Hannover Fair Day Three
Bosch Rexroth
I had seen most of the automation stands at the show by Wednesday morning. But I had an interview with Dr. Karl Tragl, chief executive officer of Bosch Rexroth. So it was time to get a broader vision of automation business.
Tragl pointed to several trends that were increasing during “The Crisis”–as the recent recession is called in Europe. First is the combination of increasing globalization and coordination within and among companies globally coupled with the increasing need for local support. Next is the increasing interaction of humans and machines. This is seen especially in safety but also the cost of production. The last–which reflects a trend seen everywhere this year at Hannover–energy and environment.
One global economic trend is the disparity in growth among regions. On the product side, there is increasing need to combine products into better overall solutions and to design with more than one dimension in mind. For example, Bosch Rexroth was demonstrating a combination electric servo and hydraulic system that not only reduced energy required for the process, but also reduced machine noise.
Bosch Rexroth has a goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2020. It has completed a pilot plant study within its organization and is, in fact, rolling out the findings to customers. A case study from France is due to be completed shortly.
Profi News
Profibus International, North America announced the addition of Bernie Anger from GE Intelligent Platforms as a new board member as GE-IP has announced that Profinet will be the backbone of its automation system henceforth.
ProfiEnergy was a hit at the show with many products on display.
OPC Foundation
The OPC Foundation Partner exhibition showed many working examples of the new OPC-UA specification. This has been a long time coming, but the results are beginning to be seen.
Wrap up
There is no doubt that energy consumption is a global problem. Every automation supplier is tackling it. How are you seeing it in your neck of the woods?
