All the actors related to Industry 4.0 have a renewed appointment with innovation that will give something to talk about. Its organizers have already defined it as the largest industrial automation and robotics fair in Southern Europe. The new Advanced Factories 2023 offers four congresses in one, where you can feel everything that concerns the present and future of the sector.
Both events, which will be held simultaneously from April 18 to 20 at the new location of Fira de Barcelona's Gran Vía venue, after six editions at the Barcelona International Convention Center (CCIB), will also offer the Industry 4.0 Congress and the Metal Industry 4.0 Congress. Forecasts indicate that more than 30,000 professionals will attend the event, from the automotive, metallurgy and iron and steel; cosmetics, chemical and pharmaceutical; electronics; packaging and logistics; textile; railway and naval; aeronautics and armaments; and food and beverages sectors.
More than 600 exhibiting firms will occupy the 35,000 square meters of halls 6 and 7 of the exhibition space, tripling the space that the congress had to date and announcing a new pavilion for the next edition. Madrid will be the industrial region invited to the 2023 edition.
From exhibiting firms such as Schneider Electric, HP, Mitsubishi Electric, Siemens, Tecnalia, Telefónica Tech or T-Systems, among others, visitors will be able to discover the latest developments in industrial automation systems, robotics, additive manufacturing, AI, digital twin, data analytics, cybersecurity and integrated production systems, as well as innovative solutions in cutting, starting, deformation, laser, drilling, milling, stamping, press and polishing machinery, among many other novelties.
The event will bring together suppliers, installers, financial institutions, administrations and SMEs, to which the congress gives special attention to facilitate the digital transformation of their businesses, organizing technological tours to show them the new solutions that can boost them.
New location and new biennial event
The seventh edition of Advanced Factories adds the Advanced Machine Tools (AMT), a new biennial event that, according to its president, Xabier Arrambarri, "was needed because it has been many years since Catalonia, Levante and Aragon did not have a fair like this one, dedicated to the metal-mechanical industry and professionals in the metal industry." The advanced manufacturing sector increased turnover by nearly 10% in 2022, to over 1.7 billion euros.
The new location in Gran Via of Fira de Barcelona allows the exponential growth of the congress because, on the one hand, "it will allow us to respond to the growing demand of companies interested in exhibiting, and that it was not possible to incorporate them due to the impossibility of growing inside the CCIB and, on the other hand, because of the simultaneous celebration of Advanced Factories with AMT", says Albert Planas, general director of the two events.
On the other hand, in five simultaneous auditoriums, more than 380 experts will show how the use of new technologies is essential to improve the efficiency of factories. Among the speakers who will participate in the different conferences are names such as Rosa Nieto, Director of Technical Services at Enagás; Xavier Sala-i-Martín, professor at Columbia University (USA); and Alicia Asín, CEO and co-founder of Libelium, who will present the situation and trends in the sector around the world, as well as best practices through their industrial experiences.
Óscar Iñigo, director of the Industry 4.0 Congress, highlights that in this edition of the congress, "interaction with AI and its use with criteria will be recurring topics of debate and, therefore, various experts in the sector will analyze how deep learning and tools such as ChatGPT can also be useful in the industry to help in operational tasks, marketing or even to solve problems or doubts about the operation of a machine".
In turn, the Metal Industry 4.0 Congress will be the framework where industrial experiences and success stories in the metal industry will be presented. Among other experts, Diego Galar, from the University of Lulea (Sweden) and advisor to leading machine tool manufacturers, will share the latest trends in the sector, such as condition monitoring, which offers predictive maintenance of the condition and safety of machines by combining real-time sensor data; the metaverse; and the machine community.
Connectivity, monitoring, cybersecurity, teleservice, virtual commissioning... There are many value propositions that have been incorporated into the industry in the last decade. "A few years ago, the competitiveness of industry was based on cheap labor, but this has changed and now, to be competitive, production processes have to be based on automation and robotics," says Salvador Giró, president of Advanced Factories and the Spanish Association of Robotics and Automation (AER). At AF-AMT they show the future of a new industry that is already underway.
This article was written with the support of the site verdiensthilfe24.de
