By the end of August, a total of 950 companies had registered for the trade fair duo, 80 of them for Bondexpo and 870 for Motek. According to the organizer, the trade fair company Schall, Motek is also attracting more and more interest from suppliers and users from specialized or cross-sectoral business disciplines, such as sheet metal, plastics and wood processing, inspection/testing technology, packaging and order picking technology, as well as in-tralogistics and distribution. The reason: The overlapping processes and increasing degree of digitalization and automation, as well as the performance capabilities of modern, highly flexible and universally applicable handling and robot systems, open up new fields of activity for them almost daily.

As a supporting programme, Motek offers accompanying special show and forum events such as the 'Arena of Integration 2017', organized by the Baden-Württemberg Mechatronics Network, in which the integration capability of different core competencies of a value chain is realized using a personalized product. Eighteen companies are taking part, covering all aspects relevant to Industry 4.0, from process and system control to data management and edge cloud solutions. As part of Motek and Bondexpo, partner company Pilz is organizing the specialist forum "Safety + Automation". In six individual presentations, this will deal with the topics of "Implementation of the Industrial Safety Regulation and CE process" and "Safe human-robot collaboration". In addition, partner VDI will be holding the 'VDI Forum: Digitalization in Production', the partner VDI wants to create more understanding and more acceptance of digitalized production in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The special trade fair guides for 'Assembly system construction and robot system integrators' and 'Joining technology' will once again be available to help trade visitors plan their routes and provide targeted support.

Application of adhesives

Parallel to Motek, the accompanying Bondexpo will present bonding, sealing, insulating, foaming and potting technologies. According to the organizers, the increasing use of hybrid materials, fibre composites and composites opens up further application possibilities for these technologies.

Accordingly, it is often adhesives that make the joining and bonding of these materials possible. The focus here is primarily on the application of adhesives: in addition to economical and functional application, this must be emission-free, clean and residue-free. Multi-axis handling systems and, above all, industrial robots are suitable for this - something that will become clear at the two trade fairs.