- International Intelligent Manufacturing Conference brings together American, Chinese and German politicians

Since the launch of the initiative "Made in China 2025”, smart manufacturing stands at the top of China’s agenda for modernizing its industry. This was evident at Industrial Automation BEIJING, North China’s leading trade fair for industrial automation, which recorded solid growth during its 11–13 May 2016 run at the Beijing Exhibition Center: 210 exhibiting companies (2015:203) presented themselves to 17,600 visitors (2015: 16,700). The exhibition covered 22,000 square meters (2015: 20,000).

Sixty-five percent of exhibitors where foreign, coming from countries such as Austria, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States. Big names included Balluff, B&R Automation, Cognex, EPLAN, Harting, ifm electronic, Koyo, Rittal, and Weidmüller. Industrial Automation BEIJING also hosted the PROFINET Summit Forum, an area dedicated to integrated automation and plant systems where companies such as GE, Phoenix Contact, Red Lion Controls, SAP, and Siemens presented live Industrie 4.0 demonstrations.

The International Intelligent Manufacturing Conference on Wednesday, 11 May, compared China’s "Made in China 2025”, Germany’s "Industrie 4.0"and the United States’ "Industrial Internet"initiatives. Miao Wei, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology, announced China’s plans to further develop key sectors such as logistics, robotics and sensors. Burkhard Ducoffre, counselor at the German Embassy in Beijing, and Val Huston, principle commercial officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, also spoke. The afternoon session featured three plenaries: "Strategy and Policy of Intelligent Manufacturing Development”, "Contents and Systems of Intelligent Manufacturing"and "Practice and Paths of Intelligent Manufacturing”.

"Beijing is not only North China’s industrial hub; it is also a base of tremendous political support for smart manufacturing,"said Wolfgang Pech, senior vice president at Deutsche Messe AG. "This was clear at the conferences, which brought together representatives from China, Germany and the U.S. to compare and exchange ideas about modern manufacturing, as well as on the show floor, where many exhibitors presented not only separate products and services, but also complete automated solutions.”

Industrial Automation Beijing is organized by Deutsche Messe’s subsidiary in China, Hannover Milano Fairs China Ltd, and sponsored by the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society. The event belongs to Deutsche Messe’s HANNOVER MESSE Worldwide portfolio, which includes events in China, India, Turkey, and the United States. Industrial Automation BEIJING 2017 is scheduled for 10–12 May.