Snow slows start of growing automation show

Winter came early to Central Europe and parts of Germany the past two years. In late November 1999, heavy snows added to travel hardships. "Chaos in the streets," in words of the local press, coincided with the start of Nürnberg's major late-fall event, SPS/IPC/Drives—the Electric Automation Technology Exhibition & Conference, held here Nov.

By Frank Bartos March 1, 2000

Winter came early to Central Europe and parts of Germany the past two years. In late November 1999, heavy snows added to travel hardships. “Chaos in the streets,” in words of the local press, coincided with the start of Nürnberg’s major late-fall event, SPS/IPC/Drives—the Electric Automation Technology Exhibition & Conference, held here Nov. 23-25, 1999. Snow delayed arrival of visitors, but only briefly. The show was back on track by the end of day one. Actually, SPS/IPC/Drives ’99 continued its positive track of growth with 16,400 visitors and 540 exhibitors on 30,000 m² of floor space. The statistics represent growth of 19%, 11%, and 20%, respectively, over the 1998 event. Besides automation and control systems, other “must see” technologies included electric drives; industrial data networks and fieldbuses; sensor, image processing, and machine vision systems; safety technologies; HMI; and a myriad of software for control, simulation, communication, etc. Broad-based integration to connect all these automation elements was also on display.

Frank Bartos, executive editor fbartos@cahners.com


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