The innovative world of industry at ITM INDUSTRY EUROPE

“It was an exciting four-day event! We have opened the season of meetings for the industry with impetus. We enjoy such a large turnout. This satisfaction is double, because we know from conversations with the exhibitors that this year’s visitors are former professionals who knew exactly what they were looking for and for what purpose they came to the fair. Exhibitors benefited from this. We are already receiving signals about contracts finalised at the fair or many promising business relationships, which probably would not have happened had it not been for the ITM fair. That is why we are already starting to work with even more energy on the next edition,” says Anna Lemańska-Kramer, director of ITM INDUSTRY EUROPE.

Over 340 exhibitors from Poland and abroad showed their offer during this year’s edition of the ITM INDUSTRY EUROPE fair and the accompanying: Modernlog Trade Fair of Logistics, Transport and Storage, 3D SOLUTIONS − 3D Printing and Scanning Fair, SUBCONTRACTING Industrial Cooperation Fair and FOCAST Foundry Forum. The event lasted from August 31 to September 3. This year, companies could present themselves traditionally by arranging their stand in the exhibition hall or try a new tool − an online meeting platform.

“The platform was used by over a thousand people who actively participated in online meetings and conferences. This shows the potential of this solution,” notes Barbara Kamińska, coordinator of the online meeting platform.

Success of the Industry Next Congress

The pioneering project of Grupa MTP at ITM Industry Europe this year was also the two-day Industry Next Congress − the main point of the program of this edition of the fair. It was here that the most important trends in the technological transformation of companies were indicated. Among the speakers there were innovation leaders such as: Microsoft Polska, ABB, Fanuc Polska, Siemens, Northvolt Poland and Polpharma. The discussion was also attended by: Olga Ewa Semeniuk, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Development and Technology, Government Plenipotentiary for Small and Medium Enterprises, and Tadeusz Kościński, Minister of Finance, Funds and Regional Policy.

The invited guests agreed that today well-organised, modern factories cannot do without digital solutions, but the most important factor of transformation are people and appropriate education. Where to start and how to effectively use the latest technological solutions? This question, referring to the digital transformation of manufacturing companies, was answered on the second day of the Congress by experts invited to the Industry Next Workshop, substantively supported by the Poznań Science and Technology Park and Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Centre.

At the Congress stage, the Microsoft Polska stand, where everyone could move into the world of augmented reality by testing Microsoft HoloLens was visited in large numbers.

Golden Dozen and Jubilarians of 2021

As many as twelve MTP Gold Medals this year were awarded to modern solutions presented during this edition of the fair. Eleven of them went to the exhibitors of ITM INDUSTRY EUROPE, one was granted to the exhibitor of the Modernlog fair. The presentations were held at stands, where visitors and company representatives could see the awarded products. The winners of the MTP Gold Medal competition include an autonomous disinfecting robot, a remotely managed 3D printer or a mobile stand for testing the properties of liquid metals. One of the awarded products − the hybrid core of the electric motor was used in the heart support pump created by the Prof. Zbigniew Religa Foundation for the Development of Cardiac Surgery in Zabrze.

In addition to the statuettes awarded by experts of the jury, the award in the Golden Medal Consumers’ Choice competition went to the ultrasonic spray washing chamber with a rotating basket of the company ULTRON Zakład Urządzeń Elektronicznych Krzysztof Krankowski, winning 42% of the votes.

In addition to gold medalists, there were also exhibitors who celebrated their “birthday” at the fair. The celebration of the 20th anniversary of the DIG ŚWITAŁA company was especially big.

“We started with standard machines and responded to simple customer needs. Over the years, when our experience and market knowledge grew, when we got to know new suppliers, we were able to offer our clients more comprehensive solutions. We have been dealing mainly with large technological lines for several years. The market is changing towards automation and we have adapted to these market needs. Today, machines are personalised, tailored to a specific customer product. We are happy that after the pandemic we can meet again at the fair, talk and exchange experiences,” says Anna Świtała to sum up 20 years of operations of the company.

Factory in the spirit of “smart”

Rolling and walking robots, dynamic production processes, intelligent solutions for enterprises − this is what the unique space, the Smart Factory zone, looked like. This is where the companies that automate the industrial world could present their flagship offer. Beckhoff − leader in industrial automation was one of the companies that presented its solutions.

 “We are only limited by our imagination. Our offer goes to production companies, where machine retooling and planning the entire production process is quite expensive and difficult to implement. Beckhoff solutions accelerate these processes and generate large savings for enterprises. Being at the fair, we reach production zones, the end customer, but also integrators. We have been in industry 4.0 for several years. The Polish market is just maturing to those solutions that we have been able to offer for a long time. We are a few years ahead, declared Piotr Łuczak from Beckhoff.

Adam Kosmala and Krzysztof Wawrowski from Lenze also argued that a “smart” factory is a 100% automated factory.

“Few people, a lot of computers, artificial intelligence, intuitive operation. Innovative Lenze solutions lead to as little human involvement in the production process as possible. At the fair, customers are most interested in cloud solutions and the Lenze FAST app. It enables modularisation of machine functions and standardisation of interfaces, which in turn reduces the time, costs and complexity of software engineering,” the Lenze experts argued.

Emil Piotrowski from Thorlux Lighting also mentioned full automation as the basis of each intelligently managed factory: “We see great possibilities in automation and development of lighting systems. We are the only company at the ITM trade fair to offer smart solutions in the context of lighting, which are not limited only to the basic functions. They allow you to monitor each luminaire in terms of energy consumption, space or produced CO2. We have been operating on the market for 86 years, so we also try to use this knowledge and experience to educate companies what ‘smart lighting’ should look like.”

The Smart Factory zone is also a space for startups that can revolutionise the work of manufacturing companies. Mab Robotics walking robots were such a novelty that attracted a lot of interest at the ITM fair. “They can be used, inter alia, for patrolling, inspection of hard-to-reach places, in varied terrain. Where a person could not enter or it would be burdensome for them. This solution can be useful to any enterprise interested in monitoring its underground installations,” said Łukasz Antczak from MAB ROBOTICS.

Logistics industry open to new technologies

Simultaneously with ITM Industry Europe, the MODERNLOG Trade Fair of Logistics, Transport and Storage was held in Hall 6. This year, the event attracted crowds of visitors interested in solutions for the optimisation of logistics processes, supply chain management as well as automation and robotisation in the warehouse. We are pleasantly surprised by the attendance at the fair, our stand, where we presented the AutoStore automatic storage system, was impressive and attracted many visitors. Among them were our potential customers, which I hope will bear fruit in the near future, commented Maciej Ornowski, Managing Director at Reesink Logistic Solutions.

Live machine demonstrations in the In4Log zone were also very popular. Krzysztof Pograniczny, the head of this project, admitted that this year’s fair visitors were really interested in purchases, solutions and technology. We are showing the warehouse in miniature, how it could and should look in reality, where it can be operated by one person, said the editor-in-chief of MiD, Top Logistyk and Kaizen.

A modern warehouse, namely Smart Warehouse, was the subject of a two-day industry conference organised as part of the Modernlog fair. The meeting, which consisted of four discussion panels in the field of automation, robotisation, internal transport technology and digitisation, attracted a large audience who after the meeting had the opportunity to conduct backstage talks with famous speakers.

Subcontracting fair full of meetings

As every year, also this time the SUBCONTRACTING Industrial Cooperation Fair gathered a large group of exhibitors and visitors looking for new business contacts. Industrial clients and subcontractors participated in pre-arranged meetings in the Subcontracting Meetings zone or online. The fair was accompanied by a two-day seminar organised in cooperation with the Metal Processing Cluster − the Key Cluster, and the Cinnomatech Innovative Technologies Cluster. Speakers on behalf of the Łukasiewicz Research Network − Institute of Precision Mechanics, Technische Universität Dresden, the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology or the Research and Development Institute INOTEC discussed the principles of effective cooperation and building competitive advantages on foreign markets, as well as international cooperation in creating new technologies for composite materials.

3D printing − technology with potential

Those interested in the potential of additive technologies could not overlook the exhibition of the 3D Solutions fair, which is part of the wide offer for ITM Industry Europe. The guests could see not only new products presented at the stands, such as scanners or 3D printers, but also special shows. The possibility of using 3D scanners in reverse engineering and quality control − this was the title of Smarttech workshop, the exhibitor of 3D Solutions.

During the workshop, the MICRON3D green stereo 20Mpix scanner and the SMARTTECH 3Dmeasure software were used to present reverse engineering and quality control processes. MICRON3D green stereo 20-20 Mpix records all information about the geometry of objects with high precision, thanks to a double increase in sampling, the scanner allows you to measure thin-walled objects or defects below one millimeter, Smarttech experts assured.

During the workshop, the engineers discussed, among others examples of the use of 3D scanners in companies such as Edwanex, Lubiana, Arinnera, Bocar-samochody pożarnicze, Polish Foundries and many others.

The date of the next edition of ITM INDUSTRY EUROPE has already been established. The organisers plan to organise the event between May 31 and June 3, 2022.