Sercos User Conference builds on last year’s success
Sercos International e.V. issued an invitation to the second User Conference at the Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart, on 9 October. The event’s theme was automation technology in the automobile industry.
Peter Lutz, Managing Director of Sercos International, welcomed participants, which included users and providers from the automobile sector, plant and mechanical engineering, equipment and automation system manufacturers, system integrators and developers and presented the status and further development of the Sercos automation bus.
The subsequent keynote on trends in automation technology was held by Stefan Miksch, analyst at the ARC Advisory Group. Miksch identified and evaluated the trends as well as their significance for automation technology.
Prof. Dr.-Ing Bauernhansl from the Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Technology and Automation IPA, Stuttgart, picked up on one of the aforementioned trends in his presentation on the topic of Industry 4.0 & Information Driven Manufacturing. Besides the development of Industry 4.0, he also presented future production scenarios and their possible impact on companies.
Energy management, another key theme, was picked up on by Jens Bunsendal, High Performance Marketing Manager at Schneider Electric Automation. In his presentation Bunsendal explained the importance of energy aspects with machinery automation and among other things highlighted various options for saving potential.
The morning was closed by Horst Biedenbaender, Sales Product Support Tightening & Welding Systems at Bosch Rexroth, with a user report on the subject of “Car body engineering: the use of Sercos in robot welding systems”.
The afternoon provided an opportunity to attend various lectures at leisure. The variety of subjects included technology focused and also more general lectures on S/IP, IO link integration, OPC UA as a bridge between IT and automation , control from the Cloud, machine safety and simulation. The speakers included ISW/University of Stuttgart, Balluff, Bihl+Wiedemann, Bosch Rexroth B V, Schneider Electric Automation and Softing Industrial Automation.
Several breaks as well as the end to the afternoon provided an opportunity for lively discussion and networking.