This year’s visitors to the Leading Trade Fair for Integrated Processes and IT Solutions – Digital Factory – will find the show relocated to Hall 7.

As a showcase for the digital tools used in product development and production, Digital Factory now occupies a central position between two other major trade shows in allied areas of technology: Industrial Supply, with its displays of production technologies and services, including the theme park “Lightweight Construction”, and Industrial Automation, with its extensive coverage of categories such as industrial IT, industrial communications, software, control systems, sensor technology and instrumentation (measurement and control).

“For the first time visitors to Hannover Messe will find all the displays relating to industrial IT grouped together in Halls 7 and 8“, reveals Oliver Frese, Director at Hannover Messe for Deutsche Messe AG. The sharper focus and more concentrated coverage have been well received by the industry. “Digital Factory has seen a further increase in exhibitor applications and floor space, which enhances its unique standing as the world’s leading trade fair for integrated processes and IT solutions“, adds Frese. 

The companies exhibiting at Digital Factory will be covering all the areas of specialization familiar from previous shows, including CAx, PLM, MES, ERP and Rapid Prototyping. This year’s program also features a number of special displays organized by Deutsche Messe in collaboration with experienced industry partners.

  3D Software
Visualization is a technology with applications across industry, and this year it is getting a fresh look with the third “Technology Cinema 3D” and the move to Hall 7. The stand concept has been developed in association with up-and-coming young architect Lars Behrendt, who is perhaps best known for his award-winning design for the Lotto Turm in Stuttgart. The stand design for Digital Factory features a large area divided off from the rest of the hall and shaded from the light by textile sheeting, where the participating exhibitors will be presenting their 3D software products inside a series of containers.

Organized in conjunction with industry partner Smart Hydro Power, the new-look special presentation also breaks new ground this year in terms of its content. Specializing in micro-size hydroelectric power plants, Smart Hydro Power will be showcasing a product from its range that fits in very well with the overarching theme of this year’s Hannover Messe, namely “greentelligence”. As well as demonstrating the capabilities of the system live, the company will also be making available product and plant data that can be used by all the exhibitors at “Technology Cinema 3D” for all kinds of different visualization purposes.

Once again this year’s special presentation will be sponsored by a long list of partners, including ESI Group and ICIDO, eyevis, Schneider Digital, PI-VRA and Christie. Support for the content of “Technology Cinema 3D” will be provided for the first time by the Network for Virtual Reality and Virtual Engineering VDC Fellbach. The task of organizing the presentation on behalf of Hannover Messe has been delegated to ProzessPiraten GmbH in Ulm.

  MES Conference in the Convention Center
For the fourth successive year the Convention Center at the Exhibition Grounds is hosting the MES Conference. The Conference runs from 1.30 to 5 p.m. on two afternoons of the show, and will be of special interest to production planning and control officers and production managers. Admission is free of charge to all Hannover Messe ticket-holders. Sponsoring partners for the event are top German industry associations NAMUR, VDI, VDMA and ZVEI.

  On Wednesday 25 April the subject for discussion will be discrete manufacturing, and on Thursday 26 April the focus shifts to continuous production.
The first day opens with a keynote address by Stefan Hoppe from Beckhoff Automation GmbH, who is also president of the OPC Foundation Europe. He will be talking about the work currently being done to standardize interfaces between MES and automation components, with the aim of achieving plug & play capability. This will be followed by presentations from industry practitioners, including Phoenix Contact, Josef Rees Zerspanungstechnik, Saint Gobain Glass Deutschland and Stiebel Eltron.

The second day of the Conference opens with a talk by Dr. Olaf Sauer, deputy director of the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB), who will also address the theme of continuous communication between production machinery and MES. The keynote address will be followed by reports from front-line users in industry, with contributions from BASF, Beyersdorf, Leikon and H&R Chem.Pharm., the oldest specialist refinery still in production.

And once again, visitors to Digital Factory can also expect to be introduced to the latest IT technologies designed to support product development, production planning and production operations – including many new products relating to two current megatrends, Mobiles and Cloud Computing. The “Industrial IT” Forum organized by industry associations VDMA and ZVEI in the adjacent Hall 8 offers further talks and discussions on a broad range of themes – including some that address issues also featured at Digital Factory.

In short, industry is investing much time and effort to achieve the closer integration of development and production processes. And at Digital Factory the practical benefits of these endeavours are already apparent today.

  About Hannover Messe (the Hannover Fair)
The world’s leading showcase for industrial technology is staged annually in Hannover, Germany. The next Hannover Messe will be held from 23 to 27 April 2012, with China to be featured as its official Partner Country. Eight flagship fairs are taking place under the umbrella of Hannover Messe 2012: Industrial Automation - Energy - MobiliTec - Digital Factory - Industrial Supply - CoilTechnica - IndustrialGreenTec - Research & Technology. In 2012 the spotlight will be on industrial automation and IT, energy and environmental technologies, industrial subcontracting, manufacturing technologies, services and R&D.