Metalworking News takes part in EMO 2019 Press Preview.
EMO Hannover 2019 takes place from 16 to 21 September 2019 in Hannover, Germany
More than 80 international editors and journalists from over 30 countries were guests of the VDW (Verein Deutscher Werkzeugmaschinenfabrikenn – German Machine Tool Builders’ Association) at the EMO Hannover 2019 Preview held in Germany at the Hannover exhibition grounds on the 3rd and 4th July. Metalworking News was one of the invited press members – the only one from Africa – that had the opportunity to meet with 38 exhibitors from nine countries, mainly from the machine tool, tool and component building industries.
Themed ‘Smart technologies driving tomorrow’s production,’ the world’s leading metalworking trade show, EMO Hannover 2019 has over 2 100 registered exhibitors from 47 countries that will exhibit in an area exceeding 178 000m² (get your walking shoes on), VDW said during the preview event. The organisers say that they are expecting around 130 000 visitors.
Those exhibitors that decided to take part in the preview event included Agathon, Albrecht Präzision, Alpha Laser, AMF Andreas Maier, Anderson Europe, BP Europa SE, Castrol Lubricants, Chiron Group, DMG Mori, Doosan Machine Tools, Ecoroll, Emag, Erasteel S.A.S., FFG Europe, Fischer Spindle, Gefertec, Hainbuch, Heller, Igus, Kapp Niles, Leistritz, Liebherr-Verzahntechnik, LMT Tool Systems, Matec, Monforts, PCI-SCEMM, Porta Solutions, Pro-Micron, Schaeffler Technologies, Schütte, Siemens, Soraluce, Stark Spannsysteme, Toshulin, Trumpf, United Grinding Group, Schweiz, Vollmer Waldrich Coburg and Xebec Technology.
“We are most encouraged by the high level of interest already being shown in the run-up to EMO Hannover 2019. The countdown has truly begun and to build even more momentum we invited journalists from around the world to the preview so as to get a first glimpse of and write about the new developments that visitors can expect to see at EMO Hannover 2019 from 16 to 21 September 2019, from the exhibitors themselves,” said Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director of EMO organisers VDW.
The event adopted the EMO Hannover 2019 theme of ‘Smart technologies driving tomorrow’s production’ and emphasised the importance of EMO as the world’s leading trade fair for metalworking. EMO is also an information platform for showcasing the future of production technology. Accordingly, in his keynote speech at the Preview, Dr. Anselm Blocher of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) gave his views on ‘Industry 4.0: Hurdles and opportunities in actual production’.
EMO 2019 Press Preview hosts Stefan Schwaneck, Sylke Becker, Christoph Miller and Dr. Wilfried Schäfer
The press preview event also included a trip to the PZH – Produktionstechniches Zentrum Hannover (The Hannover Centre for Production Technology, an important research centre for production engineering) where we were welcomed by Dr. Benjamin Bergmann and Dr. Marc-André Dittrich of the Institute of Manufacturing Engineering and Machine Tools.
This was followed by live presentations by students completing their research on technologies such as artificial intelligence for process monitoring, digitisation and automation of the turbine blade repair process, sensitive machine tool and digital twin for autonomous production, augmented reality for quality control and intelligent grinding process.
Digitalisation, Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things, AI, machine learning, robotics
In recent years the manufacturing industry has witnessed the dramatic progress of digitalisation and networking typified by Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things as well as the introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning. As a result the manufacturing industry environment is undergoing huge changes.
The EMO Hannover 2017 theme of ‘Connecting Systems for Intelligent Production’ allowed exhibitors to showcase their smart solutions. What was evident was the increase in technology with regards to the digitalisation of information for manufacturing processes, automation, all with the aim of improving production efficiency. Information gathered via dimensional measurement and sensor technology in machine tools for process monitoring and analysis with the objective of maximising efficiency in manufacturing processes are all part of the Industry 4.0 hype.
EMO Hannover 2019 is taking it a step further with the theme of ‘Smart technologies driving tomorrow’s production’. The push towards the Smart Factory was witnessed during my visits to international exhibitions in late 2018 and earlier this year where there was a big emphasis placed by exhibitors on digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI) and Industry 4.0.
Cobots – Successful collaboration between man and robot: EMO Hannover 2019 will be showcasing robotic and automation solutions for manufacturers. Photo: Schunk
Industry 4.0 will once again be one of the dominating themes at EMO Hannover 2019, and new concepts are emerging in all areas for machines, components, controls, measuring systems and material flows.
“We are convinced that EMO Hannover 2019 will be a hotspot for new offerings and solutions for the smart factory,” said Dr. Schäfer.
Cobots – Successful collaboration between man and robot
Robotics and automation are among the key technologies that give manufacturing companies a competitive edge in the market. Although robotics in the workplace has been around for some time the emergence of cobots (collaborative mobile robots) to work alongside humans has put another perspective on automation.
Full automation with robots is a must going forward if companies want their Smart Factories to operate at maximum performance and productivity. The collaboration between robots and machine has therefore attracted much attention. As have humans working together with robots in factories. Many tasks on the shop floor can now be automated by using robots, which will help to reduce work-related losses as well as contribute to the bottom line.
You can rely on robots not only for precision welding, bending and cutting or for transporting and depositing, to name a few, and you might say that they are good for repetitive and mundane work and operations. However, they are steadily generating increasing sales figures and productivity for manufacturers and users just as reliably. Along with the Industry 4.0 revolution, additive manufacturing and digitalisation, robots are set to play a bigger role in the manufacturing process. And that is even though their huge, boundary-shifting period begun some time ago. Because, soon enough, robots will use artificial intelligence (AI) to catapult industrial production into spheres that were previously unimaginable to us. The potential of an intelligent and “sensitive” robot is immeasurable.
I expect an even bigger use of robotics and cobots at EMO Hannover 2019, where you will find countless automation solutions and collaborative robots on display aimed at enhancing productivity.
IoT in Production
A new exhibition area dedicated to ‘IoT in Production’ in Hall 9 will highlight all facets of Industry 4.0. This section is reserved for individual exhibitors in the field of control, software and automation technology. Established control suppliers such as Beckhoff, Bosch, Fanuc, Heidenhain and Siemens, but also engineering consortiums such as Adamos and Axoom.
umati: Universal machine tool interface – an initiative for networked production
The challenge of today’s automation philosophy is getting your machines and devices to talk to each other. There’s no better connection than that of a common language, which is also true for machine tools. The easier they exchange and share information, the more efficient they are. In the field of CNC machine tools, there is a multitude of communication interfaces, profiles and mechanisms for the integration of machine tools into a production network. There are standardised as well as manufacturer-specific solutions to be found. This variety, just like the lack of consistency of the standardisation, currently leads to considerable effort in the case of system networking.
Since 2017 umati has been on everyone’s lips in the international machine tool industry. What at first was designated rather vaguely as an interface standard is now being meaningfully firmed up. At the EMO Hannover 2019 several machine tool manufacturers will be contributing to the umati Showcase. Photo: VDW/Chiron
In a joint effort, 17 partners and the VDW created umati (universal machine tool interface). It enables machine tools and peripherals to connect to customer-specific IT ecosystems, easy, secure, and seamless. umati is an open standard for machine tool users throughout the world. It serves to exploit new potentials for manufacturing of the future.
After launching the project in September 2017 at EMO Hannover, machine tool builders Chiron, DMG Mori, Emag, Grob Werke, Heller, Liebherr Verzahntechnik, Trumpf and United Grinding committed themselves to the working group. Application partners GF Machining Solutions, Pfiffner and control technology experts Beckhoff, Bosch Rexroth, Fanuc, Heidenhain and Siemens share their know-how as well as the ISW at Stuttgart University, with their extensive OPC UA knowledge.
Individual mapping and transformation based on OPC UA
umati is based on an OPC UA companion specification. OPC UA is the ideal communication platform for different industrial devices due to its open data model. In addition, umati realises customer or manufacturer specific mapping and transformation of parameters through standardised configuration.
Experience umati live at EMO Hannover 2019
At the EMO Hannover 2019 umati will be showing a demonstration of the interface standard in a special show. Visitors can inform themselves about the project in hall 9 and learn how a central consolidation of the data on a demo dashboard takes place. Implementations of the common interface can be experienced at the project partners’ booths throughout the show. They feature various machines and controllers, which connect to a variety of communication partners and the umati demo dashboard.
“Around 50 machine tool manufacturers from all over the world will be joining forces to show how umati makes machine data usable,” said Dr. Alexander Broos, umati project manager and Head of Research and Technology at VDW.
“Visitors will experience live the benefits of what the standardised interface offers. umati represents a quantum leap in the implementation of Industry 4.0 in production. The use of a standardised interface will give machine tool users and their customers a whole new dimension of benefits,” said Broos.
Additive manufacturing
Additive manufacturing has long been complementing subtractive machining and is once again part of EMO. According to VDW, more than 70 system providers, material suppliers, suppliers of accessories, software, 3D scanners and production service providers have already registered to present the latest developments.
Doomed to fail without AI? EMO Hannover 2019: Applying an ‘engineering approach’ to the systematic use of artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence uses a fully automatic laser system to analyse the removal of cut sheet metal parts – initially unsuccessfull, but ultimately successfull – and automates the procedure using the resulting data. Photo: Trumpf
Visitors to EMO Hannover 2019 will undoubtedly experience an innovation platform for metalworking machines, solutions and services as well as solutions for digital production processes and automation for the metalworking industry.
Highlights to expect from some exhibitors at EMO Hannover 2019
Not many of the exhibitors revealed too much about what they will be launching at EMO Hannover 2019. Alpha Laser GmbH will be launching their mobile laser ALFlak with 900 Watt laser power. AMF will present a new modular gripper with adjustable gripping forces. The gripping system for machine tools has a shaft interface and is exchanged like a tool from the magazine.
Castrol will launch their SmartControl, a real-time condition monitoring system that puts the user in total control of metal working fluid operations and a recyclable metalworking cleaning fluid Recyclable Castrol Techniclean XBC.
The Chiron Group will unveil for the first time new machining centers from Chiron, Stama and Scherer, as well as new automation solutions and an extended software programme. For the first time you will see a double-spindle Chiron DZ 25 P 5-axis with 800mm spindle distance, automated and new variants of the 16 series, a new: Stama MT 733 one plus machining center and SmartLine software solutions.
DMG MORI will highlight a variety of technologies including automation, digitisation and additive manufacturing. 27 of the 45 exhibits in Hall 2 (10 000m²) at the North entrance will be presented with automation solutions and these include the WH CELL and the WH FLEX.
Doosan Machine Tools will exhibit 21 high-end, multitasking, multi-axis machine tools, including six new products, along with its automation solutions and Emag will have the latest machine tools and automation solutions, which will celebrate their world premieres, on display.
Not to be outdone the FFG Group will occupy the entire hall 14 with 5 618m² of exhibition space. Heller will exhibit 4 and 5-axis machining centers, mill/turning centers and machines for crankshafts and camshafts and Kapp Niles will present two developments of generating and profile gear grinding machines, high-precision analytical measuring machines as well as state-of-the-art solutions in the field of connected technologies.
Leistritz will present the whirling machine LWN 160 HP as a world premiere, Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH have promised to present numerous new products in the areas of gear technology and automation systems, LMT Tools will showcase an extension to its range of high-feed cutters and Monforts will present two new machines in the RNC series. Schaeffler will be presenting a wide range of new developments and Roemheld will focus on digitisation in applications with zero-point clamping systems.
Soraluce will be focusing on their theme of #MadeForYOU, Trumpf will show how 3D printing can drive advances in various industrial sectors and Vollmer will present its new sharpening machines VHybrid 360 and VGrind 340S for the first time and grinding specialist United Grinding Group will exhibit 15 machines for various applications and will also showcase its Digital Solutions products within the stand.
EMO Hannover presenting topics on the future of industrial production
EMO Hannover 2019 will be addressing all the production-related challenges, from machine technology and IT solutions through to the changing world of work. It will be highlighting how much more productive, efficient and flexible the next generations of machines will be. With many supporting events, it will show how networked production is increasingly spreading to all areas. Order processing, production preparation and planning, manufacturing and logistics will all change. New functions and services are being created. And the people working in industry need to be given the skills to perform these tasks. EMO will once again be a Mecca for international production technology and point the way for development in the coming years.
For further details visit www.emo-hannover.de
