Great demand for German know-how at METALEX 2019

VDW presents itself for the first time in Asia / Germany the first partner country at the international machine tools and metalworking exhibition

The German contribution to METALEX 2019, the international machine tools and metalworking exhibition, in Bangkok was a total success. 48 leading German companies from the metal working and machine tool industries presented their products and services as the partner country of the exhibition from 20 to 23 November 2019. On an exhibition area of 1,250 square metres a large number of machines and exhibits illustrated the motto of the industry exhibition, i.e. “German High Tech in Metal Working”.

The Exhibitor President Peter Weber, Managing Director of Gebr. Heller Maschinenfabrik GmbH, took stock: “METALEX is an established event. The partner country delegation and the industry exhibition provided the companies with an excellent opportunity to present their products in the ASEAN region. It is very pleasing that Germany was represented this year by 48 companies, 30 more than the contribution last year.”

Gerald Mies, Managing Director of FFG Europe & Americas, summed up the participation: “It was the right decision to present our company as part of the Germany delegation. We achieved our objective of finding a local dealer. The German presence at the exhibition is an important signal – not least because METALEX has an external impact on South-East Asia.”

“We received a positive response from visitors to the German pavilion. Our presence enabled us to conduct good discussions with visitors. We discussed very specific projects and were able to talk jointly about drawings and specimen parts. Overall, we regard our participation with this perceptible interest as a great success,” explained James Tan, Managing Director of Mapal Tooling Thailand.

With 100,475 visitors and 970 exhibitors, METALEX continued its success from previous years. Suttisak Wilanan, Deputy Managing Director of Reed Tradex Co., Ltd., stated: “Our visitors want to see innovations and new developments because there is an increasing revolution on the market towards high-tech products. We have been able to fully satisfy this through the German delegation and have noticed a marked rise in the number of visitors, especially among buyers.”

Germany the first partner country of METALEX

In 2019 Germany was the first partner country of the largest metalworking exhibition in the ASEAN region. Thomas Bareiss, Parliamentary Secretary of State of the German Federal Minister for Economics and Energy, accompanied the German delegation and made the following comments in this respect: “It is a great honour for Germany to be the first partner country of METALEX. This reflects the bonds and good relations between Germany and Thailand. I am delighted that the German machine tool manufacturers were able to present their expertise and products on such a promising market during the industry exhibition.”

umati – at the right time in Thailand

Trade visitors gained an insight into German cutting-edge technology during the special show with a forum on the standardised interface umati. German manufacturers used the show to demonstrate how easy and simple it is to use umati. Three machines from DMG Mori, Heller and Trumpf were connected and gave a live demonstration of production at the Exhibition Centre in Bangkok. Other machines from umati partners were also available outside the exhibition grounds. The data were retrieved via a separate demonstration dashboard on the umati stand of the German Machine Tool Builders’ Association (VDW), www.umati.app . The communication between the machine and the data hub, and between the software applications and the data hub was carried out by means of the OPC UA client-server model via VPN tunnelling. The showcase proved once again that umati can connect a large number of machines and software under the very special conditions of a live demonstration at an exhibition. “We used the close attention paid to the German delegation at METALEX to show umati in Asia for the first time,” explained Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Managing Director of the VDW. “The interface aroused a great deal of interest. The demand for a simple, quick to implement solution exists in Thailand and therefore certainly also on other emerging markets,” Schäfer added.

About the participation of the partner country and the industry exhibition:

The industry exhibition at METALEX 2019 was initiated by the German Machine Tool Builders’ Association (VDW) and staged by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) and the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA) in cooperation with Messe Stuttgart.