MITEX-2012
Here is a smal review on the International Fair for Tool, Equipment and manufacturing technologies I visited recently.
Note that I hadn't seen thie fair before, and it is quite difficult to compare it to anything but a tool's shop.
So. This event took place at the Expocentre Fairgrounds this week, and I've decided to pay it a visit due to a simple thought - how can a product designer actualy design anything for manufacturing if he has no idea on the modern equipment they use at the factories or possibly would use in future, on the limits and possibilities of manufacturing equipment and so on.
To say that I was nearly dissappointed would be appropriate: 2 halls on the first floor had been occupied by chinese group of manufacturing companies that were selling all the stuff one usualy sees in the tool shops, nothing extraordinary or even interesting, no original technological ideas or solutions - the only thing they offered was an exemplary variety of products provided and attractively low price (and yes, they actually even put their stuff on sale - not that I've bought anything)
3 remaining halls on the the 2nd floor have provided a more interesting mixture of russian and european companies, but, unfortunately, the presentative level on Friday was quite low - most participants simply held stalls with catalogues and samples of their products, and assistants were mostly sleepy and tired (which means that morning of the last day of the exhibition is hardly the best day for a visit) therefore, it was quite hard to realise the strong or the weak points of the tools - honestly, I've even got an impression that majority of the quipment differs only in colour depending on the manufacturing company, with a couple of exceptions: BOSCH workers held a live show still presenting their products, and a coule of things were quite interesting: first of them was a jigsaw that featured quite interesting set of options - in addition to the common power regulator, safety switch, variable angle of cutting, ruler and less common outlet for the vacuum to blow sawdust off and keep the operating area clean this one also had a LED to highlight the cutting zone - it might be a minor detail but I havent seen similar attention to the user before and thus I found this device worthy being noticed here.
Second of the BOSCH products was a portable mill/drill that has a nice and safe duat switch - perhaps nearly that kind of solution the Freezelight were looking for (just requires small modification for a flashlight handle, of course) - abd, besides, it is a solid construction that probably would be nice to obtain as it is one day:
Other than that, the only interesting stall was a small show of the 19th century tools that have actually gave me an impression that most novaday non-electrical devices do not actually differ much from their predecessors (except for materials used) - something to think over, actually, as it seems that as some needs do not differ much over time, engineers do not try to come up with with new solutions (mostly except for putting cheaper and/or lighter materials and simplifying manufacture)
Notice the handle of the saw, except for being made of wood, it is, as we might say today, anatomic and thus ergonomic, while the decoratve engraving definetely serves the same purpose of keeping hands a bit off the handle to reduce sweating. Now, who said that there were no such thing as product design in the middle-ages? )
Note that I hadn't seen thie fair before, and it is quite difficult to compare it to anything but a tool's shop.
So. This event took place at the Expocentre Fairgrounds this week, and I've decided to pay it a visit due to a simple thought - how can a product designer actualy design anything for manufacturing if he has no idea on the modern equipment they use at the factories or possibly would use in future, on the limits and possibilities of manufacturing equipment and so on.
To say that I was nearly dissappointed would be appropriate: 2 halls on the first floor had been occupied by chinese group of manufacturing companies that were selling all the stuff one usualy sees in the tool shops, nothing extraordinary or even interesting, no original technological ideas or solutions - the only thing they offered was an exemplary variety of products provided and attractively low price (and yes, they actually even put their stuff on sale - not that I've bought anything)
3 remaining halls on the the 2nd floor have provided a more interesting mixture of russian and european companies, but, unfortunately, the presentative level on Friday was quite low - most participants simply held stalls with catalogues and samples of their products, and assistants were mostly sleepy and tired (which means that morning of the last day of the exhibition is hardly the best day for a visit) therefore, it was quite hard to realise the strong or the weak points of the tools - honestly, I've even got an impression that majority of the quipment differs only in colour depending on the manufacturing company, with a couple of exceptions: BOSCH workers held a live show still presenting their products, and a coule of things were quite interesting: first of them was a jigsaw that featured quite interesting set of options - in addition to the common power regulator, safety switch, variable angle of cutting, ruler and less common outlet for the vacuum to blow sawdust off and keep the operating area clean this one also had a LED to highlight the cutting zone - it might be a minor detail but I havent seen similar attention to the user before and thus I found this device worthy being noticed here.
Second of the BOSCH products was a portable mill/drill that has a nice and safe duat switch - perhaps nearly that kind of solution the Freezelight were looking for (just requires small modification for a flashlight handle, of course) - abd, besides, it is a solid construction that probably would be nice to obtain as it is one day:
Other than that, the only interesting stall was a small show of the 19th century tools that have actually gave me an impression that most novaday non-electrical devices do not actually differ much from their predecessors (except for materials used) - something to think over, actually, as it seems that as some needs do not differ much over time, engineers do not try to come up with with new solutions (mostly except for putting cheaper and/or lighter materials and simplifying manufacture)
Notice the handle of the saw, except for being made of wood, it is, as we might say today, anatomic and thus ergonomic, while the decoratve engraving definetely serves the same purpose of keeping hands a bit off the handle to reduce sweating. Now, who said that there were no such thing as product design in the middle-ages? )
Oh, and here goes another interesting - and contemporary - tool I've found: a simple wrench that feats a trigger to select the operation mode (screw, unscrew, regular): something I've met in screwdrivers before, yet never seen in wrenches (maybe it's just me who is ill-informed).
And to sum up my impressions - If you missed this fair, you've probably didn't lose anyting important, but I'll still try to pay it a visit next year - at least to see if anything interesting comes out.
The first line of this review really made me envy your experience of visiting an exhibition of such a promising title. Although after reading the post till the end I realised that this place was not that great loss after all...
ОтветитьУдалитьIt seems to me that this exhibition was aimed on the audience that is not really familiar with most of the modern tools. As far as i can see the level of innovation there was limited by such things as an electric jigsaw.
It is still hard to judge this "International Fair" without visiting it, and in fact it might even provide a good knowledge of modern tools market, but i still expect more from the exhibition of such a name.