Growing interconnectivity to be a focus at Fakuma 2020
Fakuma 2020 is set to take place in Friedrichshafen from the 13th-17th of October, 2020.
Organisers believe for the eighth year in a row, manufacturers of plastics processing machines are experiencing unbroken further growth, underscoring the industry sector’s technological expertise.
Beyond this, digitalisation and interconnectivity, ongoing process integration and system solutions for machines and peripherals necessitate a continuous dialogue between machine manufacturers and plastic processors.
Due to intelligent assistance systems and wide-ranging vertical integration, self-optimising solutions are more than just a vision in the meantime.
For certain tasks they’ve already become reality and visitors marvelled at them during Fakuma 2018, according to a Fakuma insider.
“But there’s still a lot of ground to cover until wide-spread networking has been implemented,” says an insider, “and the direction things will actually take with Industry 4.0, IoT and the digital transformation will probably first become apparent at Fakuma 2020.”
Thorsten Ratzmann, CEO at Pöppelmann, explained: “As a material which can be processed in numerous ways, plastic has fallen into disrepute in the meantime and the plastics industry has a serious reputation problem.”
He adds: “For many people – so it would appear at first glance – plastic has a negative connotation and its use must be reduced in the future. This may indeed be an enticing goal, but in reality it contradicts the truth – a fact which was demonstrated at Fakuma 2018. Plastic must and will always be made use of for a more sustainable future.”