Hannover Messe 2013 Presents the Future of Industrial Integration

The world's most important trade fair highlighted the technologies of the future

Hannover Messe, serving not only as a successful business platform but also as a global driver of industrial technology development, continued leading the way in showing the world the future of industrial integration—dubbed by some experts “the fourth industrial revolution”--in Germany this year.

Hannover Messe is unquestionably the world's pivotal trade fair. Its 2013 edition was opened by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Apr. 7, in front of more than 3,000 guests. The fair ran Apr. 8-12.

The show hosted about 6,550 exhibitors from 62 different countries occupying an area of 236,500 square meters; over half of the exhibitors were from overseas, including 117 from Taiwan, according to statistics released by the organizer, Deutsche Messe AG.. The displays presented the latest innovative technologies.

More than 225,000 people visited this year's show during its five-day run (the best turnout in a decade), compared to some 183,000 in 2012: about 25% were foreigners, mostly from EU member nations and Asia. The six largest sources of the visitors were the Netherlands, China, India, Italy, Austria, and Denmark.

Keynote Theme: Integrated Industry
The theme of this year's Hannover Messe was “Integrated Industry,” and exhibits were divided into 11 categories: Industrial Automation; Motion, Drive & Automation; Energy; Wind; MobiliTec; Digital Factory; ComVac; Industrial Supply; Surface Technology; IndustrialGreenTec; and Research & Technology.

This year the show proved once again to be world's trendsetter for industry. “Exhibitors and visitors alike have given this year's Hannover Messe very high marks,” said Dr. Jochen Kockler, a member of the organizer's managing board, in the end-of-show report, “particularly for its keynote theme of integrated industry, which highlights a sweeping trend towards cross-industry networking and integration,......The experts all agree that integrated approaches to manufacturing are going to have a sweeping impact on global industry over the next 10 to 15 years, and beyond.”

Underlining the theme of the show were the innovative technologies and products displayed in 26 different exhibition halls, helping set the tone for the fair as a driver of industrial development toward faster, cheaper, more efficient, more flexible, and better-quality manufacturing achieved by cross-industry integration through information technology.

Core Categories
Industrial Automation was the flagship of the 11 exhibit categories, with displays of industrial robots, robotic and mechanical engineering technologies, and solutions for production automation concentrated into Halls 8, 9, 11, and 14 through 17.

Live demonstrations of functional robots, and the entertainment experiences they created for visitors, were perhaps the biggest attractions in these halls. In Hall 11, for instance, the German air and space agency, Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR), enchanted a crowd of visitors with its coffee-making Rollin Justin robots. In Hall 17, the German robot developer KUKA presented its Robocoaster, with a gripper arm that created excitement by revolving above visitors' heads.

Also popular with visitors, the Motion, Drive & Automation category, in Halls 20 to 24, had more than 1,100 exhibitors showcasing intelligent, integrated system solutions such as condition monitoring systems as well as other transmission and fluid engineering technologies with a shared focus on sustainability and efficiency.

Hall 7 featured Digital Factory-related products and tools for integrating manufacturing with IT, including technologies related to 3D, real-time data availability, and mobile engineering using smartphones, apps, and tablets. Another interesting feature was the "BITKOM Industry 4.0 Innovation Area," a joint platform on which exhibitors such as IBM, Bosch, and Deutsche Telekom showcased what Industry 4.0 has to offer in modern manufacturing to drive the fourth industrial revolution role.

Industrial Supplies displays were arranged in Halls 4 through 6, with lightweight construction solutions and process engineering with forward-looking materials being the biggest hit. Among the more than 1,570 exhibitors in this category, Taiwanese companies, including the Ming Ming Aluminum Co., a supplier of die-castings and molds; Thousand Hundred Industrial Co., a producer of wires and industrial electric devices; Golden gear Machinery Co., a gear maker; Everest Industrial Co., an investment casting company; Cheng Dai Co., a manufacturer of ball bearings and bearing parts; and Auroral Sinter Metals Co., a producer of powder metallurgy, were mostly located in the Taiwanese Pavilion in Hall 5.

Wind power generation is increasingly regarded all over the world as a means of not just improving environmental protection but also of securing sustainable national development, and the Wind in the Hall 27 contained displays by developers and users of the newest wind power technologies and equipment, including Vestas Germany's new 3-megawatt platform, the E-115 wind turbine from Enercon, a turbine with a rotor diameter of 122 meters for coastal areas from REpower Systems, and the Haliade 150 offshore wind turbine with an output of 6 megawatts from Alstom.

Concurrent Activities
Special activities held simultaneously with the show, including The Global Business & Markets, Metropolitan Solutions, and Efficiency Arena, added extra sparkles to Hannover Messe 2013.

EU Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani opened Global Business & Markets, a special trade meeting area designed to help companies, especially small and medium-sized firms, promote their businesses around the world from a venue set up in Hall 13. The event followed the show's tradition by offering attendees valuable information on market trends and business opportunities.

As Russia was officially highlighted as the Partner Country of Hannover Messe 2013, the event focused particularly on discussions about the great market potential of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In addition, a total of 51 forums and conferences on topics related to investing in sustainable technologies and business opportunities in other places such as Africa, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were held during the show.

Running in conjunction with Hannover Messe 2013 as a parallel trade fair in Hall 1, Metropolitan Solutions showcased futuristic concepts of intelligent houses, smart power distribution, wireless street lighting and electric cars, and proactive technologies from more than 140 companies, specifically for dealing with urbanization. The interior of the hall looked like a real city of the future. This fair, the organizer said, gave visitors a look at how companies have tried to improve urban infrastructures and make cities smarter and more energy-efficient by using technology for the future.

At the Efficiency Arena, a forum in Hall 14, industry experts gave lectures on different dimensions and approaches to intelligent resource use and the effect on production processes. The speakers included Honorary Chair Dr. Philipp Rösler of the German Minister for Economics and Technology; Peter Altmaier, German Minister for the Environment, Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety; Walter Schiller of the KfW banking group; and representatives of ABB, Rittal, Siemens, and Volkswagen.

Since Taiwan's outstanding technologies for both traditional and high-tech manufacturing enjoy high regard around the world, CENS, the island's largest export media company, sent representative to Hannover Messe this year to circulate its publications, including Taiwan Industrial Supplies, as a means of forging a bridge between Taiwanese manufacturers and professional buyers worldwide.

The next Hannover Messe will run for five days, from April 7 through 11, 2014.