Supporting Programme of AUTOMATICA 2012 for Lightweight Construction, Battery Manufacturing and Service Robotics & Co.

Under the motto of "Produce faster, more inexpensively and with higher quality", the global know-how of the automation industry will meet at AUTOMATICA on the grounds of the New Munich Trade Fair Centre from 22 to 25 May 2012. The trade fair with the world's largest robotics share provides compact information about current assembly and handling solutions as well as trends of industrial machine vision to visitors from the complete manufacturing industry with a comprehensive supporting programme.

Two new special exhibits show the trends of automated lightweight construction with composite materials as well as battery manufacturing. The four-day AUTOMATICA Forum provides information about growth industries and development trends in very different industries. Other offers include the robotics award ceremonies, the CEO Round Table about robotics trends, the premiere of the new VDMA sustainability initiative, machine vision seminars as well as the promotion of young talent.

  Lightweight construction: Special Exhibition: "Automated Composite Production" and Symposium
AUTOMATICA is tackling a red-hot topic with the special exhibition "Automated Composite Production". It provides information about suitable automation solutions for fibre composite components. Fibre-reinforced composites are among the materials of the future. The composites are in demand in the aerospace industry, automobile industry, mechanical and plant engineering, and in wind energy technology thanks to their slight weight and enormous durability. However, they still have to be produced manually for the most part and are consequently expensive. How production could look with the help of automation will be shown in a complete CFRP production chain from knitted carbon fibre to finished components in live demonstrations:

The topic of lightweight construction with composite materials will be dealt with in more depth at the SEMAT 12 Symposium for Automation in Composite Production (Hall A1) on 24 and 25 May. The event (registration required) of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) includes a keynote address and 34 other talks. The focal points are market needs, automation technologies, material, process and test aspects as well as examples of successful automation applications.

  More information about the Symposium is available at:http://media.nmm.de/51/flyer_sampe_congress_2012_25991551.pdf

  Special Exhibition "Battery Manufacturing and Automation Technology"
An increasingly important application field is battery production. Batteries play a key role as high-energy storage devices for electric mobility. Electric mobility will only actually become accepted on a widespread scale when batteries can be produced in large series and at moderate costs. AUTOMATICA is promoting progress in battery production with its special exhibition "Battery Production and Automation Technology".

It is being held in collaboration with the special Productronic Division of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) Forum of Rhineland-Westphalia Technical University (RWTH), Aachen, and leading companies. It will show the complete production environment of batteries: from coating electrode materials all the way to complete modules in Hall A2.

  AUTOMATICA Forum – Four Days, Four Trends
Renowned practicians will give talks daily about one focal topic in the visitor forum in Hall B1:
Everything will deal with "BlueCompetence – Sustainability with and in Automation on 22 May. There was an especially great deal of interest in the topic of sustainability within the scope of the trade fair motto "Green Automation" at the last fair. As a result, AUTOMATICA 2012 is again taking up this topic, but putting it in the larger context of the VDMA sustainability initiative "BlueCompetence" this time.

On 23 May, the AUTOMATICA Forum is dedicated to "Challenges for the Automotive Industry: Lightweight Construction and E-Mobility". The talks and discussions on 24 May 2012 will deal with "Growth industries in Focus: Food, Medicine, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech".

On 25 May, the motto for talks will be "Light, Reliable and Mobile Helpers – Future Trends of Robotics". Robots are getting ready to leave their cells and help people as service suppliers – in factories as well as in daily life.

  Service Robotics Innovation Platform
The innovation platform will present current trends in service robotics and is organised by AUTOMATICA in cooperation with the Fraunhofer IPA. Internationally operating robot manufactures, component suppliers and research institutes will show their innovations in moderated live shows hourly.

  ROBOTICS Conference 2012
This is the topic of the 7th German robotics conference, ROBOTICS 2012, on 21 May, one day before the start of the trade fair, and the developments of robotics in research and industry are the topic on 22 May. This largest Robotics Conference in Germany is being held by the German Society for Robotics (DGR) in the adjacent International Congress Center Munich (ICM).
Details and registration at: http://conference.vde.com/robotik2012/Pages/Homepage.aspx

  VDMA Sustainability Initiative "Blue Competence"
Sustainable products and technology play a key role in strengthening a company's market position in global competition. AUTOMATICA is showing current trends in the area of sustainability with the new VDMA sustainability initiative "Blue Competence". VDMA has made it possible for organisations of mechanical and plant engineering to join the new sustainability initiative and has created a list of criteria for this. You can experience the topic live at the booths of participating
exhibitors (e.g., thanks to efficient drives, recycling or resource-saving production) and at the Blue Competence Information Booth VDMA in the West Entrance.
More at http://www.bluecompetence.net/pages/index.html

  Robotics Awards
The awarding of the 8th IERA – Invention & Entrepreneurship Award at a networking dinner on 23 May is a must-attend event for robotics experts. The award is a joint project of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE/RAS) and the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). The winners will be announced from 1 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. in room A31/32 in Hall A3.
The official award ceremony will take place in the evening at the IERA Networking Dinner, for which registration is required.

Innovations will also be honoured at AUTOMATICA with the FANUC Award as well as the Walter Reis – Innovation Award for Robotics. The awards will be presented at 4 p.m. on 22 May (Hall B2 at the FANUC booth) and at 11 a.m. on 24 May (Hall B3 at the booth of Reis Robotics).

  Seminars about Machine Visions and Programme for Talented Young People
On 22 and 23 May, the Machine Vision Training Center s holding free seminars on user topics of industrial machine vision. This "Vision Academy", between the West Entrance and Hall B1, starts daily at 11 a.m. and holds four half-hour seminars.

There is a special programme "Join our Business" for talented young people. Starting from 9:15 a.m. on 25 May, VDMA Robotics + Automation is providing daily competent career orientation in the areas of robotics, automation and mechatronics to pupils, students and those starting their careers.

Readers can find the complete supporting programme of AUTOMATICA online at www.automatica-munich.com/programm
(in English at: www.automatica-munich.com/program)

Readers can find additional information about AUTOMATICA 2012 at