Co-located shows set new attendance record The Plant & Asset Management Exhibition 2014 and the 4 co-located events – Drives & Controls, Air-Tech, Fluid Power & Systems and European Offshore & Energy show - held at the Birmingham NEC last week, set new attendance records
– despite a major accident closing the nearby M6 motorway for the whole of the first day of the show and preventing many potential visitors from reaching the NEC.
Over three days, the shows attracted 12,793 visitors – an increase of nearly 15% on the 11,146 who visited the previous event in 2012. The total number of exhibitors across the cluster of shows was 370 – around 100 more than at the previous event in 2012. And the four seminar theatres attracted a total audience of more than 1,000 people.
“The event looked and felt magnificent,” says Ian Atkinson, managing director of DFA Media, which organised the shows. “It attracted almost universal praise from the exhibitors,” he adds.
“The success was far beyond what we expected,” says Doug Devlin, sales director for the Drives exhibition. “There was a real buzz in the halls and the exhibitors reported good numbers of high-quality leads. Both the EPTDA and Gambica pavilions were very busy over the three days and both will be increased in size to accommodate more members for the 2016 show.
“The industry has clearly picked up,” he adds, “and there is a confidence in the manufacturing and engineering sectors that was reflected in the visitor footfall.”
The importance of the Plant & Asset Management Exhibition was also highlighted by the fact numerous condition monitoring companies announced new products and service launches at the event:
Azima DLI, a provider of predictive maintenance (PdM) analytical services and products partnered with Pragmatic Maintenance & Reliability and said it chose Plant & Asset Management 2014 to showcase its latest products and services. Azima DLI demonstrated the TRIO CX-10, the latest vibration data collector and machine condition analyser, as well as the Azima DLI WATCHMAN Reliability Portal.
Industrial Interface chose to launch its new wireless vibration monitoring. The system allows the real time live AC waveform of up to 8 standard vibration transmitters to be sent to a receiver located up to 200m away.
IRISS CEO, Martin Robinson, made a special trip to the UK to present a paper at Plant & Asset Management 2014, and to introduce the company’s brand new FlexIR system for isophase bus. This was the first time this product was seen publicly in Europe and IRISS had an important message for all visitors: ‘Good Safety is Good Business’, to prove the point the company marked its first ever appearance at this show with several new products designed to assure uninterrupted production without endangering personnel.
Strategic Maintenance announced the latest release of its RP Soptimizer maintenance solution and the first public viewing of its OMP system which is said to provide a unique and ground-breaking methodology to manage planned maintenance activities.
In addition to the many condition monitoring companies, the versatile nature of Plant & Asset Management, also included businesses such as Bosch Commercial and Industrial Heating – a manufacturer and provider of heating and hot water solutions. The company showcased its growing portfolio of high-efficiency technologies. While Dustcontrol UK showcased its latest centralised dust vacuum system at the show. The DC 11 Module is reported to be a complete central unit for source extraction and industrial cleaning.
The 2016 Plant & Asset Management Exhibition will take place at the NEC from 12–14 April.