With an impressive array of new approaches and innovations on display, Subcontracting, the leading international trade fair for the subcontracting industry, was in top form this year as part of the lineup for HANNOVER MESSE 2008.

Some 1,500 exhibitors from 50 nations demonstrated their high-tech know-how and the use of new materials and composites together with systems solutions for industry. More than 60,000 visitors - nearly one in three at HANNOVER MESSE - made a point of finding out what the global market had to offer at Subcontracting, the 'Hotspot for Dynamics'.

The subcontracting industry has steadily extended the range of its expertise. Today every second innovation across manufacturing industry has been developed by component suppliers. Such a complex system - extending from initial material input and the production process for the semi-finished product to the end product - can only work successfully if the right specialists are involved at each stage.

For this reason there is an increasing focus on the close integration of manufacturers with their component suppliers in a value-adding partnership. The exhibitors at Subcontracting presented an astonishing array of products for industrial process chains.

Whatever the area of interest - casting, forming, coating or machining, industrial materials, manufacturing processes or end products - the subcontracting industry demonstrated its ability to meet the needs of its customers across the board. The principal drivers of innovation are the search for energy efficiency and the need to reduce product life-cycle costs.

Subcontracting serves as an international contact centre and a platform for networking, knowledge transfer and new business deals. The show attracted scientists and engineers, product designers and developers as well as buyers from manufacturing industry, the service sector, the skilled trades and the construction industry.

The survey of visitors conducted by Deutsche Messe Hannover revealed a marked increase in visiting professionals from the mechanical and plant engineering sectors, the automotive and transport industry and the energy industry.

One of the major themes at Subcontracting 2008 was the role of systems suppliers in modern manufacturing. In today's highly competitive global economy, component suppliers need to function as competent and dependable partners to industry. Only in this way can component suppliers respond quickly to changes in the procurement policies of individual manufacturing sectors.

Many examples taken from practice underline the fact that the services provided by today's systems suppliers go far beyond the production of components under contract. Their responsibilities begin much further back in the production process, with initial conception and industrial design, product development and production engineering.

Project management, the making and testing of prototypes and initial batches are all part of the extended range of services now provided by systems suppliers, together with the management of the supply chain for series production - including purchasing and customized logistics - and life-cycle management. In short, they take on responsibility for the complete product life-cycle.

At the special presentation in Hall 4 by systems partners for the mechanical engineering/automotive industries the star exhibit was an Audi A6 that had been cut in half lengthways to expose the internal construction of the bodyshell and interior. As well as being a major crowd-puller, the cutaway car was also an object lesson in the collaborative partnership that operates within a supply chain. Alongside this exhibit visitors could view a second process chain, featuring complete production lines that vividly demonstrated the engineering skills of systems suppliers in action.

In Hall 5 ContiTech and partner enterprises presented solutions based on elastomer technology for the mobility sector and other branches of industry. Various examples were used to demonstrate the collaboration between suppliers, including, once again, a cutaway mock-up of an Audi car. A KUKA industrial robot demonstrated a two-color spray technique used in the production of slush-molded skins. The focus on systems suppliers will remain an important feature of Subcontracting in the years to come.

This year a whole series of special displays and forums examined the importance of materials technology as a driving force behind the development of innovative industrial products and applications. New types of materials are both enhancing the performance of existing applications and opening up entirely new areas of application.

Customized materials with highly specific properties are used to cope with extreme service conditions. Here ceramic materials have a particularly important role to play. They can be precisely engineered to withstand severe stresses, yet for the most part they perform their vital functions hidden away inside components and installations, unseen by the user. Resistance to wear, corrosion and high temperatures, or the ability to act as electrical insulators, are just some of the properties that make high-performance ceramics especially suitable for use in extreme environments.

The wide variety of available engineering ceramics and the new products constantly being developed, together with innovative processes for shaping and processing ceramics, are steadily extending the product spectrum for ceramic components. Engineering ceramics are now well established as a key sub-section of the 'New Materials' display category at Subcontracting. Michael Zins of the Fraunhofer company TASK GmbH notes: 'There was a huge amount of interest. On the very first day of the show other manufacturers were already signing up to contribute on ceramics-related issues.'

As well as improving the performance of existing materials, engineers are also working to develop hybrids and composites, which combine a number of individual materials in order to exploit the best characteristics of each. Carbon fiber composites, for example, exhibit mechanical properties that are far superior to those of their constituents, and they can be individually formulated for different applications. Thus lightweight materials can be made stronger by the addition of fiber reinforcement, while the incorporation of special fibers in brittle materials such as ceramics makes them tougher and less likely to break.

The potential for new materials is virtually unlimited. In space exploration, car production, mechanical and plant engineering they are the true drivers of innovation. The Innovations Centre 'Engineering Materials' in Hall 5 was a showcase for all that is best in three essential categories of industrial materials - metals, plastics and composites.

The new focus made for greater clarity, and the trade public was impressed by the range and diversity of what is now available, particularly in composites.

They are seen as industrial heavyweights, equal to any challenge: the suppliers of castings and forgings in Hall 3 showed how they are constantly pushing back the boundaries of what is technically possible.

At 'Gegossene Technik', various European foundries demonstrated how they have improved the chemical and mechanical properties of the material, how complex components are becoming lighter in weight, and how multi-part assemblies can now be cast as a single piece.

- Katja Havemeister-