Schweißen und Schneiden

Every four years, the world’s leading trade fair for joining and cutting technologies – Schweißen und Schneiden – brings together experts in modern production technology and presents innovations and new products on the market. From 25 to 29 September 2017, around 1,000 exhibitors and 55,000 trade visitors met in Düsseldorf, Germany – including Fronius International Ltd, a company with global operations in welding technology, photovoltaics and battery charging technology.

Our partner Ars Electronica Solutions was entrusted with the realization of their interactive trade fair presence, from conception right up to its execution. An impressive arch of light, symbolizing the welding process, served as the fair stand’s initial eye‑catcher, complemented by light phenomena that were highlighted visually and acoustically by mediatectonic tools and transmitted from several “live welding stations” onto the central installation, the electric arc.

Eye-catcher of the interactive trade fair presentation: the “WeldCube”

The central eye-catcher of the trade fair stand was the “WeldCube”: a cube with interactive displays, which was placed in the middle of the exhibition area. The exhibit shows how Fronius collects, analyzes, and evaluates welding data in real time using a new data management system. The ongoing welding processes at the stand were visualized directly on the cube and enriched with additional data from the Fronius system. This allowed visitors to see at a glance the connection between the welding station, data flow, and intelligent evaluation.

Interactive multi-touch software and central CMS

Garamantis supported the trade fair project with customized multi-touch software. In addition, a central content management system (CMS) was used to keep the content synchronized across all stations. Info screens and PCs automatically logged into the CMS, where they were configured and continuously supplied with up-to-date content. This ensured that the entire trade fair stand remained consistent, updatable, and easy to operate.

Reference Wall: Multi-touch screen wall with 3D globe

On the “Reference Wall,” visitors could interactively explore the global sales network and customers of Fronius. The multi-touch screen wall consisted of 12 Full HD displays and showed a Unity-based 3D world with georeferenced content. This content was also played centrally via the CMS. The result was a consistent, interactive trade fair presentation – from the live welding process to the global reference overview.