Digital technologies for change

10/16/2023

200 participants from the manufacturing sector, over 100 B2B meetings, 120 interested parties at 4 company visits and 16 exhibitors - that was the International Forum Mechatronics on September 28 and 29, 2023 at the NOI Techpark in Bruneck. What brought everyone together: the need to produce ever more intelligently and sustainably, whether in the automotive industry or in the food sector. What became clear: The challenges for manufacturing companies are numerous and addressing them requires sustainable solutions - not only from an economic perspective, but above all from an ecological one.

This was underlined by Dominik Matt, director of Fraunhofer Italia and unibz professor, in his opening lecture on dual transformation. For about 250 years, we have experienced almost unrestrained economic growth. Technological progress brought economic and social achievements, but also rapidly accelerated the consumption of natural resources. The boom in the information society has also contributed to a steady increase in our energy consumption over the past 15 years. The electricity demand of all data centers will account for around 8% of global energy consumption by 2030, plus the CO2 emissions of data processing, which are already greater than those of global air traffic.

"The challenge for companies is to link digitization with sustainability in a meaningful way. We are talking here about Industry 5.0, a digitalization and automation for the benefit of the environment. The aim is not to become faster and more efficient in order to produce more, but to manufacture more sustainably and thus conserve resources," explained Matt, pointing to a concrete example: In the SMART-Pro project, Fraunhofer Italia is working with companies to develop software that optimizes the planning process in production. With the help of artificial intelligence and a digital twin, it creates an efficient flow in production. Manual adjustments, scrap and idle time are thus avoided, energy requirements are reduced and skilled workers can devote themselves to more value-creating activities.

In addition to these and many other exciting presentations from research and industry, participants were able to network in B2B meetings, visit local showcase companies - including GKN Automotive, Intercable, GKN Hydrogen, Durst and Loacker - and exchange ideas at an evening reception organized by Automotive Excellence.