Energizing a Sustainable Industry is the theme for Hannover Messe trade fair, scheduled from March 31-April 4, 2025.

With a legacy of over seven decades, Hannover Messe has become one of the world’s largest trade fairs for industrial technology, innovation, and automation. The annual event attracts exhibitors and visitors from all over the world. This year an estimated 4000 plus companies from the general engineering, electrical, and digital industries, as well as the energy sector, are exhibiting their latest technologies for the benefit of the roughly 1,30,000 visitors that the organisers are expecting over 5 days of technovaganza on the Hannover Fairgrounds in Germany.

“Never before has attending Hannover Messe been so vital to securing competitive advantage,” said Dr Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Managing Board of Deutsche Messe AG, the organiser. He was addressing over 100 media persons from all over the world gathered for the Preview in mid February, six weeks prior to the main event. “At a time of profound economic challenges to industry, Hannover Messe delivers decisive momentum: here, global visitors discover which technologies will future-proof their success and how to integrate them into their processes without delay,” he added.

Talking of challenges, these are many, and not just economic, though money is what is needed for addressing them with the right technologies. But more than that, the shadow of geopolitical dynamics was unmistakably there for everyone to notice. “The talk in recent months has frequently been of geopolitical uncertainties. However, since the inauguration of the new US president, among other things, this uncertainty has transformed into harsh clarity, with the USA doubling down on its ‘America First’ agenda while China massively bolsters and steers its industrial sector,” said Köckler. For Europe and partners like Canada – the official partner at Hannover Messe 2025 – it is time to close ranks more tightly and resolutely advance a cohesive geoeconomic strategy. “At Hannover Messe, uncertainty transforms into confidence – in both technological and political terms,” concluded Köckler.

AI in Industry

An important highlight of the Preview a talk on ‘AI in Industry’, with two experts from industry – Fatma Kocer-Poyraz, Vice President of Engineering Data Science at Altair, and Sepp Hochreiter, Founder of NXAI and Head of the Institute for Machine Learning at Johannes Kepler University Linz. The talk was moderated by Onuora Ogbukagu, Spokesperson, Deutsche Messe. Ms Fatma spoke about ‘AI in Product Development’ and how every product today is engineered by hundreds of thousands of people working on the design to make them perfect, safe and convenient to use – to reduce its energy consumption, etc. Altair's digital twin solutions use simulation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to create virtual representations of physical assets. This technology optimises vehicle performance, reduces costs, and speeds up time-to-market, she said, while referencing a typical car design.

Sepp Hochreiter, Founder of NXAI and Head of the Institute for Machine Learning at Johannes Kepler University Linz, spoke on ‘The Dawn of Industrial AI’ and the three phases of AI – basic development, scaling up and industrialisation of AI. He began by tracing the journey of ChatGPT from stages 1 to 4 and the exponential use of data and how it has reached a stage today where it is using all the data available, so now it is no longer becoming bigger, but smarter. He referred to the potential of AI to be a major driver of labour productivity growth across the world, the potential more for developing countries. Next, he spoke about his invention, the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) architecture, and how his team at NXAI developed a new variant called extended LSTM (xLSTM), a significant advancement in LSTM design, addressing limitations of traditional LSTMs and introducing new features to enhance their performance in large language models (LLMs). Compared to the Transformer technology that is used by GPT, which is too slow and memory inefficient, xSLTM is fast with a small memory footprint and energy efficient, making it ideal for industry, robotics in particular.

Partner Country Canada

Canada is the Partner Country at Hannover Messe 2025. Canada and Germany have long enjoyed a strong partnership, prioritising areas like trade and investment, energy and climate, critical minerals, and key technologies. The Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance, for instance, supports supply chain growth essential to global decarbonisation, while Canada’s swift development of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export facilities enhances Germany’s energy security.

More than 230 exhibitors and 250 delegates from Canada are set to showcase their industrial technology solutions and share their expertise in six pavilions focusing on leading-edge innovation, automation and robotics, digital solutions and AI, alternative energy, hydrogen technologies, and trade and investment opportunities. Canada will be represented by many of its best and most innovative businesses, networks and organisations in the areas of advanced manufacturing, digital technology, research and development, e-mobility and clean energy. Canada’s largest federal research and technology organisation, the National Research Council of Canada, will be on site to showcase its expertise and capabilities in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, digital technologies and AI.

Canada’s motto for Hannover Messe, ‘The future’s here’, describes the country’s focus on creating sustainable, environmentally friendly industries. The main Canada Pavilion in Hall 2 will highlight Canada’s national science and innovation ecosystems. Additional pavilions concentrate on topics such as artificial intelligence, automation, clean technologies, hydrogen, e-mobility, and robotics. Accompanying events include the Canada Conference Stage in Hall 2, the Canada-Germany Business Summit, the Leaders’ Dialogue, the EUREKA Global Innovation Summit (GIS), and the Renewable Dialogue, as well as networking events highlighting innovation and business opportunities in Canada.

“Hannover Messe offers an unparalleled platform for Canada’s advanced manufacturing sector to show the world what it has to offer, expand into new markets and strengthen global trade partnerships. The spotlight in Hanover will be on Canada this year, and NGen is proud to lead its business delegation at this very important international event,” said Jayson Myers, CEO, Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen), during the Preview.

“Canada’s selection as the partner country at HANNOVER MESSE 2025 is a testament to the strength of the Canada–Germany relationship, and the fair will allow us to showcase Canada as a stable and reliable partner of choice for trade, investment and scientific cooperation. The Trade Commissioner Service team in Germany will connect Canadian companies with concrete business opportunities, identify markets for diversification, reinforce Canada as a foreign direct investment destination and establish partnerships in science, technology and innovation,” said Evelyne Coulombe, Chargée d’affaires a.i., Embassy of Canada to Germany, who was also present at the Preview.

Incidentally, Canadian company Maple Advanced Robotics Inc., won Hannover Messe’s much coveted ROBOTICS AWARD 2025, an honour that recognises companies that are driving pioneering developments in industry with their robot-assisted automation and logistics solutions, as chosen by a high-calibre jury of experts in robotics. The company’s technology solution, the Autonomous Adaptable Robotic System, will be featured at the fair this year. The system involves an AI-driven robotics platform that facilitates rapid, no-code programming.

The exhibitor sneak peek

A total of 28 exhibiting companies had put up table top displays during the Preview, offering a sneak peek at what they are bringing to the Hannover Messe 2025.  Among there were Altair Engineering, Beckhoff, ECO2GROW, Emerson, Festo, Fraunhofer, Flender, HARTING Technology Group, igus, Mantis Robotics, Ottobock, SFC Energy, Siemens, voraus robotik, and Ziehl-Abegg.

HARTING presented its vision of the All Electric Society – a world in which the entire energy requirements are covered by electricity from renewable resources, which can be achieved by coupling of certain sectors – Energy, Mobility and Rolling Stock, and Industry. In the Energy sector, the Technology Group showcased connection technology for the generation, transmission, storage and utilisation of electrical energy, among other things. The use of green hydrogen is an absolute must for the energy transition. In Mobility, the focus is not only on automobiles. In individual sectors such as construction, transport, agriculture, mining and shipping, the share of electrified drive concepts is steadily increasing. In view of increasing digitalisation and the associated increase in data rates and speeds, the mobility sector needs solutions that meet these demands. For Industry, the Group offers M12 cabling solutions with inner and outer push-pull interlocking in accordance with IEC 61076-2-010, involving applications in the  Machinery and Robotics segments, among others.

Global technology, software and engineering leader Emerson will demonstrate how it’s transforming the future of factory automation through its proven Floor to Cloud™ approach and comprehensive portfolio. Visitors to the Emerson booth will learn how companies of any size can apply a Floor to Cloud approach to drive sustainable growth, maximise performance quality and unleash workforce productivity for immediate and long-term success. One of the recent developments is the next-generation AVENTICS Series XV pneumatic valves that offer greater range and flexibility with higher flow rates to give original equipment manufacturers greater design flexibility and scalability when engineering handling systems or automation solutions.

Automation specialist Festo, to mark its 100th anniversary, has designed an extraordinary machine that will be presented for the first time at the Hannover Messe 2025. Based on the principle of a Rube Goldberg machine, it does not manufacture a specific product but tells the story of motion in automation technology that has significantly influenced the family-owned company. In a laboratory on the Festo campus in Esslingen, a completely new type of application is currently being created to mark the company's 100th anniversary. The eMotionButterfly from Festo sets the machine in motion. This impulse starts a fascinating journey of movements within the machine: into a world of industrial automation in which standing still is not an option, characterised by innovation and progress.

Siemens is presenting pioneering solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. The focus is on integrating industrial Artificial Intelligence (AI) into pharmaceutical manufacturing, significantly reducing the time from laboratory to patient. Through an intelligent laboratory environment, Siemens' end-to-end showcase demonstrates how Digital Twin technology accelerates formulation development processes, reduces operational costs, and optimises resource utilisation.

With the IX BACK VOLTON exoskeleton, ‘SUITX by Ottobock’ has developed a new, intelligent solution for physically demanding jobs in industry and logistics: People who lift heavy loads in dynamic workplaces are particularly prone to musculoskeletal disorders. The new exoskeleton offers effective support when organisational and technical measures have been exhausted. “Our new IX BACK VOLTON exoskeleton marks a true quantum leap in human-technology interaction: using built-in artificial intelligence, it adapts to the user – not the other way round. The system continuously detects the user’s individual movement patterns and offers optimal support without changing natural movement patterns,” explains David Duwe, Vice President SUITX by Ottobock Europe.

(Industrial Automation was invited to the Hannover Messe Press Preview by the organisers)