Promising to energise a sustainable industry

By OEM Update Editorial May 10, 2024 7:18 pm IST

HANNOVER MESSE demonstrated its ability to synthesize the best technological innovations. The ‘biologization’ of the economy and carbon management came into focus. The initiative to create sovereign data spaces for small and medium-sized industrial enterprises under the ‘Manufacturing X’ label is also gaining momentum.

HANNOVER MESSE offered a comprehensive picture of the technological opportunities for today’s and tomorrow’s industries. Solutions such as the automation of entire production plants, the voice control of machines using AI, the efficient use of hydrogen in industry, and the use of software to record and reduce the carbon footprint shined proactively. More than 130,000 visitors from 150 countries, 4,000 exhibiting companies, 300 start-ups, and over 300 economic and political delegations from all over the world created ripples in the scientific and technology world. 

Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Managing Board, Deutsche Messe AG remarked, “HANNOVER MESSE 2024 was both an industrial powerhouse and a technology trade fair for the future. It was an industrial powerhouse because visitors found answers to how they could profitably take advantage of automation, artificial intelligence, hydrogen, and many other high-tech solutions in their factories, thus making them fit for the future. And it has been a future-oriented technology trade fair since the innovations that drive industrial competitiveness and sustainability were displayed here.”

The more than 130,000 visitors from 150 countries traded ideas with some 4,000 exhibiting companies on ways of digitalizing their value chains and making them more resilient. “This means we achieved our ambitious visitor target in a year where HANNOVER MESSE was smaller due to the biennial rotation of several of its component events,” said Köckler. More than 40 percent of visitors came from abroad. Apart from the host nation of Germany, the top visitor nations were China, the Netherlands, South Korea, the United States, and Japan.

Dr. Gunther Kegel, President of the ZVEI association and Chairman of the HANNOVER MESSE Exhibitor Advisory Board, stated, “In the current difficult economic environment, this Hannover Messe is a key morale booster. Companies from the electrical and digital industry have impressively demonstrated how innovations, especially artificial intelligence, are opening up new options for more climate protection and greater efficiency in energy consumption and the use of resources. We can confidently take on major social challenges like curbing global warming if we adopt the right measures and consistently pursue the path towards electrification, digitalization, and automation. Hannover Messe has once again made the innovative strength of our companies visible and thus made an important contribution to strengthening Germany as an industrial location,” he concluded.

Thilo Brodtmann, Managing Director of the VDMA association, added, “Thinking far beyond day-to-day matters and developing solutions for digital and climate-neutral production –  the goal of innovative mechanical engineering firms. At HANNOVER MESSE, they demonstrated how factories can be controlled more intelligently, how climate protection can be achieved more quickly with modern means of production, and how autonomous systems can make production safer and more efficient on many levels. In addition, biology and its processes will move into production. Hannover Messe remains the best place for all these innovations and a true spirit of optimism because manufacturers, customers, political decision-makers, and the media come together in greater numbers than anywhere else.”

Start-ups opportunity

This HANNOVER MESSE also offered an ideal platform for start-ups looking to break into the industry with their solutions. More than 300 young companies used the trade fair to network with industry representatives. The networking opportunities and master classes supported these.  Köckler said his company’s efforts to promote young companies bore fruit. “The exchange between start-ups, investors, and industrial companies was much more intensive than in previous years, encouraging us to give this topic even more space at HANNOVER MESSE 2025,” he said.

Hydrogen infrastructure

There is ground for optimism. Köckler stated, “The potential of the technologies on show here is enormous. However, it can only unfold if the overall political framework is correct. ”A prime example of pan-European cooperation was partner country, Norway. During the trade fair, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck presented the roadmap for hydrogen cooperation together with Norwegian Energy Minister Terje Aasland. Germany and Norway plan to work together closely to enable large-volume hydrogen imports from Norway to Germany and create the necessary hydrogen infrastructure by 2030. At HANNOVER MESSE, companies from Norway and Germany signed contracts for the transportation of hydrogen and the storage of C02, known as carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Sahana Shastry receives the Young Engineer Woman Award.

Sahana Shastry was honoured with the Young Engineer Woman Award at the FEMWORX Career Congress. An independent jury consisting of the FEMWORX Congress Advisory Board members selected her as the winner among three nominated female experts. Every year at HANNOVER MESSE, Deutsche Messe honours a young female expert who has made a particularly notable contribution to scientific and technical disciplines. Sahana Shastry, a Master of Science in Space Sciences and Technologies from the University of Bremen has worked as a systems engineer at DSI Aerospace, focusing on mass storage systems for onboard electronics to support the expansion of ESA’s Copernicus program. She also heads the Women in Aerospace Europe working group, where she authored the white papers.

Tamanna Routray

Dy. Gen Manager – International Operations, Sales & Marketing, PREMIUM Transmission

Hannover Messe is undoubtedly one of the world’s largest industrial shows, and all manufacturers are eager to attend.  As the top player in the mechanical gearbox business in India, Premium would undoubtedly want to take advantage of this circumstance. The European market is present, but the good news is that visitors worldwide attend the expo.

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Manohar Suvarna

Vice President – International, Business & Product Management, Connectwell

Connectwell has participated at Hannover Messe for over two decades, and it remains a significant platform. As an Indian company, Connect Well uses Hannover as a platform for our worldwide customers and partners to visit us and learn about our product offerings.

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Rakesh Juneja, General Manager, HPL

We wanted to display our best products at Hannover. HPL, a 60-year-old company, is targeting European customers to sell its components, and Hannover is the platform to extend our services to European manufacturers.

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Fabio Anzanello Pfeiffer, Marketing Director, Novus

Hannover is the Mecca for industry. It is critical to demonstrate our technology to customers in Europe and other areas of the world. With a technology system encompassing sensors for pressure, humidity, and temperature, Novus has a growth target for business in India as its products fit well in terms of solution technologies. Our innovative controller is a one-of-a-kind solution for single-loop controllers, providing a better opportunity to showcase all of this technology.

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Karthik MC, Chief Revenue Officer, KARKHANA. I O

 There has never been a better time for manufacturing for India. There is a convincing interest in India as a manufacturing alternative in Asia. We are low-cost and have the potential for frugal engineering. KARKHANA is on the verge of that. We are pleased to share the power of India’s MSME ecosystem with the rest of the globe. We provide manufacturing supply chain solutions to our customers. We have a network of over 500 MSME suppliers with a wider range of competencies.

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Ajay Bhargava, Executive Vice President & Managing Director – India Region, Rittal 

Hannover Messe is a big industrial technology exhibition. We have a permanent establishment in this show and have been participating for many years. We are a 100 percent subsidiary owned by Rittal GmbH. We participate in the expo with the same enthusiasm as our German colleagues do. Rittal has multiple segments, from enclosures to data centres, with expertise in energy-efficient cooling and integrates software into its solutions for the industrial market.

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Gaurav Bawa, Senior Vice President India Group, WIKA

The German company Wika has been in operation for more than 75 years, and we have displayed all our solutions for our customers in Hannover. WIKA’s IIoT applications monitor vibration and predict failure at an early stage. This is the unique solution we aim to provide to our customers.

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Viswanath Kolur, Sr. Director, Industrial Innovation, Ericsson 

Ericsson is an infrastructure provider in the telecom industry. We provide all the mobile communication infrastructure for operators around the world. Ericson enables digitisation and addresses connectivity challenges by leveraging 5G as a core technology. We are here at Hannover to encourage customers to invest in 5G technology.

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Thomas Fechner, Member, Executive Board-Factory Automation, Bosch Rexroth.

This event is the most important when the whole industry brings together its innovations. It is the reason why Rexroth is very active in Hannover. Even the theme ‘Energising a sustainable industry’ suggests the same. This year, we are focusing on hydrogen. It is the most important strategy to become CO2-neutral in the world.

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Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Managing Board, Deutsche Messe AG

We have to believe in innovation and technology. Our slogan is to energise a sustainable industry. With that, we mean to reach out worldwide, which does not suffice for Germany. We run an industry that is sustainable and competitive. Hannover is covering AI, which is the means to use Al to increase productivity in the industry and the energy systems. Another aspect is the introduction of hydrogen on a large scale for the energy sector. We had 130,000 visitors from 150 countries trading ideas with around 4,000 exhibiting companies digitalising their value chains and making them more resilient.