The Trentino-based mechatronics at Hannover Messe, the biggest fair on Industry 4.0

[Press release by Trentino Sviluppo]

Great interest for Trentino-based mechatronics at Hannover Messe, the largest global event on Industry 4.0, which is currently underway in Germany. The Consul General of Hannover, Giorgio Taborri, was the guest of the Trentino stand today. With a space of about 130 square meters and a busy schedule of business meetings, Trentino Sviluppo, with Polo Meccatronica and the ProM Facility laboratories, and Fondazione Bruno Kessler are the ambassadors of the mechatronics innovation system of the Autonomous Province of Trento, together with some Trentino-based companies in the sector. The model of the Mechatronics Hub, made in the laboratories of the ProM Facility with the most modern prototyping and 3D printing technologies, was exhibited at the fair for the first time. The institutional and commercial meetings scheduled for the six days of the fair also have the objective of forging alliances with important European mechatronics clusters to jointly develop technologies and offer new opportunities for companies and for the Trentino system.

With 225 thousand visitors in 2017 and the presence of the major players in mechanics and mechatronics worldwide, Hannover Messe (Germany) is the leading event in the industry. This year’s mechatronic supply chain has chosen to attend the event with a reserved stand in which to talk about how Industry 4.0 is developing in the Autonomous Province of Trento and what are the active synergies, of which the ProM Facility laboratories of Rovereto, managed by Trentino Sviluppo with Fondazione Bruno Kessler, University of Trento and Confindustria of Trentino, are the symbol.

The fair was inaugurated on Sunday 22, in the presence of Chancellor Angela Merkel, and will close on April 27. Together with Trentino Sviluppo and Fondazione Bruno Kessler, there are six local companies that have responded to the Trentino Sviluppo call: Capi Group of Calliano, Dana Rexroth Transmission Systems of Arco (of the Dana Holding Corporation and Bosch Rexroth AG), Meccanica Cainelli of Volano, Metal Working of Pergine Valsugana, OCLab of Rovereto (Polo Meccatronica) and OMP Piccinelli of Darzo di Storo. Companies represented also include Bonfiglioli, a multinational company present in Rovereto since 2011.

Hannover Messe was the occasion for the first public exhibition of the model made by a team of six students aged between 24 and 29 from the degree course in Building Engineering Architecture of the University of Trento, members of the Acropoli University Association. With the collaboration of the staff of the ProM Facility of Polo Meccatronica and the possibility of using the cutting-edge machinery of this laboratory, the university team created a model of the Mechatronics Hub depicting the perspective of the area, including the schools, the new laboratories and production plants that are to be built soon.

The plastic model has a surface of 1.5 x 1.2 meters and is to 1: 400 scale. It required a month of planning and two weeks of laboratory work to make it. Starting from 3D models, the buildings of the area as well as the 72 trees that surround them have been rendered with the preparation of over one thousand aluminum sheets, all diffferent from one another, that were laser-cut starting from about 10 square meters of material. Plexiglass was used for the surrounding area and the bases of the buildings while the base was made of wood.