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EMO Hannover, the world's leading trade fair for production technology, will be held in Hannover, Germany, from 18 to 23 September 2023. It showcases the state of the art in international production technology and looks ahead to future developments. "We are convinced that this leading trade show can make an important contribution to the progress of industry in the United States" said Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director at EMO organizer VDW (German Machine Tool Builders' Association), in Germany, on the occasion of a four-day press tour through four US cities cities at the end of March. The United States are one of around 40 event countries where the EMO World Tour is making a stop in the first half of 2023.

Economic growth is expected to pick up in the USA in 2023. This will have a positive effect on the demand for production technology. The USA is already the second largest market in the world. The economic researchers at Oxford Economics - the VDW’s forecasting partner - expect the most important user industries for production technology in United States to invest more than $ 260 billion in 2023, and just under $ 270 billion in 2024. Most of the money is going to the electronics industry. "At EMO Hannover, those responsible from US industry, government and investment promotion institutions can obtain targeted information on which technologies can be used to implement the planned projects," explains Schäfer.

The last EMO Hannover 2019 already attracted 1,200 experts from United States. As a result, they formed the second-largest group of visitors from abroad. In total, there were around 120,000 visitors from 149 countries. Of these, 51 percent traveled from outside Germany.

Production technology offers solutions for the transformation of industry

Production technology is an enabler and driver of technical progress in industrial production. It is indispensable for a country's modern and competitive industry. Productivity, quality and flexibility are at the top of the list of requirements. Digitization gives all three goals a further boost.

Production technology creates solutions for the existing challenges on the customer side: changing demand, faster product development, smaller batch sizes, more flexible production. "Processes are becoming more efficient and sustainable, workflows more flexible, new value-added strategies and business models are emerging," describes Schäfer the effects. Industry also has to produce under changed conditions due to new political priorities, new laws or global agreements, such as the Green Deal in Europe.

"Innovate Manufacturing." is therefore the claim of EMO Hannover. On the one hand, it describes the call to customers to invest in new technologies. On the other hand, it motivates manufacturers to present their latest innovations and solutions.

Future insights address the current challenges facing the industry

Production technology is in the middle of the industrial transformation process, but it is also part of the solution. This is the theme of EMO Hannover 2023 with the so-called Future Insights. The Future of Business focuses on new markets, new business models, opportunities, and potentials of an innovation culture in the company, introduction of agile methods and the development of methodological knowledge, change of structures and working methods. In this respect, EMO Hannover is a major knowledge platform, not only for technology, but also for organization, strategies, and methods in companies.

The Future of Connectivity takes up the trends around Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), digital business models, predictive maintenance, machine learning, connectivity, interoperability, and artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality applications. IT and software engineering are now key factors for production technology, data mining an opportunity for new business models. Connectivity is the basis for vertical networking in the factory and, beyond that, horizontal networking with suppliers and customers along the value chain. EMO Hannover 2023 will showcase both and will therefore offer a new exhibition focus on IoT in Production. "With this, we want to bring together all aspects of the Digital Factory," says Wilfried Schäfer from VDW.

Important foundations for networking are open interface standards for communication between different machines, devices, and software. In Germany, the development of a Global Production Language based on OPC UA has been driven forward for several years and has been publicized and promoted internationally under the umati brand. It is meeting with great interest worldwide. Over 300 international partners in more than ten industrial sectors have now joined forces to drive forward its development. These include companies, consortia, associations, and research institutions. We at umati are delighted to have a total of five US companies on board as partners. And we are also in talks with mt connect, the US interface initiative, about setting up a partnership in order to serve the interests of international users of production technology.

The live umati demonstration at EMO Hannover 2023 will also provide an impressive overview of the progress that has been made. EMO Hannover 2023 will demonstrate live with various manufacturers and systems how networking works from the store floor to the IT structure and show how production can be optimized with the data.

Finally, The Future of Sustainability in Production addresses the integration of sustainability, one of the most pressing issues these days, already in the planning of investments. "Preventive approaches, solutions and concepts for resource-conserving and climate-neutral production and factory planning, circular economy in production, circular value creation, energy-efficient production, sustainable supply chains and safe workplace design will be presented at the trade show," says Schäfer, describing EMO Hannover's contribution. In addition to the numerous individual exhibitors presenting solutions in this area, the Future of Sustainability in Production Area also takes a closer look at production and links approaches from science with practical implementation. The focus is on energy efficiency, a topic that has been rather neglected up to now, but which nevertheless holds a great deal of potential.

The United States already have a large machine tools industry. It ranks 4th among international producers, with a volume of just under $7.5 billion. Around a quarter of this is exported.

Accordingly, it is important for US suppliers of production technology to present themselves at international trade shows such as EMO Hannover. Currently just under 60 exhibitors have already signed up and are taking advantage of the opportunity to showcase their products to an international audience. These include big names like Haas Automation, Autodesk, Hurco and Sunnen. A total of more than 1,400 exhibitors from 42 countries have registered so far.

875 exhibitors alone have already registered to come to EMO Hannover 2023 from the five top suppliers of US industry. They are Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan. This means that US visitors have an extensive range of products and services from their top suppliers along the entire value chain and, in addition, a wide range of products and services from many other countries that are worth checking out. "In order to compare and evaluate them directly and, if necessary, also to find competent partners, EMO Hannover is exactly the right platform, because it is broadly positioned along the entire value chain and shows the complete global range," concludes Schäfer.

EMO Hannover