
Bargmann and Brodtmann emphasised the increasing importance of the automation platform for Europe and used the positive end of the trade fair to announce a new event. “The Automatica format has been missing abroad until now, and consequently we are going to hold an automation trade fair in India in the future. The new ‘India Automation Technology Fair’ (IATF) is going to be held at the Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC) for the first time from 1 to 3 February 2013. Our goal is to make it the leading trade fair of the automation industry in India.”
Knowledge transfer
The supporting programme also contributed to the success of the trade fair. The focus was on trends such as energy storage systems, electric mobility, lightweight construction, sustainability and production optimisation. Two special exhibitions on the topics of battery manufacturing and lightweight construction were new. With them, Automatica dealt with topics of the future, which entail business opportunities for the automation industry. In four-day user forums, speakers dealt with pressing topics based on the experience of the manufacturing industry. In addition, there were numerous meetings of experts on industrial machine vision and robotics as well as on market opportunities in Russia and India.
Automatica
