It will probably be the biggest AMB in the history of the International Exhibition for Metalworking. More than 1,500 exhibitors have registered for the industry get-together from September 18 to 22, 2018 at the Stuttgart Exhibition Center. They will be showcasing their latest developments in the field of metalworking on a gross exhibition area of more than 120,000 m². Ulrich Kromer von Baerle, CEO of Messe Stuttgart, is delighted with the good prospects for the trade fair: "With the new Paul Horn Hall, the AMB Digital Way special show and the accompanying congress, we have created the best conditions for making AMB 2018 even bigger and better."

New hall, thematic reorganization

Kromer is particularly pleased about the new Paul Horn Hall (Hall 10), which provides a total of around 15,000 m² of new exhibition space. This has made it possible to meet the demand from exhibitors. It also enables a revised thematic distribution of AMB. Halls 1 (L-Bank Forum) and 3 will feature machining tools and clamping devices, while in Halls 4 and 6 (Oskar Lapp Hall) the trade fair planners have focused on lathes and automatic lathes, and in Hall 5 on grinding and tool grinding machines and the associated peripherals. In the Alfred Kärcher Hall (Hall 8), everything revolves around innovations in sawing and cut-off machines, surface technology, marking systems, hardening and heating machines, lubrication and cooling as well as safety and environmental technology. Halls 7, 9 and 10 round off the program with milling machines, metal-cutting machine tools, measuring technology and quality assurance as well as flexible manufacturing cells/systems, machining centers and gear cutting and drilling machines. Suppliers of control and drive technology, CAD/CAM/CAE and manufacturing software can now be found directly at the East Entrance and Hall 2 at the entrance to the exhibition grounds.

Special show Digital Way

However, the thematic reorganization is not the only new feature of AMB 2018. The trade fair organizers are addressing the megatrend of digitalization with the special show "Digital Way". "With this new format, AMB is underlining its position as the leading trade fair for the metalworking industry. Everyone is talking about digitalization - with the Digital Way, we want to show how business and production processes can be optimized in concrete terms and what digital business models are available," says Kromer, explaining the background.

Ulrich Kromer von Baerle, Managing Director and spokesman for Messe Stuttgart, at the AMB trade press conference. © Stuttgart Trade Fair Center

Digitalization holds enormous potential, and not just for German SMEs. On the way to Industry 4.0, the degree of automation is gradually being increased. As a result, higher sales can be achieved with lower process costs. More and more companies in the machining industry are also going digital. Kromer: "Mechanical and plant engineering in Germany is one of the strongest industries both nationally and internationally. This position must be strengthened and further expanded. This can only be achieved through a head start in digitalization in the course of Industry 4.0. With the AMB special show Digital Way, we want to bring this topic even more into the focus of the machining industry and meet the high demand for information."

At the moment, robots in production are mainly found in this form: as driverless transport systems in intralogistics. But this will change in the future. © Paul Horn

The Digital Way special show, which is taking place for the first time, is also accompanied by a two-day congress. The congress, which addresses both business processes and business models in the context of digitalization, was developed in close cooperation with the Software and Digitalization Association of the German Engineering Federation VDMA. At the exhibition, a wide range of companies will provide information on the possibilities and opportunities arising from the digital transformation in areas such as business model development, product and software development, production and services. Gunnar Mey, Head of the Industry Department at Messe Stuttgart, explains: "Companies want to know how Industry 4.0 and the digitalization of processes can be implemented. Which providers have already successfully implemented projects? Which applications or models are available and which are relevant for the respective company? With the Digital Way at AMB 2018, we are bringing together solution-oriented offers and demand."

Digitization and data

However, digital transformation does not only play a central role at the special show. Exhibitors in the other exhibition halls will also be informing trade visitors and customers about digitalization, how it can be implemented in production and what challenges users will still face.