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The EMO Milano 2009 exhibition was even more eagerly anticipated than usually. The visitors expected to learn much about the future of the manufacturing industry in Europe as well as about the current survival strategies.
The visitors were in good mood and had high hopes for the future. More than 125 000 guests and media representatives visited the exhibition this year, and 41% of the visitors were from outside Europe. The number of visitors was down only 25% compared to the previous exhibition.
EU technology decision makers among the visitors
Based on the number of people who visited our stand, I'm happy to say that Fastems is clearly becoming better known in Europe. The role of automation in the manufacturing industry is becoming more and more important, and our solutions generated the interest they deserve.
We also had the pleasure of entertaining significant visitors from the European Commission, as Dr. Jose-Lorenzo Vallés Brau and Dr. Andrea Gentili had selected Fastems' stand as one of the ten stands they visited. They represent the highest level of decision-making on technology programs in the European Union: Dr. Vallés Brau is the Head of New generation products unit in the Industrial technologies directorate, and Dr. Gentili, who was also one of the speakers at the Tampere Manufacturing Summit last summer, is in charge of the Factories of the future program.
We used our three-pointer clock to demonstrate the large amount of unused manufacturing potential to our visitors. This potential can be taken into use to keep manufacturing profitable in Europe in the future as well. Our visitors from the European Commission were interested in our solutions and watched our 12-minute Fastems MLS video from start to finish, even though such guests are usually always in a hurry to the next meeting. The visit was especially significant considering that Fastems, the market leader of automation systems in Europe, was one of just ten visited exhibitors selected from the 1 400 candidates.
New products
Fastems' main highlight at the exhibition was the revolutionary, easy-to-use FastWizard touch screen user interface. The new standard user interface for the Easy Automation RPC-20G robot cells is so easy to use that you can master it after a short introduction. Some of our own staff created programs with FastWizard at the exhibition without ever using it before. Our visitors also rated FastWizard as the most interesting product at Fastems' stand. The user interface was praised as easy, simple, and tremendously fast.
We also showcased another Easy Automation product: the FPC, Flexible Pallet Container, which was integrated with a Deckel Maho DMC 65 H horizontal machining center. The new model year FPC comes with a number of features that further improve its reliability. These features include more sophisticated remote support capability and a master controller that can be used in more demanding environments. Our stand also featured Fastems Fadector, an automated data collection system that provides information on the availability and utilization rate of machine tools and robot cells, and a demo of the Fastems FPM (Flexible Pallet Magazine) user interface with a new touch screen user interface for loading stations – a further improvement to the already ergonomic product family!
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