We are past the 23rd round of the Automaticon fair.
Opportunities for establishing relations, freedom of informal conversations, the massive staging of various solutions at one place, presence of market practitioners willing to share experience and technical support and an occasion to see the latest trends – to name just a few reasons why the Automaticon fair is unchallenged and attracts unwavering interest even in the era of 21st century technologies.
More than 300 exhibitors representing 720 companies and approx. 12 thousand visitors: this are the statistics of the recent International Automatics and Measurement Technology Fair Automaticon, the 23rd round of which was held between March 14 and 17, 2017.
The event, organized by the Industrial Institute for Automatics and Measurements (PIAP) and by MVM, is one of the most recognized industrial events of this type in Poland and, from nearly a quarter of the century, has served as a forum for meetings between manufacturers, vendors, integrators and clients involved in broadly defined industrial automatics. It was no different this year
“ This year’s fair was in many ways exceptional. We were pleased to see that there was hardly any start-up day effect. Many professional conversations were held already on the first day. The massive traffic of visitors kept up for almost all the time. By rerouting the traffic, we managed to invigorate Hall 4, said Mr Jacek Frontczak, the Supervisor of the Automaticon fair and the Deputy Director of PIAP. And, as usual, we had some overseas exhibitors, mostly from Germany, but also more ‘exotic’ companies from China and Japan. According to our observations, Far Eastern exhibitors use the event mainly for identification of prospective trade partners in Poland,” added Jacek Frontczak.
One of the most evident marks of the time at the Automaticon fair was the almost exponential growth of the number of robotic solutions brought to public attention. Manufacturers of industrial robots attend the fair every year but what happened now can be called an invasion of robots. More than 50 robots from 14 different manufacturers were presented. Three of these companies showed industrial robots equipped with mobile bases: something that opens new opportunities for application of the machines. This explosion of industrial robots is an obvious response to the omnipresent concept of Industry 4.0, an acknowledgment of increasing importance of robotisation in the Polish industry.” commented Jacek Frontczak.
Applications of robots presented by the stand of the Industrial Institute for Automatics and Measurements (PIAP) attracted much attention. “We prepared two stations. The first showed collaboration of two KUKA welding robots. One machine manipulated a workpiece while the other simulated the welding. The second station displayed a Festo robot furnished with a PIAP’s vision system following a KUKA robot on a track,” said Marek Petz, the Robot Programming Expert of the Industrial Institute for Automatics and Measurements (PIAP).
So many people visited the stand of the Industrial Institute for Automatics and Measurements (PIAP) that on one of the days they had to be queued to be able to take a closer look at the solutions and talk to PIAP’s representatives. Automaticon 2017 was better to us in terms of both the number of visitors and results of our discussions. Our visitors are becoming better oriented in what they expect and what are their requirements but, at the same time, they are aware that the markets will inevitable enforce implementation of robots. Some guests invited us to come and see their processes and offer advice regarding automation. All this gave strong grounds to very productive talks. Most interlocutors agreed that shortages of labour, practically in the whole country, were their main motive for getting interested in automation.” stressed Marek Petz.
Another round of the Automaticon fair will take place between March 20 and 23, 2018.