Sopro Project at Productronica 2009

Self-organizing production (Sopro) will revolutionize the goods manufacturing process in the future. Machines and workpieces, which communicate with one another by means of a chip, learn from one another and allocate their work automatically. This will ensure that production processes become more flexible, more efficient and more environmentally-friendly. The special show entitled Sopro will be one of the main highlights of Productronica 2009 (www.productronica.com), the important trade fair for innovative electronics production. The partners in the Sopro Project (www.sopro-projekt.de) will give an idea of the intelligent factory of the future on stand number B3.265 in hall B3 from November 10 to 13, 2009.
“As a trend-setting event for the industry, Productronica 2009 is the ideal platform for providing deeper insights into a technology which will sustainably change Germany as a production location”, says Eckhard Hohwieler from the Fraunhofer-Institute for production systems and design technology (Ipk), scientific coordinator of the Sopro Project. “As a scientist, I greatly appreciate the practical transfer of knowledge between research institutes and industry. This knowledge transfer is also a decisive factor in the development of self-organizing production since it turns theory into practice”.
A consortium of Fraunhofer Institutes and the technical university of Berlin led by the Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (IPK) develop so-called process e-grains, the key element in intelligent production within the framework of the Sopro Project. The Productronic and micro technology Associations as well as the working group Modular Microsystems within the German engineering Federation (Vdma) coordinate the cooperation of industry and research institutes.