Control 2011, 25 years of Quality Assurance

May 3^rd - 6^th, the 25^th Control (www.control-messe.com) trade show takes place in Stuttgart, Germany. Focused on Quality in general, exhibitors showed again the huge field of applications from industrial to non- industrial and from On-Line to Offline – and how those more and more merge.

This year, more than 800 companies from more than 30 countries showed their products, services and technologies. Overall the most impressive fact was the presence and the huge spectrum of “3D- sensors”. Unfortunately there was more growth in different 3D sensors than in different and probably new applications where to use them. Theme parks, one of them dedicated to medical engineering, tried to address new markets and applications.

The application that impressed me most was the complete inspection of huge metal parts, such as exhausts, body parts and tubes. Automotive industry looking for this application since many years, could have found very convincing solutions, that according to the exhibitor already have been successful installed on customer- sites.

Talking to the exhibitors, overall statement about trade show and business was very positive.

Holger Hofmann