Published 7/24/2019

EMO 2019: Driving Tomorrow’s Production

Themed "Smart technologies driving tomorrow's production," the world's leading metalworking trade show, EMO Hannover 2019, already counts 2,107 registered exhibitors from 47 countries, organizer VDW (German Machine Tool Builders' Association) reported during a preview event held at the Hanover showgrounds in July. About 80 international journalists and 40 exhibitors convened to hear what's new for this year's show (to be held from September 16-21, 2019), which is once again set to attract around 130,000 visitors.

Barbara Schulz

European Correspondent, Gardner Business Media

The world's premier metalworking and machine tool exhibition EMO 2019 will be held from September 16 to 21 in Hannover, Germany.

Themed "Smart technologies driving tomorrow's production", the world's leading metalworking trade show EMO Hannover 2019 already counts 2,107 registered exhibitors from 47 countries, organizer VDW (German Machine Tool Builders' Association) reported during a preview event held at the Hanover showgrounds in July.

Around 80 international journalists and 40 exhibitors convened to hear what's new for this year's show, which is once again set to attract around 130,000 visitors.

Dr. Jochen Klöckner, chairman of Deutsche Messe AG, during his opening speech at the EMO Preview press conference in Hanover.

“We want to establish trust for this project,” Dr. Wilfried Schäfer said during his speech in Hanover, talking about the universal machine tool interface umati, developed by VDW, OPC UA and a joint working group of various companies.

Umati—A USB-Interface for Machine Tools

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 standardized as well as manufacturer-specific solutions to be found. This variety just like the lacking consistency of the standardization currently lead to considerable effort in the case of system networking.

To develop a universal interface for machine tools to communicate, similar to a USB-interface, VDW, together with the OPC UA foundation and a joint working group of meanwhile 50 partner companies, has developed umati, a universal communication interface of machine tools towards “external” communication partners, e.g. MES, ERP, cloud, or automation systems. The label “umati” ‘(universal machine tool interface) was established by VDW during a preliminary project, “Connectivity for Industry 4.0“, which originated in 2017 and led to the development of a draft standardized information model which serves as the input for discussion in the umati joint working group.

“We want to establish trust for this project,” Schäfer said during his speech in Hanover. “This connectivity is the key to all the added value and business models that the economy hopes Industry 4.0 will yield. Small and medium-sized companies in particular are counting on being able to connect their machines effectively in order to participate in the new IoT developments. This will help them concentrate on their core competences in their daily business.”

EMO 2019 will see a line-up of 50 machines from various manufacturers throughout the show connected to umati. “We assume that the first products will also be offered in which preconfigured OPC UA servers are integrated directly into the respective control units based on the specification.”

Dedicated Exhibition Area for IoT in Production

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, presented their IT platforms at EMO Hannover in 2017—and will do so again in 2019. "We know that this exhibition area also offers a highly attractive environment for IT providers such as IBM, HP, GE, SAP, Microsoft Oracle, Telekom and others if they want to boost their business with manufacturers of production technology," Schäfer said. "Production planners today not only invest in machines, they also want to see integrated solutions, and no other trade fair offers this in such a concentrated form as EMO Hannover.”

Special show: Industry 4.0 Area

The special show Industry 4.0 will have innovative companies and renowned research institutes present intelligent solutions aimed at boosting their customers' business success in the Industry 4.0 area. These include intelligent components for process monitoring or operator support, solutions that ensure smooth data flow with maximum data security, and much more. The special show will also feature researchers presenting the current state of scientific development. In addition, the specialist forum will offer participants the opportunity to discuss existing products as well as future visions with a broad specialist audience.

Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing has long been complementing substractive 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.

Other initiatives include a job market and the Young Tech Enterprises at EMO Hannover 2019, where 34 start-up companies from Germany, the UK, India, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the Czech Republic get a chance to present their ideas to a broad audience.