From September 18 to 23, 2023, EMO Hannover, the world’s leading trade fair for production technology, will be taking place in Hannover, Germany. It will be presenting state-of-the-art production technology and its future trends on the international level. “We are convinced that this leading trade fair will afford a key contribution to the progress of industry in the United Kingdom,” said Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director of the EMO organizer VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association), on the occasion of the press event on May 23, 2023, in Germany. The United Kingdom is one of around 40 countries in which the EMO World Tour event will be stopping.

The United Kingdom plans to invest heavily during the current year in motor vehicles and parts, aerospace, fabricated metal products, and mechanical engineering. In addition, the government has set itself the central objective of boosting sustained economic growth with its Growth Plan 2022. This includes the rapid implementation of 138 major British projects. The focus is on developing road and rail infrastructures, the energy sector, and broadband expansion. The British Net Zero Strategy envisages a ban on the sale of petrol and dieselrun automobiles as of 2030 and stricter energy efficiency criteria for the construction of new buildings. The aim is also to achieve a decarbonization of the energy sector by 2035. In the years ahead, the country will experience a growing offshore energy sector. At the same time, the foundations will be laid for a hydrogen economy that is envisaged not only as being green, but also blue based on powerful growth in the chemical sector. Production technology is deployed in both sectors. For wind turbines, for example, there is a need for the sophisticated production of gearing mechanisms, tracking systems, and largesize bearings. Power generation from green hydrogen, on the other hand, is rendered possible by the use of compressors and stack end plates in the electrolysis as well as mobile and stationary fuel cells. The future efficiency and performance of an industry hinge on modern machine tools and production systems. “At EMO Hannover, delegates from industry, the government, and investment institutions in Britain can learn about the technologies specifically suited for their planned projects,” Schäfer explained.

The last EMO Hannover in 2019 saw around 116,700 visitors from 149 countries. Of these, 51 percent traveled there from outside Germany. The United Kingdom was represented by more than 1,300 experts in attendance. Production technology offers solutions for the transformation of industry Production technology is the enabler and driver for technological progress in industrial production. It is indispensable to a country’s modern, competitive industry. Productivity, quality, flexibility are among the first items on the list of requirements. Digitization provides an additional boost to all three goals. Production technology creates solutions for the prevailing challenges facing customers: evolving demand, faster product development, smaller batch sizes, greater manufacturing flexibility. “Processes gain in efficiency and sustainability, procedures in flexibility, and new value creation strategies and business models are born,” replied Schäfer when asked to describe the effects. Moreover, the industry must produce in an environment responding to new political priorities, new legislation, and global agreements, for example the European Green Deal. “Innovate Manufacturing.” is therefore the claim embodied by EMO Hannover. On the one hand, it is a call to customers to invest in new technologies. On the other, it encourages manufacturers to present their latest innovations and solutions.

Future Insights address the present challenges facing industry Production technology is in the midst of industrial transformation, but is also part of the solution. This will be demonstrated at EMO Hannover 2023 by means of so-called Future Insights. The Future of Business targets new markets, new business models, the opportunities and potential to be gained from a corporate culture of innovation, the introduction of agile methods, methodology databases, and structural and operative transformations. In this context, EMO Hannover represents a wide platform of knowledge, not only for technology, but also for organization, strategies, and methods within companies. The Future of Connectivity takes up the trends affecting all aspects of Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), digital business models, predictive maintenance, machine learning, connectivity, interoperability, artificial intelligence, and augmented and virtual reality applications. Today, IT and software engineering are key factors for production technology, and data mining an opportunity for new business models. Connectivity provides the basis for vertical networking in the factory and for horizontal networking with suppliers and customers via the value chain. EMO Hannover 2023 will be presenting these two as the new focal theme IoT in Production. “We intend this to bring together all aspects of the digital factory,” explained Wilfried Schäfer of VDW. One key foundation for connectivity takes the form of open interface standards for the communication between machinery, equipment, and software. For a number of years, Germany has been pursuing the development of a Global Production Language based on OPC UA, popularized and promoted internationally under the umati brand. It has met with a resounding response worldwide.

EMO Hannover 2023 will be demonstrating live with a number of manufacturers and systems how connectivity works from the shop floor to the IT structure and how the data gained can be utilized to optimize production. Finally, the Future of Sustainability in Production addresses the integration of sustainability, one of today’s most urgent problems, as early as the investment planning stage. “The exhibition will be presenting preventive approaches, solutions, and concepts for resource-saving, climate-neutral production and factory planning; for circular economy in production; for circular value creation; for energy-efficient production; for sustainable supply chains; and for safe workplace environments,” was Schäfer’s description of EMO Hannover’s contribution. Benefiting not only the great many individual exhibitors and their solutions, the Future of Sustainability in Production Area also provides a profound insight into production and links science approaches to the field environment. The focus will be placed on energy efficiency, a subject that tends to have been neglected until now, but promises huge potential. Registrations have been submitted to date by more than 1,500 exhibitors from 43 countries, including many top UK supplier countries such as Germany, China, the Netherlands, Japan, and Switzerland. “For the purpose of comparing and assessing interesting technological developments, and for finding potential competent partners, EMO Hannover is precisely the right platform thanks to its broad front over the whole value chain for presenting all portfolios from all over the world,” Schäfer concluded.