HANNOVER MESSE 2012: Technology meets progress

The next HANNOVER MESSE (Fig. 1) will be held from 23.– 27.04.2012, 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 and 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.

2012 sees the premiere of IndustrialGreenTec, the new trade fair for environmental technology. Focussing on trends and solutions for sustainable industrial production, “greentelligence” will be the recurrent theme throughout ­HANNOVER MESSE. Sustainability and efficiency are increasingly at the center of industrial development around the world. Assessments of companies’ performance no longer focus purely on commercial factors, but also take into account their use of energy and raw materials. Today’s investors clearly favor enterprises that use sustainable and efficient technologies. Exhibitors from various industrial sectors will demonstrate how the smart integration of efficient processes, ecofriendly materials and sustainable products will drive future market growth (Fig. 2).

Electric motors offer enormous scope for boosting energy efficiency. According to estimates by the Association of German Engineers (VDI), some 300 million electric motors are currently in use around the world – a number which the Association suggests is rising by 10 % each year. The VDI believes that energy consumption in industrial operations can be reduced by as much as 30 % through the use of intelligent energy automation systems, modern energy transmission technologies and state-of-the-art electrical engineering components. According to the VDI, the demand-side savings will come from variable-speed drives. The latest expert analyses indicate that the use of these kinds of intelligent motor control systems can potentially save some 1.7 billion kWh of electricity worldwide – the equivalent of the annual output of 290 nuclear reactors. Given the growing importance of sustainable efficiency, this year’s HANNOVER MESSE will also see the debut of a new flagship fair that is dedicated to this very issue, IndustrialGreenTec. Here, companies will present state-of-the-art solutions, processes, machines and energy efficiency concepts that help industrial enterprises change over to “green production systems.” “IndustrialGreenTec is a platform for efficiency solutions that are developed by industry for industry. Its keynote themes include environmentally compatible production processes, the circular economy and recycling, systems for the efficient use of renewable energy and renewable materials, and solutions for measuring and monitoring pollutants and harmful substances,” said Wolfram von Fritsch, Chairman of the Managing Board of Deutsche Messe. “IndustrialGreenTec is the perfect complement to the array of themes covered at HANNOVER MESSE, and its debut is extremely timely given this year’s keynote theme of “greentelligence.””

China is the featured Partner Country at HANNOVER MESSE 2012. On 22.04.2012 the Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Wen Jiabao, will open HANNOVER MESSE together with the Chancellor of the Federal ­Republic of Germany, Dr. Angela Merkel. The People’s Republic will take this opportunity to present its extensive modernization program. The Chinese business community is now devoting top priority to smart sustainability solutions. “China’s Partner Country showcase will focus on intelligent manufacturing processes, sustainable energy generation, intelligent electricity grids and eMobility. HANNOVER MESSE will enable our Chinese partners to put the spotlight on the dramatic changes taking place in the Chinese economy and develop new markets,” explained von Fritsch. “Thanks to the strong development in its domestic economy, the People’s Republic has become a major partner for western industry in numerous high-tech sectors.”