Impressions after three days of technology high mass

It was with a little, nervous heart that they set about it. As the exhibitors put the finishing touches to the Indumation stands on Tuesday evening, traffic had come to a complete standstill fifty metres away. The farmers’ protests had also reached Kortrijk and were set to return during the fair. It undoubtedly put a damper on the number of visitors heading to Indumation, but did it spoil the fun? No, it didn’t. Because the just under 10,000 visitors who did turn up came with very specific plans and questions. There was no shortage of answers, with 250 exhibitors across the largest exhibition space ever.

The organisers – Industrialfairs, Agoria and Indumotion – were unanimous in their assessment afterwards. “It was an absolutely magnificent, well-attended and exceptionally high-quality edition, which once again brought together, informed and inspired the entire automation community like no other event in the Benelux,” they said. The evening session in particular proved once again to be a major crowd-puller. But the new events on Wednesday (Tech Guru Explosition) and Friday (Friday Team Day with two immersion classes) also ensured there was plenty of activity on the exhibition floor at all times. The relative ‘calm’ on Wednesday and Friday also provided an opportunity to delve deeper into specific projects. 

More for the same price

Yet this is not the most obvious time for manufacturing companies to be thinking about investing. The gloomy economic outlook, rising interest rates, faltering supply chains … Or perhaps that is precisely why?! Due to the shortage of technical staff, automation is often the only way forward for companies. Whether it’s machine building, constructing control cabinets, operating production lines… They simply cannot find the staff to carry out the work to the same standard. So, automation and digitalisation it is. Many discussions at Indumation began with the same practical questions: how can we improve machines and processes in such a way that we can achieve more with the same number of people? 

Expertise as a bargaining chip

Suppliers are therefore increasingly expected to demonstrate expertise. Simply ‘moving boxes’ or selling products from a catalogue is no longer a viable business model. The wave of digitalisation and the countless online shops have brought this about. Anyone who knows exactly what they want, including the product code, will order it themselves: via the platform that offers them the best price, the greatest ease of use, the best range… or whatever else they’re looking for. However, technology suppliers who are doing well today can offer that little bit extra. They advise customers on the best technical solution for their challenge, help machine builders set up ‘as a service’ models, or provide support services in areas such as safety. As long as it adds value. This is also one reason why, despite all the farmers’ protests, the industry turned out in force for a productive discussion.

Use less energy

Item two on the industry’s agenda: sustainability. Or perhaps even better: energy efficiency. Those rising costs for wages, electricity, gas, water … have to be offset somewhere. The lower the consumption, the lower the bill. This naturally leads to a focus on the engine. This is also the case in Europe, which is constantly raising the bar with its energy efficiency class requirements. Anyone looking to improve by more than just a single percentage point was spoilt for choice at the trade fair. Many manufacturers have done their homework thoroughly: today’s state-of-the-art technology goes beyond what Europe requires. And the results of this were also evident on many of the dashboards on display at the fair. But motors are also becoming more compact (to fit into machines with a smaller footprint), more flexible (for easy scaling up) and easier to install (requiring just a single cable). 

IoT goes hand in hand with sustainability

However, you do not necessarily need to change your powertrain. The fact that digitalisation and energy saving go hand in hand was a prominent theme at Indumation. By collecting and analysing more data, exciting IoT applications can be developed to identify opportunities for smart optimisations in production. This was a recurring theme at the many stands at the exhibition. 

But let’s return to the word ‘sustainability’ for a moment. By 2025, the first companies will already be required to submit mandatory CSRD reports. In these reports, they will set out data from 2024 and details of the efforts already made across the three ESG domains, the status of their environmental footprint, and the roadmap for taking further steps in this area. It’s quite a challenge, and one that certainly looks beyond energy efficiency alone. Water, for example, will be high on the agenda in the coming years. And that was evident both literally and figuratively at the trade fair: how we can recover, treat and reuse water… and how we can measure all those processes. So, on the exhibition floor, the focus was certainly not solely on the energy transition and the role that electrification and hydrogen will play in it. It was just as much about how we can save kilometres (and therefore CO₂ emissions) within our service operations.

Safety first

We may well be producing more efficiently and sustainably now, but is it safe? There will certainly still be some work to be done in the industry to bring everything into line with the new Machinery Regulation by 2027. Although that’s still a way off, the focus in 2024 was more on that other kind of safety: cyber security. This topic was central to many Expert Classes, ranging from a ‘start2cybersecurity’ approach to advanced cyber-secure cloud platforms. After all, there’s an ever-increasing amount of communication taking place within production environments. The one-way communication of the past is a thing of the past. Machines are now even chatting away amongst themselves to achieve the highest possible output. Whether you’re aiming for Industry 4.0 or 5.0, communication is key. During the exhibition, you could therefore attend a daily talk on one such protocol that is gaining ground: EtherCAT communication technology. It operates without IP addresses, so it was nowhere to be found on the list of communication protocols responsible for the majority of cyber breaches.

The engineers of tomorrow

Incidentally, it is the whole concept of digitalisation that particularly appeals to future generations. Posters of boy bands and girl bands have been replaced by those of tech icons such as Musk, Huang, Altman … The exhibition organisers enticed them to attend with a fascinating debate on the Metaverse. Naturally, digital twins, GPUs and all things AI were also discussed. What else would you expect at a tech debate these days? Or was it rather the beats, vibes, drinks and bites afterwards that drew the 125 techies of tomorrow in attendance? The fact is that they were there and that they could see that even the traditional world of automation is high-tech enough to deserve the label ‘sexy’. Or which word from the tech jargon fits here? And that it’s also up to the industry itself to take the initiative to bring young people into contact with cutting-edge technology. Otherwise, the unknown remains unloved. 

Staying a child

One final observation, after three days of wandering through the mecca of industrial automation technology: techies and Lego bricks – it really is a brilliant combination. Whether you use it to demonstrate how easily an IoT solution can be created or to highlight the added value of an ergonomic workstation, it’s sure to grab people’s attention. Technology in its purest form always makes the heart beat a little faster.

Thanks to the many interesting discussions with, amongst others, ACE Development & Engineering, ATEM-Wieland Electric, Bintz Technics, Beckhoff Automation, Endress+Hauser, Eplan, Festo, Fortop, IFM, Ikologik, Inimco, Komotion, KROHNE, Lenze, Leuze, Ninix Technologies, NORD Drives, Phoenix-Mecano, Routeco, Rittal, Schmersal, Schneider Electric, Schunk, Sick, Siemens, Stäubli Benelux, TR-Electronic, Turck, VEGA, VMA, Vynze and Zimmer