Plant Assessor's 2016 Bauma trip

Well we are back from our first ever trip to Bauma, and wow, what a show.

The largest trade fair in the world did not fail to impress, as did the beautiful city of Munich.

It is impossible to sum up all that we saw and learned in a reasonable number of words, so I’ll just touch on a few key things.

THE LARGEST TRADE FAIR ON EARTH

The scale of the show is difficult to explain – many have waxed lyrical about it before me – but I’ll have my turn.

The most stark examples of the scale of Bauma related to the infrastructure that exhibitors invest in for a week long show.

Many of you will have heard about the Liebherr building – which we were fortunate enough to be invited to experience by our friends from Liebherr Australia (thanks Wulf and team).

Liebherr’s preparations begin six months before the event. On a site of 14,000 square metres, the company stages a display that can only be described in superlatives. The stand and its buildings consume 1,000 tonnes of steel and the glass frontage has a total area of 5,700 square metres.

Another example of amazing scale was Amman’s asphalt plant, erected specifically for the show.  We were lucky enough to climb to the top of it courtesy of Conplant (thanks Ian and team).  On a 5,000 square metre stand, all paved as part of the setup, Amman erected this fully working structure.

OEM VISITS & TELEMATICS

Visiting all of our OEM clients’ stands was an education and an opportunity to see what is coming in terms of machinery, telematics, service/support systems and technology.

Combine this with visits to Topcon, Trimble and Leica, and we walked away with the feeling that much of this telematics functionality is developing in a chaotic and unconnected way.

There does however appear to be some light at the end of the tunnel, with a number of specialist firms in this field confirming that the machinery industry was following the automotive sector in seeking to develop overarching communication protocols.

Disclaimer: This information is intended to provide general information on the subject matter. This is not intended as legal or expert advice for your specific situation. You should seek professional advice before acting or relying on the content of this information.