News

K 2016 was a full success for the industry’s machinery producers

Iranpolymer- According to Baspar, K 2016 has ended with significant growth in the number of visitors, once again with more exhibitors and a further increase in the international diversity of the visitors. “We are very satisfied with the fair. Our focus on the subject of Industry 4.0 hit the bull’s eye”, said Thorsten Kühmann, Managing Director of the VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association on Wednesday in Düsseldorf.  Experts had discussed important aspects of the subject in numerous events in the VDMA Pavilion. Member companies have supplied practical application examples. To conclude the fair, editors-in-chief of the leading plastics media drew without exception a positive balance of the eight-day show of performance.

“There are presently many political and economic developments in the world, such as the Brexit or the forthcoming US election, which dampen the mood in industry. But there was none of that to be felt at K 2016”, said Don Loepp of Plastics News. A reason for the optimistic mood that expressed itself in a considerable number of business deals was, in the view of Markus Lüling of K-Profi, the breadth of the exhibits on offer and the top technology, which is not to be seen with as much concentration anywhere else. “The K is therefore the worldwide largest stage for the plastics industry”, he said. “It is a very vibrant industry. It was above all the machinery producers who promoted a lot in processing technology“, added Dr Karlhorst Klotz of the magazine Kunststoffe.

The journalists agreed with each other that the subject of Industry 4.0 had played a large role. It was especially the large machinery producers who had pushed the subject, said Lüling, “but it was not taken on as strongly by the full range of suppliers”. This could, in the opinion of Günter Kögel from K-Zeitung, also be due to many companies having already offered instruments in the area of automation for a long time that can certainly categorised as being Industry 4.0. “It is a game of terminology. It involves after all making benefits of new things clear to customers”, he said. “No one pays money for a term, but they do so if they want to have ability to trace back parts, or greater transparency of production processes”, continues Dr Klotz with conviction.

Digitalisation and networking of production runs worldwide, but with different terms, in the USA for example with the keywords “Internet of Things”. And the developments do not march in step. “The principles are the same, but in the USA there is not the same extent of standardisation as with Industry 4.0”, said Chris Smith of Injection World Magazine. The agreement reached in Europe on common interfaces offers many more possibilities in operative management of companies.

“The message of Industry 4.0” has in any case arrived”, said Lüling. Much attention is being paid to it by the large, strategically thinking companies. There are presently already several instruments, some individual products, “but no ready off-the-shelf solutions”. In the near future it all depends on explaining the benefits of Industry 4.0 to customers. 

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button