"We are very pleased with the extraordinary financial year 2011 and we are also extremely satisfied with the current order income," said Dr Michael Wenzel, managing director of Reis Group Holding GmbH & Co. KG and chairman of the board of VDMA Robotics + Automation, at a recent press conference for Automatica which takes place May 22-25 2012. "More than 33,000 international attendees trade visitors will benefit from the production know-how of the exhibitors and sharpen their competitive edge by using intelligent automation technology," Wenzel adds.

Global trend for automation
Rationalisation, productivity boosts, shorter lead times, faster cycle times and high demands on product quality are, and will be, decisive factors for using machine vision, assembly and handling technology, and robotics, Wenzel stresses.  A high degree of automation was also important to reduce the time to market.  "More than most application industries, renewables and electro mobility require massive cost cuts to be able to extend their markets successfully. Electric motors, power batteries, power electronics and photovoltaics will become less expensive when the products are mass-produced with the help of production automation technology,"Wenzel continues.

Automotive is prime mover
"The automotive industry clearly was the motor behind the solid growth in turnover and will remain so in the current year," Wenzel explains. "New and improved drive technologies, new materials and new production methods as well as extended capacities in the growth markets have led to ongoing increases in investments for robotics and automation." In Germany alone, the automotive industry installed some 10,500 new industrial robots, which is 50 percent more than in 2010. For each 10,000 employees, 1,130 industrial robots were installed in the German automotive sector. This is the third highest robot density in the world.