Materials handling at CeMat

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 5/1/2000

There's nothing subtle about CeMat.

To start out, it's the world's largest materials handling show covering eight halls with 1,000 exhibitors. A number of these exhibits, especially those of lift truck and industrial lift manufacturers, are not in the halls but outdoors. And as if that's not enough, CeMat is only one of six international shows held simultaneously at the Hannover, Germany fairgrounds. About 300,000 visitors walked the 26 exhibition halls for a week in late March.

CeMat, held every other year, covered everything in materials handling from lift trucks and automatic guided vehicles to monorails, storage systems, conveyors, totes, and much more. The other shows ranged from factory automation to software and industrial materials.

Despite the breadth of materials handling equipment on display, one sector in particular seemed to get more than its share of attention-lift trucks. On display by several European suppliers were rather futuristic looking models with notable new capabilities.

These lift trucks picked up a load conventionally but then the operator rotated the cab 180 deg. This allows the operator to drive forward without having to look through the mast or around the load to see what is ahead.

While some of these innovative lift trucks are only prototypes others are production models. Regardless, they certainly captured people's imaginations at the show. Our full report from Hannover will appear next month.