Hannover Messe 2008

Motion, Drive & Automation draws positive balance Exhibitors extremely satisfied with run of show More then 95,000 professional attendees from around the world

Exhibitors at Motion, Drive & Automation (MDA) can look back on a highly successful show. Around 95,000 trade visitors attended the MDA show-within-a-show at HANNOVER MESSE 2007 (the Hannover Fair) to see all the latest state-of-the-art drive technology and fluid power systems. This represented a slight increase on the most recent MDA in 2005. The share of visitors from outside Germany was up seven percent, reaching 30,600 in absolute numbers. Of these, 15,000 came from EU countries and around 4,200 from the remaining Western and Eastern European nations. Around 3,500 visitors from North and South America as well as 6,700 Asians made the trip to Motion, Drive & Automation, thus documenting the high level of interest in those parts of the world in state-of-the-art, high-performance power transmission solutions.

In terms of industrial sectors, the share of visiting professionals from the capital goods sector at MDA was up 20 percent, with particularly strong participation coming from the mechanical and electrical engineering segments.

On the exhibitor side, the biannual MDA also revealed a slight plus compared with the most recent installment of the event in 2005. A total of 1,305 companies from 38 different nations exhibited their latest products in 2007. The top ten exhibiting nations were: Germany, Italy, China, Taiwan, the United States, India, the United Kingdom, France, Turkey and Spain.

The main highlight at MDA this year involved the Condition Monitoring Systems display, featuring exhibits by 28 companies. 20,000 visitors took advantage of the opportunity to view the latest CMS technology first-hand. The biggest attention-grabber was a car body production line for automatic handling and conveyor systems. Additional MDA themes included energy efficiency and Total Cost of Ownership, which were both covered extensively at the MDA forum as well as at the exhibitor stands.

According to a recent survey by the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), 78 percent of responding exhibitors plan to be back for MDA 2009, and 84.5 of these said they would occupy the same-sized stand. 93.2 of respondents considered MDA the world’s flagship show for power transmission and fluid power.

“This tradeshow was very successful for our members,” reported Hartmut Rauen, Member of the VDMA Executive Board with responsibility for power transmission and fluid power. “The power transmission segment alone chalked up orders of EUR 13.3 billion — an increase of 14 percent compared with 2005. In the first quarter of the current year our member firms registered a 27 percent jump in the volume of orders. To that extent their order books were already bulging before they made their way to Hannover. Motion, Drive & Automation however succeeded in giving the sector a further boost, so that we now assume this highly positive trend will continue beyond 2007,” he concluded.

The next Motion, Drive & Automation takes place within the scope of HANNOVER MESSE 2009.

About HANNOVER MESSE (the Hannover Fair)
The world’s leading showcase for industrial technology is staged annually at the Hannover Exhibition Center in Hannover, Germany. The next HANNOVER MESSE will be staged from 21 to 25 April 2008, with Japan as its official Partner Country. The lineup of flagship fairs taking place under the umbrella of HANNOVER MESSE 2008 is as follows:
INTERKAMA+ • Factory Automation • Industrial Building Automation • Digital Factory • Subcontracting • Energy • Pipeline Technology • Power Plant Technology • MicroTechnology • Research & Technology
In 2008 the spotlight will be on the fields of industrial automation, energy technology and subcontracting, as well as on cutting-edge technologies.