Watch Sawyer the intelligent robot as he loads, packs and checks
Almost 90 percent of all manufacturing tasks cannot yet be performed by conventional robots. But there is an alternative. At HANNOVER MESSE 2016, Rethink Robotics from this year's partner country the USA is showcasing its high-performance intelligent robot called Sawyer. It was developed with the aim of making automation more interactive, safe and cost-effective.

Sawyer’s seven degrees of freedom make it extremely agile and thoroughly adaptable to real-world variability in the production area. It weighs 19 kilograms and has a reach of up to 1,260 millimeters, which enables it to work both in tight spaces and at work cells designed for humans. Its compliant motion helps it "feel" its way into fixtures or machines. Sawyer is capable of learning and achieves an entirely new level of repeatability for the robotics sector, accurate to +/-0.1 millimeters. It can even be used in close proximity to human "colleagues" without any concerns. During HANNOVER MESSE 2016, Sawyer will be performing machine loading, packing and checking tasks.

Rethink Robotics, Inc.
27-43 Wormwood Street
Boston, MA 02210
USA
Tel.: +1 617 500-2487
Fax: +1 617 812-0448
www.rethinkrobotics.com

Contact at HANNOVER MESSE 2016:
Jim Lawton
Hall 17, Stand D11
E-mail: jlawton@rethinkrobotics.com

Matrix humidifier makes operations virtually pain-free
Minimally invasive surgery is really a wonderful thing. Keyhole surgery allows patients to recover more quickly from just small incisions made for inserting endoscopes and surgical instruments. The new matrix humidifier that Esslingen University of Applied Sciences is exhibiting at HANNOVER MESSE 2016 should soon mean an end to post-operative problems from these kinds of procedures, too.

What prompted this initiative? To enlarge the surgeon’s field of vision and working area during keyhole surgery, the visceral cavity is often extended by means of an insufflator with carbon dioxide gas. The problem is that the CO2 dehydrates the tissue, and this causes post-operative problems. Warming and humidifying the carbon dioxide can significantly reduce patients’ perception of pain and their recovery time - and this is just what the university’s new matrix humidifier system does.

Hochschule Esslingen
Campus Göppingen
Fakultät Mechatronik und Elektrotechnik
Kanalstrasse 33
73728 Esslingen
Germany
Tel.: +49 711 397-49
Fax: +49 711 39731-00
www.hs-esslingen.de

Contact at HANNOVER MESSE 2016:
Ralf Colin
Hall 2, Stand A18, co-exhibitor with Baden-Württemberg International
E-mail: Ralf.Colin@hs-esslingen.de

Micro CHP plants save up to 25 percent energy
Generating electricity and heat more efficiently is a very effective way of reducing energy consumption. This has boosted the popularity of combined heat and power plants (CHP), which make direct use of the thermal energy produced during electricity generation to heat buildings - a principle known as cogeneration. Slovenian manufacturer Indop is showcasing efficient CHP solutions at HANNOVER MESSE 2016.

Indop is exhibiting micro CHPs that combine compact design with low exhaust gas emissions and an excellent energy efficiency rating (A+++). It explains that these plants reduce energy consumption by up to 25 percent by also making immediate use of the waste heat from generating the electricity. Alternatively, the operator can sell this thermal energy by feeding it into a local heating network. Indop is exhibiting units ranging from six to 20 kilowatts, but its full portfolio extends up to ten megawatts generated by either bio-, natural or liquid gas (LPG). The company can therefore cover a wide range of needs, from private domestic users to large premises where big areas need heating, such as offices and business premises, industrial operations, hospitals, administrative buildings and sports facilities.

Indop d.o.o.
Primorska Cesta 6a
3325 Sostanj
Slovenia
Tel.: +386 3 899-1805
Fax: +386 3 899-7398
www.gorenje-indop.si

Contact at HANNOVER MESSE 2016:
Matjaz Koradej
Hall 27, Stand J50, (5)
E-mail: matjaz.koradej@gorenje.com

The world’s fastest manufacturer of prototypes and production parts is attending HANNOVER MESSE 2016
Additive manufacturing opens up entirely new avenues for manufacturing parts – particularly when it comes to prototypes and small series. The process adds material layer-by-layer to construct a part based on digital 3D construction data. This process sets the stage for design-driven manufacturing in which the form determines the manufacture rather than vice versa. Proto Labs - the world's fastest manufacturer of custom prototypes and low-volume production parts - is demonstrating the special potential of 3D printing at HANNOVER MESSE 2016.

The huge range of options unleashed by 3D printing forms the heart of the company’s exhibit. This US company with offices in the United Kingdom, Germany and France offers stereolithography (SL) using liquid plastics, selective laser sintering (SLS) for technical polyamide components and direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) for dense metal parts. All of these processes aid the fast manufacture of prototypes and the construction of complex designs and multi-component assemblies. Proto Labs has recently expanded its range of materials to include optical silicon. Transparent like glass, the silicon is lighter and less fragile, which makes it particularly attractive for use in the automobile industry and medical technology.

Proto Labs Ltd.
Halesfield 8
Telford
Shropshire TF7 4QN
United Kingdom
Tel.: +44 1952 683-047
Fax: +44 1952 683-048
www.protolabs.co.uk

Contact at HANNOVER MESSE 2016:
Tobias Fischer
Hall 7, Stand B34
Mobil: +49 170 5727-539
E-mail: tobias.fischer@protolabs.de

Crystal-clear thermal images
Visitors to the InfraTec stand at HANNOVER MESSE 2016 can get a look at the world's first radiometric calibratable thermal imaging camera, the ImageIR® 10300 with a cooled detector of 1,920 x 1,536 IR pixels. The crystal-clear thermal images it produces look almost like black and white photos.

The approx. 3 megapixel geometric resolution of the ImageIR® 10300 substantially increases the efficiency of testing extremely small micron-sized structures on large targets. A further advantage of this innovative development lies in the outstanding thermal sensitivity achieved with the use of large opening-width apertures. This makes the camera well suited for the most sophisticated measurement and inspection tasks in industry, research and development. Users in these fields also benefit from the 10 Gigabit Ethernet interface, which transmits data ten times faster to a computer than a conventional GigE interface. The speed of ten Gbit/s provides much clearer image rates for measurements in complete picture mode. For example, the ImageIR® 10300 achieves an image rate of up to 100 Hz for complete picture transmission. The state-of-the-art fiber-optic connection ensures complete resilience to electromagnetic disturbances and supports transmission ranges from several meters up to ten kilometers.

InfraTec GmbH
Infrarotsensorik und Messtechnik
Gostritzer Strasse 61-63
01217 Dresden
Germany
Tel.: +49 351 871-8620
Fax: +49 351 871-8727
www.infratec.de

Contact at HANNOVER MESSE 2016:
Andrea Krauss
Hall 17, Stand E62
E-mail: presse@infratec.de

MyCapp keeps Industry 4.0 under wraps
Thanks to Industry 4.0, a mechanical engineer, for example, working from home can add the finishing touches to a prototype, send the data for the model to the 3D printer in the workshop and then turn his attention to his family. The only question that really arises is how to protect the communication path between his home office and the 3D printer in the workshop from eavesdroppers. Visitors to HANNOVER MESSE 2016 can find the answer at the stand run by digitronic computersysteme gmbH and discover the role that the company’s innovative MyCapp solution has to play in all this.

digitronic deems MyCapp a unique concept for integrating mobile end devices and ensuring digital confidentiality in Industry 4.0 landscapes. MyCapp relocates privacy to a logical level that is not dependent on the device or operating system. After all, our mechanical engineer should be free to practice his profession, work in an uncompromised environment and adapt his working methods to suit his chosen location.

digitronic computersysteme gmbh
Oberfrohnaer Strasse 62
09117 Chemnitz
Germany
Tel.: +49 371 81539-0
Fax: +49 371 81539-900
www.digitronic.net

Contact at HANNOVER MESSE 2016:
Matthias Kirchhoff
Hall 3, Stand B06, co-exhibitor with futureSAX
Cellphone: +49 176 181 539 01
E-mail: mk@digitronic.net

Radar scanner equips robots with 360° vision
Industry 4.0 is hardly conceivable without interaction between humans and machines, and the trend is moving toward industrial robots that operate without protective barriers. It goes without saying that humans must not be endangered at any point in time. To ensure this, laser scanners constantly monitor the hazard zone and halt a machine if a person gets too close. However, optical sensors don’t always achieve reliable results under varying light conditions - and when smoke, dust or fog get in the way, they "give up the ghost" entirely. At HANNOVER MESSE 2016, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF are proposing their compact, modular-design 360° radar scanner as the solution to this problem.

The radar works with millimeter waves that are reflected by the objects to be observed, such as people. Transmitted and received signals are processed and evaluated using numerical algorithms. These calculations make it is possible to determine the distance, position and speed of the objects. If several radar units are used, an object's location in the room can also be determined, along with its direction of movement. And because the IAF's 360° radar can also penetrate optically opaque material, it can spot an employee even if there are boxes, cardboard walls or other obstacles in the way. The system's range of operation is dependent on the application and can be up to several hundred meters. The scanner includes an Ethernet interface and is therefore eminently suitable for Industry 4.0 applications.

Fraunhofer-Institut für Angewandte Festkörperphysik IAF
Tullastrasse 72
79108 Freiburg
Germany
Tel.: +49 761 5159-0
Fax: +49 761 5159-400
www.iaf.fraunhofer.de

Contact at HANNOVER MESSE 2016:
Christian Zech
Hall 2, Stand C22, co-exhibitor with Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
E-mail: christian.zech@iaf.fraunhofer.de