In the fourth quarter of 2018, order bookings at the German machine tool industry fell by 13 per cent compared to the preceding year’s equivalent period. Domestic orders slumped by 28 per cent. Orders from abroad were down by four per cent. For 2018, the overall rise was one per cent. Domestic orders were up by five per cent, while export orders finished at the preceding year’s level.

“The decrease in orders during the year’s fourth quarter is attributable primarily to the baseline effect,” comments Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director of the sectoral organisation VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association) in Frankfurt am Main, in assessing the result. “The preceding year’s equivalent period showed an exceptionally steep rise, particularly in Germany itself. It was hardly to be expected that it would be topped again,” he goes on to explain. Nonetheless, the worldwide turbulences of trade conflicts and market foreclosures, from the prospect of a presumptively chaotic Brexit to the dismantling of numerous arms control agreements, are now also being reflected in uncertainty among investors. In the third quarter of 2018, there were already signs that orders were beginning to slacken.

At the end of the year, it was only the euro states that had currently proved able to achieve substantial growth, while all other groupings, domestic, total exports, and non-euro nations, showed double-figure decreases.

“The downturn in orders indicates that the situation will ease in the months ahead,” says Dr. Schäfer of the VDW. “At present, full capacity utilisation, a shortage of skilled workers, and bottlenecks in material deliveries are putting a brake on production, and leading to longer delivery times,” explains Dr. Schäfer in conclusion.

Overall, 2018 ended for the machine tool manufacturers with a new record in terms of production output, which rose by seven per cent to reach more than 17 billion euros.

Background

The German machine tool industry ranks among the five largest specialist groupings in the mechanical engineering sector. It provides production technology for metalworking applications in all branches of industry, and makes a crucial contribution towards innovation and enhanced productivity in the industrial sector as a whole. Due to its absolutely key role for industrial production, its development is an important indicator for the economic dynamism of the industrial sector as such. In 2018, with around 73,000 employees (annual average in 2018, companies with more than 50 employees), the sector produced machines and services worth around 17 billion euros.

Lessmann, Germany, is a leading manufacturer of high quality technical brushes, which are used in various applications. Especially in the pipeline construction brushes play a decisive role.

In the tube and pipeline industry knotted wheel brushes are used for devarnishing tubes. Usually the external surface of steel pipelines is coated with epoxy resin and several polypropylene or polyethylene layers, which protect against corrosion below ground. Before the welding procedure when the tubes are connected, the coating of the tube needs to be removed completely at the tube ends.

For treating the layers effectively usually several brush segments, so called cut back rings, are mounted together to get one massive block of wheel brushes. Diameter of the brush, wire thickness and the overall shape of the brush are defined by the sizes of the tube, the material of the layers and the cut back machine in use.

Lessmann offers brushes up to a diameter of 500 millimetres; the standard filling material is hard drawn high tensile wire. All production steps are controlled by CNC machines of the latest generation to receive highest quality for maximum life time.

Next to cut back brushes Lessmann offers other several brushes for the pipeline industry, for example brushes for cleaning weld seams or brushes for special cleaning systems to work on the inside of tubes.

Using Lessmann brushes is very effective and time saving. High quality wire and strict quality checks guarantee an excellent brushing result and a long service life. Due to decades of experience in the pipeline industry Lessmann has routine in this field and ensures an eminent brushing result for any application.

The capacity of a large tube bending machine with the compact dimensions of a smaller one – For particularly challenging components, Schwarze-Robitec combines the benefits of two different machines in the CNC 80/60 E TB MR. The Cologne-based manufacturer of tube bending machines has successfully commissioned two of these fully electric multiple-radius tube bending machines featuring transport boost technology at automotive supplier Eberspächer’s site in Portugal. As one of the world’s leading system developers and suppliers of exhaust technology, Eberspächer utilises the energy-efficient machines from Schwarze-Robitec’s High Performance series to manufacture tubes for complex exhaust systems.

International emissions standards require manufacturers to lower fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions, reinforcing the need for increasingly efficient systems to reduce pollution from cars and commercial vehicles. It’s a challenge that Eberspächer faces at its Exhaust Technology product unit. The company designs efficient systems for exhaust gas post treatment – ranging from conventional mufflers to highly complex purification technology. In manufacturing, this not only requires the use of lightweight and thin materials, but also the short cycle times and high speeds that are typical for the automotive industry – and on top of that a large degree of process security. With the two new CNC 80/60 E TB MR tube bending machines supplied by Schwarze-Robitec, the company is now perfectly equipped to tackle these challenges at its production site in Tondela, Portugal.

Intermediate size delivers high bending performance and process security

With the CNC 80/60 E TB MR, Schwarze-Robitec is combining two special requirements in one machine: As an intermediate size, it features the bending head transmission and thus the bending capacity of a CNC 80. In addition, its vertical multiple-radius construction matches that of a more compact CNC 60 – as Eberspächer processes tubes with diameters of no more than 50 millimetres (1,97 inch). This enables the company to produce its challenging exhaust technology components with a sufficient level of machine performance and high process security yet in a cost-efficient manner. By supplying tube bending machines like these, Schwarze-Robitec is displaying its flexibility in addressing the individual requirements of its clients.

When it comes to purchasing new machines for its sites in Europe, Eberspächer has been placing its trust in Schwarze-Robitec for years. Its production facility in Tondela is now for the first time equipped with machines featuring cutting-edge NxG control systems – these are up to 35 percent faster in operation than machines without NxG control systems.

Intelligent, predictive maintenance in accordance with industry 4.0 standards is no more a thing of tomorrow. The new Vibguard® IIoT by Pruftechnik with 16 analog channels for online machine and plant monitoring has an MQTT interface allowing it to be integrated seamlessly in the “Internet of Things” (IIoT = Industrial Internet of Things). The major advantages of the MQTT protocol include global data availability at all times, reduced data volume, and improved data security. Pruftechnik is therefore one of the first condition monitoring system manufacturers worldwide to offer this globally networked technology.

In addition to the standard modbus TCP interface, the new Vibguard® IIoT now features an MQTT interface as well. This opens the world of the “Internet of Things” to permanent online machine monitoring. The online condition monitoring system can be fully networked via a broker-client structure. Vibration measurement data is provided in a standardized manner and can be used seamlessly by other machines and programs (e.g. IBM Watson or Microsoft Azure). As a result, vibration measurement data can be directly linked with other measurement data (e.g. weather, flow rate, etc.) thanks to machine learning programs, for example. Evaluating such data allows machine and production processes to be sustainably improved.

Measurement data can be scaled effortlessly thanks to the “Publish-Subscriber” principle. The user is only shown the data that is really relevant via a “Tweet” (similar to Twitter). At the same time, live visualization is possible, too.

With the conversion to the MQTT protocol, Pruftechnik is entering the era of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The new Vibguard® IIoT with 16 analog channels is already fully equipped for the new era of industry 4.0.

The intelligent Vibguard® IIoT system guarantees that only the smallest amount of data required for continuous machine monitoring is saved. This reduces the strain on the existing IT network many times over and therefore reduces data storage and transmission costs in a sustainable manner. The MQTT protocol contains the latest security standards.

The new Vibguard® IIoT with 16 analog channels was developed especially for continuous online condition monitoring of stand-alone machines: Pumps, conveyor belts, fans, mixers, compressors, centrifuges etc. Thanks to its wide range of configuration options, it can be used in tower cranes and turbo compressors or other such applications, too.

For global data availability Pruftechnik supplies the browser-based Omnitrend® Asset View software. After logging in from any browser on any device, the machine states can be read at a glance in a clearly structured system. Unmistakable traffic light colors quickly provide information about the current machine status.

The MQTT protocol is now available for all Pruftechnik Vibguard® IIoT systems:

• Vibguard® IIoT with 20 analog channels
• Vibguard® IIoT with 16 analog channels
• Vibguard® compact
• Vibguard® portable
• VIBRONET® Signalmaster

Pruftechnik online condition monitoring systems that are already in use can be upgraded to the MQTT protocol via a free kernel update.

A strong growth is highlighted in the number of applications sent by enterprises to exhibit at LAMIERA, the international exhibition dedicated to the industry of sheet metal forming machine tools and to the innovative technologies related to the sector, onstage at fieramilano Rho, from 15 to 18 May 2019.

Actually, three months before the event, over 400 enterprises have already confirmed their participation in the trade show.

The exhibition area booked for LAMIERA 2019 is 30% more compared with the space booked by exhibitors in February 2017 for the previous edition of the trade show. However, it is already larger than the final area occupied by the exhibitors at LAMIERA 2017, the first edition taking place in Milan, which had already exceeded the area occupied in the last edition held in Bologna. These figures are proving that the change to the Milan venue enabled the exhibition to expand and improve its structure.

The list of the companies that have already applied to exhibit is available on the website lamiera.net: it offers many new entries. Considering the number of direct exhibitors, who grew by 10% to date, 27% of the enterprises that sent their applications will take part in LAMIERA for the first time or will come back and exhibit again after several editions of the event.

“What we expect – stated Alfredo Mariotti, Director of the Exhibition – is to improve the outcome of 2017, which was already very positive, by further expanding and enhancing the event. For this purpose, we go on working on the traditional sectors: they represent the core of the exhibition and look very well-arranged, also because the Italian demand for machine tools is still very high and in 2019 it will confirm the results achieved in 2018, a record-breaking year for the sector”.

“On the other hand, – added Alfredo Mariotti – the work will continue on the new innovation areas focused on robotics, IoT and consulting, which are fields having an increasingly strong impact and a deeper and deeper spread in the manufacturing factories”.

In line with the extended transformation involving the whole world manufacturing industry, LAMIERA will present an offering of technologies for integrated factories, showing the best international product ranges with regard to stand-alone machines and complex systems and completing the exhibition with a comprehensive overview of automation systems, robotics (ROBOT PLANET), technologies linked with the digital world (FABBRICAFUTURA) and consulting (BOX CONSULTING).

Machines, systems and equipment for the machining of sheet metal, tubes, sections, wire and metal structural work, presses, dies, welding, treatments and finishing, technical subcontracting and fasteners are just a few of the “traditional” technologies on show. In addition, there will be a wide and varied offering of robots, automation, enabling technologies and consulting. With such a large selection of products, LAMIERA is really the place where ideas can take shape, paraphrasing the slogan chosen for the 2019 edition.

Promoted by UCIMU-SISTEMI PER PRODURRE, the Italian machine tools, robots and automation systems manufacturers’ association, and organised by CEU-CENTRO ESPOSIZIONI UCIMU, LAMIERA will combine the trade show of the sector with numerous initiatives of in-depth analysis and entertainment.

In 2017, the exhibiting companies were 480, i.e. 25% more compared with the 2016 edition, with an occupied exhibit area of 40,000 square meter. The exhibition registered 23,579 visits, i.e. 15% more than those recorded a year before.

The only event in Italy dedicated to the sheet metal field, LAMIERA attracts visitors from all major user sectors; here they that can find a solution for their needs, from the simplest to the more complex ones.

The uniqueness of the event and its numerous side initiatives make the exhibition an unmissable occasion for the enterprises of the sector: for the big Italian and foreign manufacturers of machines, robots and automation; for the SMEs specialising in super-customised solutions; for subcontractors; for companies specialising in accessories and auxiliary technologies, but also for the players of the digital world and of consulting, whose presence is increasing within the sector.

The wide offering of product ranges on display will not be the only appeal for visitors. Indeed, LAMIERA will also propose the special initiative LAMIALAMIERA, a programme of in-depth meetings arranged by exhibitors and organisers, which will accompany the event throughout its length. Organized according to different themes, the meetings will last 20 minutes each and will be hosted in a special area, set up as a conference arena within one of the exhibition halls.