Inovance debuts at SPS Nuremberg

By Frans van der Stel, General Manager, Inovance Technology Europe

Inovance Technology Europe made its debut appearance at the SPS – smart production solutions – show in Nuremberg, Germany, last week. This was supposed to happen last year, but the 2021 show was cancelled due to COVID-19, so we were very happy that it went ahead in 2022. For us, SPS was not only a chance to launch new products, but also a crucial opportunity to present our company and our products properly to the European market, and it was arguably our European investment plans that generated the most interest. For a quick summary, check out our show video below, or, read on for an extended view.

Caption: Our video was a review of day one at the SPS show

Inovance is investing and hiring in Europe

We have invested in Europe, and we have hired a lot of people. SPS was the key chance to showcase these investments. We highlighted our extremely diverse product range. Our growing network of European offices – in Stuttgart, Milan, Bordeaux, Lyon, Istanbul and (most recently) Barcelona. Our fast growing team on the ground, and also our growing network of European distributors.

And our efforts to present our company did indeed attract great attention. We had numerous existing and potential customers showing up on our stand for both planned and unplanned meetings. We also had visits from distributors and potential distributors from Portugal, Poland, Spain, the UK, and several other countries. You can hear from one of our existing distributors, Eldar in Poland, in the video below.

Caption: Eldar is an Inovance distributor in Poland

Our press conference – held off-stand in a private press room – attracted journalists from most major German engineering magazines, and also resulted in a number of follow up 1:1 briefings. We presented Inovance as a “hidden dragon” – comparing it to the well-known German hidden champions. German hidden champions are generally defined as occupying a top three world ranking in their markets, or being #1 on their continent, and usually have a turnover of less than €5 billion. We presented Inovance’s history from its founding in 2003, to its IPO in 2010, to its status today as a company with $3 billion turnover and having achieved #5 for servo drives globally and #8 for LV AC drives globally in 2021*. At the press conference, we also launched our new products officially.

*According to leading market research company Interact Analysis

Caption: Inovance’s press conference at SPS attracted journalists from leading German engineering trade media outlets

New products launched

At SPS, we launched four new products to the European market: the Easy Series PLC, the GL20 I/O modules, the AC703 IPC motion controller, and the SV670 servo drive. On top of that, we offered a preview of the SV680 servo drive, whose advanced functional safety functions and high performance made a good impression on visitors to our stand. And we also finally were able to present MD800 at SPS – something we had intended to do at last year’s show before it got cancelled.

Caption: The Inovance stand in hall 3A had many visitors

One thing that particularly excited me was the presence of Inovance products on the CAN in Automation (CiA) and EtherCAT Technology Group stands in hall 5. CiA is an international user association for CAN (Controller Area Network) technology, while the EtherCAT Technology Group is an organization in which key EtherCAT users can come together to support and advance EtherCAT technology. It is the largest fieldbus organisation in the world. Appearing on the CiA and EtherCAT stands was crucial for us as it positioned Inovance products on display alongside the leading competitors.

Caption: Appearing alongside all leading competitors on the CiA and EtherCAT stands sent an important message about Inovance’s technical prowess and its suitability for European markets

What was the interest?

There’s no doubt that interest in Inovance was extremely high. Even higher than I was expecting. This is of course partly because our product range is so broad and so capable. But I also think part of the reason was that the market can see we’re a bit different. Inovance is pretty much unique amongst Chinese drives and automation manufacturers in terms of the commitment it has made to Europe.

This is what really stood out for many of our visitors because the scale of our sales, engineering and R&D presence in Europe is delivering huge confidence in our products from customers. The final big issue that has attracted a lot of interest was that it is increasingly well known that Inovance’s products are available now – in stark contrast to many of the leading drives and industrial automation vendors who are now experiencing long lead times due to ongoing supply chain challenges.

Learn more about Inovance’s broad (and readily available!) product range here: www.inovance.eu/products

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