European production and machine tools go on show

With the emphasis continuing to grow on production equipment and machine tool sales to the former ‘East Bloc’ countries in Europe, Mike Page reviews important 2008 manufacturing exhibitions

After the 2007 Hannover EMO international machine tool exhibition the following year is always a busy one for European national exhibitions. In spite of fears over ‘credit crunch’ and restricted loans for manufacturing investment in Europe, many producers of machine tools and production equipment continue to enjoy good order books.

Factory expansion is being considered or carried out.

The growth of manufacturing in the former ‘East Bloc’ (or CMEA/COMECON) countries in central and Eastern Europe is of importance.

Maybe this year is the time to invest more in the latest cost-cutting, ‘shortest time to market’ cnc machine tools, robotic systems and automation generally, should a ‘credit squeeze’ really tighten its grip on the availability of attractive loans.

The East European countries want automation too – particularly in the Tier 1-4 automotive suppliers.

* Specialised exhibitions – in addition to the general machine tool and manufacturing shows, there are two specialised exhibitions in 2008 concentrating on sheet metal working (EuroBLECH) and mould and die making (Euromold).

The five main machine tool and manufacturing orientated exhibitions to occur in Western Europe during 2008 will be as follows.

* The UK’s MACH 2008, Birmingham, April 21-25, visit: .

* Czech Republic’s MSV-International Engineering Fair, Brno, September 15-19, visit: .

* Italy’s Bi-Mu, Milan, October 3-7, visit: .

* Germany’s EuroBLECH, Hannover, October 21-25, visit: .

* Germany’s Euromold, Frankfurt-am-Main, December 3-6, visit: .

** MACH 2008 – organised by the UK’s Manufacturing technologies Association in London, over 400 companies have booked to exhibit at the UK’s main manufacturing technologies event.

The event will be over 1,000m2 bigger than the last show in 2006.

The show covers all machining and automation developments from the UK and abroad.

A number of foreign companies have established extensive machine tool building plants in the UK, including Heller, Yamazaki Mazak and Hardinge, to name a few.

The UK’s own main builder, The 600 group, is expanding into Europe.

Alongside manufacturing technologies, visitors will have the added value of co-located shows (IFPEX, Drives and Controls, Electrex, Subcon and Airtech) and also MACHplus, an assembly of exhibitors from associated industries such as cleaning, health and safety and materials handling.

The show takes place at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre right next to National Rail’s Birmingham International railway station and near to Birmingham International Airport.

* Visit: .

** MSV-International Engineering Fair – organised by the Brno trade fairs and Exhibitions company, there will be some 2250 firms from 33 countries.

The MSV exhibition represents a wide range of heavy engineering – including rolling, casting, forging, cranage – as well as machine tools, metal forming and fabrication equipment, electrical engineering, automation and general manufacturing.

There will also be machines and equipment for the ceramic and glass industries, materials and components for the chemical industry, machines and equipment for plastics and rubber processing, chemicals for industrial production and machines for industrial cleaning and washing.

The MSV runs concurrently with a Transport and Logistics exhibition showing locomotives and rolling stock, trucks, vans and so on.

Brno has an international airport and can also be accessed easily by international railroad or bus.

* Visit: .

** Bi-Mu/SFORTEC – Promoted by UCIMU, the Italian Machine Tools, Robots and Automation Manufacturers’ Association, and organized by EFIM, Bi-Mu will exhibit a wide range of machine tools, robots and automation systems and a specialised display of the most recent technological systems for welding, assembling and mould and die making.

The Italian machine tool industry is very active, and the show attracts visitors from the Mediterranean and East European areas as well as Italy and Switzerland.

Italy has a large and very active machine tool industry, many of which will have exhibition stands at Bi-Mu.

There will also be an extensive conference programme.

According to the data concerning the last Bi-Mu, 87% of the visitors are involved in the purchasing decisions in their own enterprises: 20.3% can choose autonomously, whereas 49% of them operate within a team in charge of investment evaluation and 18.3% is made up of operators giving specialized advice for equipment purchase.

Milano has a new exhibition centre located outside the city and accessed by Metro and bus.

The site is much easier to access by car that the former inner city site.

* Visit: .

** euroblech – Europe’s premier international sheet metal working show covers covers all aspects of sheet metal manufacturing: from slitting, blanking, CNC laser cutting, through general press work and power presses, press shop automation, to stockholding, welding and assembly.

It will be the 20th edition of the International Sheet Metal Working Technology Exhibition.

The continuous boom of this industry sector, said the organisers, Mack Brooks Exhibitions, UK, benefits the booking numbers for stand space at EuroBLECH 2008.

1,030 exhibitors from 30 countries have already reserved their stands, and some 85,000m2 of net exhibition space has been reserved.

The show will be held at the Hannover Messe fairgrounds accessed by a frequent tram (U-Bahn) service and the city railway network (S-Bahn).

The tram system links directly to Hannover’s main railway station (Hannover Hbf) and its international airport.

* Visit: .

** euromold – is the World Fair for Moldmaking and Tooling, Design and Application Development is organised by the DEMAT Direct Exhibition Managing company in Frankfurt/Main.

The show coves all aspects of moulding from design to prototyping to series production.

The organisers said that EuroMold ‘bridges the gap’ between industrial designers, fabricators, suppliers and users.

I’m sure there will be much interest in the advance of continuous path 5-axis milling and developments in ‘seamless’ CAD/CAM systems and moulding simulation technology.

It will be well worth reviewing progress in rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing – in metals ans well as plastics.

At the 2006 EuroMold show, 61.720 visitors from 83 countries came to Frankfurt to get information.

Compared with the previous year, DEMAT said it had succeeded in increasing the visitors rate by about 2.1%.