(Credit: Messe Muenchen)
- Laser industry and R&D facilitating the ‘Make in India’ initiative
- 6,404 trade visitors attended the 2017 edition in New Delhi
- Successful launch: Additive Manufacturing Pavilion and Conference
The sixth edition of Laser World of Photonics India came to a successful end at the Pragati Maidan Exhibition Centre, New Delhi after having attracted 6,404 trade visitors. Spread over an area of 5,500 square metres, 160 exhibitors and 10 additionally represented companies from a total of 16 countries showcased products, recent developments and market trends from the world of lasers and optical technology, as well as their industrial applications.
Commenting on the show, Dr Lalit Kumar, managing director of Coherent Laser India, said: ’We had an excellent experience at the show. At our booth, we received a large number of inquiries and prospects and met new and old customers, and the response was very good.’
Pradeep Patil, managing director of Trumpf India, added: ’I am very confident that we will continue to benefit by also attending future events. The event creates real value-added for the industry and especially for our company.’
Since the trade fair was held in New Delhi, it was ideally accessible for application industries such as automotive, heavy engineering, railways, signage and printing to name a few. Laser World of Photonics India showed that all these industries are increasingly using lasers and optics in order to improve efficiency and quality.
Talking about his experience at the Buyer-Seller-Forum, Haribabu Srivastava, director of the Laser Science and Technology Center, DRDO (Government of India), said: ’We all are aware that lasers have a very bright future and that the number of laser machines is increasing every year. They can be used for a wider range of applications, e.g. medicine, telecommunications, the internet and entertainment. Every aspect of lasers was covered here at the exhibition. If the industry and laboratories work together, I believe that we can achieve the "Make in India" goal of the Government.’
Additive manufacturing pavilion and conference
For the first time, the additive manufacturing pavilion was launched to showcase processing and systems for additive manufacturing in industrial applications at the show. At the co-located Additive Manufacturing Insight conference which was jointly organised by CNT Expositions and Services, delegates learnt about the growing market for industrial 3D printing.
By 2015 the approximate size of the target manufacturing market for additive manufacturing was $13 trillion while the market share of additive manufacturing was $5 billion. The Boston Consulting Group forecasts that it will grow at a compound annual rate of almost 30 per cent through 2020. According to CNT, additive manufacturing is becoming more popular in India and many companies are working on moving into functional part manufacturing using additive manufacturing compared with just prototyping.
Nayan Patel, operations and technical manager of Renishaw India, shared his experience: 'This is the first time we attended Laser World of Photonics India. Our participation was very successful. The northern market, especially Delhi NCR, needs an eco-system for additive manufacturing and this is a perfect platform. We are also looking forward to participating in the event in future.’
Knowledge platforms
The three short courses organised by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Photonics (IEEE Photonics) covered different aspects of fibre lasers and applications, nanophotonics and fundamentals of fibre optics and waveguides.
For the second consecutive year since its inception, the Laser Safety Forum met with an extremely positive response from exhibitors and visitors. It stood out as one of the most important knowledge sharing platforms for the industry. The participants learned about the safe use of lasers in their working environment.
The Buyer-Seller-Forum enabled constructive face to face meetings to be held between buyers and sellers for potential business relationships. The participants included companies such as Hero MotoCorp, Bhilai Engineering Corporation, Hella India Automotive, LASTEC-DRDO, Sagar Asia, to name a few.
Commenting on the success of the exhibition, Bhupinder Singh, CEO of Messe Muenchen India, said: ‘Laser World of Photonics India proved to be successful once again and we were satisfied with the encouraging response this year. Laser technology is one of the key technologies for the future of many sectors, and this was apparent at the trade fair.’
The next Laser World of Photonics India will take place from September 26 to 28, 2018 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), Bengaluru.
