The 2002 Motek event appeared to buck European trade exhibition trends by attracting almost 28,000 visitors.
The 2002 Motek event appeared to buck European trade exhibition trends by attracting almost 28,000 visitors. In addition, Motek secured more than 800 exhibiting companies keen to demonstrate their participation in the growing but increasingly competitive assembly and handling technology market. The undeniable Festo presence at this year's Motek exhibition wasn't confined to the company's own booth space.

Festo products and equipment were in evidence throughout the event on dozens of other stands - some as strategic Festo business partners, others as Festo customers - most notably the many system integrators and automation solution providers who select Festo as the automation component vendor of choice The 2002 Motek event appeared to buck European trade exhibition trends by attracting almost 28,000 visitors.

In addition, Motek secured more than 800 exhibiting companies keen to demonstrate their participation in the growing but increasingly competitive assembly and handling technology market.

The show also featured a newly built exhibition hall (Hall 6) to give more space, but even then, Nigel Dawson of Festo commented that the show was so busy on the second day that 'visitors were queuing to get onto the Festo stand'.

Festo exhibited an extensive range of handling and assembly technologies including actuators, valves, valve terminals, control systems, the innovative pneumatic muscle and its Didactic education and training resources.

In addition, the company unveiled several new products such as a new high speed picker (model HSP) and a new range of cost effective stepper motors and drivers (models MTR-ST and SEC-ST).

Dawson also reports that although there was a great deal of interest in new products there was particular interest in applications.

'More than any other event I've seen, Motek seems to be application driven,' says Dawson.

'That's compelling for the visitors as, rather than simply observing new products and thinking how they might apply them, they get to see the actual application.

In turn, it's good for exhibitors: we took orders on the stand!' The success of the event could be partly down to the location of Motek in a region of Germany that accounts for 40% of the country's GDP and is heavily populated with manufacturing industries focussing on automation.

Whatever the reason, even if Motek doesn't indicate an upturn in the european manufacturing economy, it clearly demonstrates the increasing interest in assembly and handling automation solutions.