This Wednesday, November 15th, marks the beginning of another Rockwell Automation Fair. Rockwell Automation is one of the largest U.S. industrial automation companies, encompassing products in automation, robotics, safety hardware, and programmable logic controllers, as well as current innovations like augmented reality engineering. The fair is a huge resource for engineers, providing not only the latest products in automation, but also opportunities to learn and to be exposed to innovations across all fields of engineering.
This year in particular, there is much to look forward to. For many engineers in attendance, the fair represents a way to connect with major companies and learn about the new developments in engineering. The companies that attend the Automation Fair are part of the Partner Network, a framework of participating firms that provides synergy among products—including authorized Allen-Bradley Distributors, system integrators, OEMs, strategic alliances, Encompass reference products, and licensed developers. Here are just some of the companies in attendance:
In addition, there are nine forums available to attendees to learn about the latest developments in specific industries: OEM; oil and gas; food and beverage; pulp and paper; water and waste; engineering; procurement and construction (EPC); chemical; power and energy; and diversity and inclusion. The forums will feature representatives and experts from a variety of companies.
For the professional engineers in attendance, there are 110 hands-on labs to help them achieve faster time-to-market capabilities, optimize assets, lower costs of ownership, improve enterprise risk management, and work within the Connected Enterprise. There will be labs in the following technical sessions:
- Automotive and Tire
- Chemical and Specialty Chemical
- Food and Beverage
- Life Sciences
- Machine and Equipment Builders (OEMs)
- Mining and Cement
- Oil and Gas
- Power and Energy
- Process
- Pulp and Paper
- Safety
- The Connected Enterprise
- Water Wastewater
Lastly, a glimpse into the future of machines will be on display at Automation Fair 2017. The winners of the Best Future Machine Awards are to be recognized, as they represent future innovation in the packaging industry. The competition was separated into five categories: ease of use, modular machines, smart machines, sustainability, and traceability and product safety. The winners included IF318 from the Cama Group; CareSelect Infeed System from Gebo Cermex; GCap6 from Goglio; CartonPack from CMC Machinery; and the FM 200 from SN Maschinenbau.
Follow us here at MachineDesign.com and me on Twitter for live reporting from Automation Fair 2017.
