Euromold: INNEO present Creo to the World’s Mold & Tool Makers
Euromold is the World’s Fair for mold making and tooling, design and application development. Attendance this year was strong, with over 55,000 trade visitors from 86 countries attending the four day event this year. This year’s 17th EuroMold event took place in Frankfurt, Germany, between December 1st and 4th, 2010 – and almost 42% of the 1,300 exhibitors come from 37 countries outside Germany, making it truly international.
And in Hall 11.0, the hall featuring CAD/CAM solutions, INNEO, PTC’s long standing partner, had one of the biggest booths. Attracting the visitors to the stand was the 2010 KTM Super Duke 990 from KTM Sportmotorcycle AG. This Austrian motorcycle, bicycle and moped manufacturer is a long term PTC customer, and user of PTC’s Creo Elements/Pro and Windchill. This high performance bike not only served as a show stopper, but also provided the perfect lead-in to the INNEO demonstrations featuring the design.
Helmut Haas, CEO at INNEO and Markus Hannemann, Marketing Director attended Euromold. Geoff Hedges asked them a few questions about the event and reactions to Creo.
Geoff Hedges: What was your general impression of Euromold?
Helmut Haas: Very successful. Euromold is the world’s largest event for mold making and tooling, and this year’s attendance was one of the best years ever. It attracts many manufacturers from across the globe, in fact 38% of the exhibitors this year come from China. We’re here because we believe both exhibitors and visitors should be working with INNEO and PTC’s products to solve their product development challenges.
Geoff Hedges: Are you concerned that many traditional European manufacturers are moving business to China?
Helmut Haas: Right now, our business is stronger than ever, so it’s difficult for us to argue that as companies move part of their manufacturing to China, it’s having a huge impact on our business. For us, if a company wants to develop products globally, they are more likely to require our expertise and additional solutions to achieve that, rather than less. Take for example one recent customer, when they established a manufacturing facility in China, they now needed more software and services for the site, and also needed the solution to maintaining all product information synchronized between the different sites– that opened up more business for us than we had expected.
Geoff Hedges: And was there a high level of interest in Creo at Euromold?
Markus Hannemann: Yes. We featured Creo on the booth, as well as in break out sessions. We had hundreds of people visiting our booth, all wanting to discuss Creo and the latest releases of Creo Elements. Creo has really started a buzz in the industry, everyone wants to know more about PTC’s next generation design software.
Geoff Hedges: Is the Creo message meaningful to the mold making industries?
Helmut Haas: Definitely, while the mold making industry has certainly suffered during the recession, and has always been price driven, this year has seen many manufacturers grow their order books. It’s still important that these companies now deliver on-time, on-spec, and on-cost to their clients, but now these companies are looking to invest in new technology to help them. With fewer people on board, their engineering resources are precious – any solution that can accelerate their projects is definitely being looked at seriously.
Geoff Hedges: Successful Mold and Tool Makers typically have years of deep vertical experience, how do they believe Creo can help?
Markus Hannemann: Your right, some of the experts we’ve met this week have 5, 10, 15 years of experience in developing molds and tools. What I’m finding interesting is that few of them really want to be 3D CAD experts forced to use one modeling approach, mainly parametrics. Many started developing molds in the 2D world, and they found that easier than today’s 3D parametric approach. When we tell them that Creo enables them to select the right approach, and easily move from 2D, to 3D direct, to 3D parametrics, you can see their eyes light up – now they have a choice, without the problems of interoperability.
Geoff Hedges: What’s attracting these industries to Creo?
Markus Hannemann: Two Creo technology breakthroughs are attracting companies to our stand. The first is AnyMode Modeling™, this delivers a true multi-paradigm design platform, enabling users to design in 2D, 3D direct, or 3D parametric. Remember that in this industry, there are both relatively simple designs through to complex systems. Being able to select the right approach, be it 2D, or another approach, and have the design fully accessible and reusable in any other mode is the ideal solution.
The second is AnyData Adoption. Many of the people we’ve met work with multiple clients and teams, and often need to deal with data coming from a variety of CAD tools. AnyData Adoption helps tool and mold makers leverage the product design data, and use it to create their molds and tools.
Geoff Hedges: I understand that the INNEO team was also invited to present at the Design and Engineering Forum?
Markus Hannemann: Yes, we were invited to present two sessions, focused on industrial design. One session was focused on Unlocking the full potential of product design, and was the platform to present Creo to a focused audience. The second session was how virtual prototyping and simulation can help dramatically reduce product development times in Mold Making. Both sessions were well attended, and the interest in both topics was exceptionally high.
Geoff Hedges: So has attending Euromold was a success for INNEO?
Helmut Haas: Definitely, the level of interest and number of new companies that have approached us has been exceptionally high this year. With what looks like a rebound in manufacturing, and the buzz around PTC and Creo – we’re looking forward to an excellent year.
