As the organizers of Wire & Tube Düsseldorf promised, the show held at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre was a terrific success. Running from April 7 until April 11, 2014, some 72,000 visitors from 104 different countries roomed the exhibition halls, excited to learn about the latest technology being offered to the International Tube market.
With over 50,000 square meters of exhibition space occupied, a 3.1% increase over 2012, those exhibitors participating in the tube side of the show rated their experience with top marks. Technology presented ranged from raw materials & accessories, machinery for production, and measurement and control equipment.
Xiris Automation Inc. participated with Magnetic Analysis Corporation (MAC) exhibiting our WI2000p, Tube & Pipe Weld Inspection technology & our XVC-O Weld Camera, a weld monitoring system, along with MAC’s Non-destructive testing equipment.
Observations from the show:
Xiris representatives had numerous discussions with companies interested in weld inspection and monitoring technology. Opportunities were reviewed with both existing customers while several new possibilities were discussed with potential customers.
A number of manufacturers of very small diameter tubes visited the booth interested in exploring ways to inspect tube as small as 2mm in diameter. Interestingly, most of these manufacturers weld their tubes using a longitudinal laser welding process with very tight manufacturing tolerances.
With a number of new projects worldwide in offshore oil and gas, the resurgent interest in offshore pipeline was very clear. New requirements for inspecting spiral welded and orthogonal butt welded pipe are raising the need for additional quality measurements. In particular, the need to double weld many critical weld joints requires special inspection systems to detect defects after each weld process.
The majority of the attendees stopping by the booth were decision makers looking for ways to improve their productivity and production efficiencies.
The next Tube Düsseldorf will take place April 4 to 8th, 2016. Further information can be found at www.Tube.de.
See you in 2016!
