productronica China 2019: Innovation for Smart Factory

On March 22, 2019, productronica China 2019 closed after three successful days. Along with electronica China 2019, the exhibition recorded historical figures in both exhibition space and the number of exhibitors.

The exhibition covered 90,000 square meters, 12.5 percent more than last year. A total of 1,586 exhibitors (2018: 1,374) from 24 countries and regions and 92,695 visitors (2018: 77,765) participated in the exhibition, up 15.4 percent and 19.2 percent respectively. The exhibition is an overall display of the rapid development of the electronics manufacturing industry driven by technological innovation and intelligent manufacturing.

Mr. Falk Senger, Managing Director of Messe Muenchen, confirmed the leading position of productronica China: “The Asia-Pacific region is an important base for the global electronics manufacturing industry, while productronica China is the most important innovation platform for the electronics manufacturing industry in Asia. This year, the number of exhibitors and visitors has set a new historical hight.’’

Innovations accelerate the digitalization of electronics manufacturing

A new round of industrial revolution is taking place to make factories smarter and more efficient. It has triggered profound changes in the development concept and manufacturing model of the electronics manufacturing industry. It is also reshaping the development path, technology setup and ecology of the industry as well as the trade show.

Talking about the ways to further upgrade the electronics manufacturing industry in China, Mr. Edwin Tan, CEO of Messe Muenchen Shanghai, said: “The transformation towards digital and intelligent manufacturing offers huge opportunities for the electronics industry. I am very pleased to see that productronica China has established itself as the leading platform for the industry to display and exchange innovative technologies.’’

The SMT Smart Factory Concept Area was again this year’s highlight with an upgraded concept of demonstration. Leading SMT companies, such as ASM, ERSA, EUROPLACER, FUJI, MYCRONIC, OMRON, PANASONIC, REHM and YAMAHA constructed bigger booths to showcase their new products, technology and smart factory solutions. Moreover, the entire processes of an unmanned factory are displayed, from warehousing, surface mounting, component installation, automatic cable shaping, coating, and testing to real-time data collection and transfer. Various applications in the automobile, consumer goods, aviation and aerospace industries are also demonstrated.

Mr. Jay Zhu, Product Marketing Manager China of ASM Assembly Systems Ltd. commented: “According to our analysis of the past exhibitions, the visitor number of productronica China has maintained steady growth, especially that of the SMT industry. This is very good news for us, because it means more professional visitors will come to the exhibition and learn about our solutions.”

Wire harness manufacturing embraces automation and intelligent production

The global automobile industry is undergoing a reconstruction phase, which undoubtedly gives strong impetus for the development of wire harness to enable intelligent and connected driving. productronica China is home to leading manufacturers of wire harness production and processing technology. Hebi Haichang, JAM, KOMAX, Schleuniger, ShinMaywa were among the many industrial leaders who showcased their cutting-edge innovation and solutions.

Mr. Tim Juta, Managing Director China of Komax (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. expressed: “It is very exciting to see almost everyone from the industry in one place and keep networking. The visitor flow is high, and we have worldwide customers in this exhibition. productronica China is a very important exhibition for us.”

Integrated automation sheds light on the future of electronics manufacturing

Electronic products are becoming smaller and smarter, meanwhile labor costs are increasing rapidly, so automation in the electronics manufacturing equipment is a must in the future. It is expected that the compound annual growth rate of automation products will be around 21 percent.

productronica China brought together automation companies to provide diversified solutions for electronics manufacturing factories. In addition to the traditional industrial robots and automation key players like FANUC, FESTO, HIWIN, and NACHI, the exhibition also features international collaborative robot manufacturers such as JAKA, Universal Robots, Our Robotics and intelligent mobile robot companies like MiR, Nanjiang, Seer and Standard. A new exhibition area for industrial sensors was created this year to host innovations from leading exhibitors as Bonner, Kebenlong, Kistler, and Pepperl+Fuchs.

Mr. Emil Hauch Jensen, VP of Sales in China of MiR Robots (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. pointed out: “This is our first time to join the productronica China, we join because we saw that this is a major leading exhibition in our industry and a fast growing one. We see a lot of interest from our customers. We also see customers being more mature and more knowledgeable about products. We are very happy with productronica China.”

productronica China 2019 provided integrated automation solutions for the electronics manufacturing industry and shared new ideas and concepts of “smart factory” to promote the upgrade to automatic electronic manufacturing.

High-quality forums address important topics of the future development

A series of technical forums, competitions and workshops were held along with the exhibition to create added-value for both exhibitors and visitors. Two new forums got high industrial attention. The “International Smart Manufacturing Ecosystem Summit 2019" featured experts from Huawei, Siemens, ADI and Broadcom by sharing their expertise on topics as smart manufacturing, digital twin, and AI-assisted industrial automation. The “China International SiP Forum” was also held for the first time to share expert talks from the SiP (System in Packaging) industry on the application and opportunities for EMS and IC enterprises. Other existing forums on flexible printed electronics, wire harness and adhesive technology were well attended and got positive resonance from the audience.

The next productronica China will take place in Shanghai on March 18-20, 2020.

Press contact

Katrina Dong
Project Executive
11th floor, PINGAN Fortune Tower, 1088 Yuanshen Road, 200122 Pudong New Area, Shanghai
+86 21 2020-5645
katrina.dong@mm-sh.com