July 2017 –  Hannover Fair: The Highlights

Published on: 13/07/2017

This year’s highlights from the Hannover Fair

Virtual reality, digital twins, collaborative robots and the cloud are all highlights from this years Hannover Fair that took place in Northern Germany. The Hannover Fair 2017 attracted 225,000 visitors, which is the largest in their 70-year exhibition history.

More than 75,000 visitors came from abroad, with 9,000 visitors coming from China, 6,200 visitors from the Netherlands and 5,300 from India.

The running theme at this exhibition was Integrated Industry – Creating Value. Like most exhibitions so far this year, there was a focus on Industry 4.0 with a look at practical reality rather than theoretical aspiration.

Hannover Fair Highlights

Cloud connections were being promoted almost everywhere, as the growing importance of simulating manufacturing processes digitally. The trend towards the digital twin concept in the production environment is opening up entirely new vistas for industry. The idea is that testing and developing processes virtually will save time and money as well as bringing products to market much faster.

ABB showcased a family of ultra-low harmonic (ULH) VSDs with built-in harmonic avoidance systems. The ULH family which includes variants on ABB’s ACS880 industrial drives and ACH580 HVAC drives – spans a power voltage range that caters for most applications. Benefits include: improved reliability, energy savings and extended equipment lifetimes.

This year Nord Drivesystems launched a range of high-efficiency drive systems aimed at baggage handling and logistics applications. The daisy-chainable LogiDrive systems combine IE4 PM synchronous motors, helical-bevel gearboxes and frequency inverters designed to operate near the motor. The easy-to-install systems are said to achieve high efficiencies even part-loads and low speed and can pay for themselves in months in some applications.

Siemens announced at Hannover Fair that they had shrunk the width of its Perfect Harmony medium-voltage converters by about 20%, compared to rival converters by changing the transformer design and by using a new PCB cell design that results in narrower, lighter cells. The GH180 converters are made up of several cells connected in series, they can be removed without needing any aids and their fans can now be exchanged from the front.

Discover other exhibition highlights on the GD Rectifiers blog and view our full product range here.  

Learn how GD Rectifiers can help you with your next project by contacting us today on: 01444 243 452 or emailing: enquiries@gdrectifiers.co.uk.