Trade fair in Italy BI-MU 2022 closes on a positive note

On Saturday 15th October, BI-MU, the biennial exhibition of machine tools, robotics, automation, digital and additive manufacturing closed its 33rd edition. Ucimu-Sistemi Per Produrre, the Italian machine tools, robots and automation systems manufacturers' association, and the organiser Efim report high visitor numbers and satisfied exhibitors.

33.BI-MU showcased the solutions of almost 700 exhibiting companies, of which 37 percent came from abroad, occupying a total surface area of 65,000 square metres in four halls.

In addition to the over 42,000 professional visitors registered at the turnstiles (five percent from abroad), the organisers estimated that about 8,000 visitors came from Xylexpo. The number is calculated based on the intention expressed by 85 percent of the visitors during their pre-registration for the trade show dedicated to woodworking technologies (held in the neighbouring halls). These data confirm that the organisers made a positive choice to organise BI-MU and Xylexpo in full conjunction, because all this allowed free circulation of visitors from one event to the other. The 2018 edition had registered 65,000 visitors for over 1,000 exhibiting enterprises.

Among the foreign visitors, there were also 100 visitors, mostly end users, in addition to several journalists, coming from 13 countries — Australia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, India, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam - invited within the business mission organised by Ucimu in cooperation with ICE-Italian Trade Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of International Cooperation.

Alfredo Mariotti, general manager of Ucimu, stated: “We haven’t seen such crowded aisles and such full exhibition stands for many editions. It is a sign that the proposal of this BI-MU met the approval of the public, despite the uncertainty of the context affected by many problems, first of all by the energy crisis”.

“The first exhibitors’ opinions we collected are definitely positive, with regard to the number, as well as to the quality of contacts collected. Considering the number of present visitors — continued Alfredo Mariotti — if compared with the 2018 edition, the last one before the pandemic, 33.BI-MU was more successful”.

33.BI-MU offered the present operators a full programme of in-depth cultural and thematic meetings, hosted within the BI-MUpiù arena. Over 60 speeches were arranged by the organisers and exhibitors and involved more than 1,900 attendees and about 12,500 users connected online thanks to the live streaming service available in the homepage of the website bimu.it. Among these 12,500, 3,000 users stayed online between 30 minutes and two hours.

About twenty meetings, organised in the piùAdditive area, also attracted hundreds of operators interested in learning more about additive manufacturing and its multiple and varied applications.

The Annual Conference of I-RIM, the Italian Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines, which has chosen the biennial to hold its two-day work session, gathered about one hundred attendees, including professors, scholars, researchers and experts, engaged in the academic and research activity focused on the world of industrial robotics.

With Ucimu Academy, about 3,500 students visited the exhibition accompanied by their teachers. In addition, 300 more students took part in the tours guided by tutors of the Association, who illustrated features, value and strengths of the sector.

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