A practical tutorial program at EMO Hannover 2011 will be the international congress on “Sustainable Production,” a program developed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (IWU) and the German Machine Tool Builders’ Asociation (VDW.) The program will be conducted over two days, September 20-21, and targets specialists and managers active in production technology. The agenda covers advanced technologies, concepts and strategies for energy-saving, resource-efficient manufacturing.

Improving production processes calls for strategies that are environmentally sound and use resources efficiently, and the energy consumption of machine tools is an increasingly significant design principle. Metal-cutting machine tools, for example, consume on average 10-15% of the total energy used in a production process, according to the program planners. Thus, research and innovations are critical factors to meet the future requirements of sustainable production, including reducing raw material usage and lowering energy consumption.

In the European Union, another factors shaping the debate is the Eco-Design Directive 2009/125/EC.

The two-day program at EMO focuses mainly on European technologies for sustainable production operations, resource-economical manufacturing processes, solutions for sustainable production and plant planning, resource-efficient machine tools, automation technologies and cost-effective component solutions.

The event planners aim to present the latest findings relating to sustainable production and to foster mutual feedback among academics involved in the market. They also plant to cover the European strategies involved, the goals of leading industrial sectors, and the activities of the academic community for promoting energy-economical, resource-efficient technologies.