At EMO in Hanover, Schwäbische Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH, the global market leader in the field of multi-spindle machining centers for cutting all kinds of materials, took its trade fair presence to a new, digital level with Vuframe.

Like many other mechanical engineering companies, trade fairs present SW with the challenge of presenting its own product and service portfolio in a clear and, at best, comprehensive manner.

It is usually difficult to physically exhibit the entire product range on the trade fair stand. What's more, the transportation of such large machines or even systems to the trade fair, as well as the weeks of assembly and subsequent dismantling, involve considerable effort and extremely high costs.

Without compromising on the information content and presentation of the product range, the world market leader set itself the goal of presenting its products in a progressive way at this year's EMO. The use of modern technology was a central part of the strategy to stand out from the competition and leave a lasting impression on trade fair visitors and interested parties.

“Exhibiting the full range of products at the trade fair is not possible.” - André Harter, Head of Marketing & Business Development

Digital strategy

This digital strategy was implemented quickly and easily using a Windows application. All machine models were shown interactively in 3D on three large touchscreens integrated into the stand concept. Associated information material, data sheets and relevant documents, which were integrated into the app and could be called up at any time, were also directly accessible.

The user-friendly application not only allowed the machine manufacturer's employees to digitally support and optimize their discussions at the trade fair, but also allowed visitors to explore the products independently on the screen.

New opportunities

André Harter, Head of Marketing and Business Development, definitely sees the digital approach as an advantage: “The Vuframe app has opened up new possibilities for us at the trade fair. Exhibiting the full range of products at the trade fair is not possible. But the immersive product presentation gave visitors a holistic overview of SW's diverse smart manufacturing solutions.”

From the idea to the app

The preparation of the app for the trade fair was in the hands of Marius Möhle, who is training to become an industrial clerk at SW. Using Vuframe's web-based CMS, called Studio, he designed the app himself in the weeks before the trade fair and entered all the relevant content about the company and the various products.

He was amazed at how easy it was to create an app without any programming knowledge: “Working with Studio was extremely intuitive and easy. I was able to upload content of any kind effortlessly and integrate it seamlessly into the application. I was also able to customize our own content according to our individual ideas using the numerous options in the Studio.”

The result was impressive. The company's employees were always equipped with the information they needed and were even able to show interested parties machines that were not physically on display at the trade fair. In addition, the costs and effort involved in transporting machines to the trade fair and setting up and dismantling them were reduced.

Conclusion

The feedback from both the SW employees from Marketing and Sales and from the trade fair visitors was consistently positive, so that the application will also be used at other trade fairs in the future and will also be made available to Sales on mobile devices.