Plant and Asset Management Exhibition to return in April

With only a couple months to go until the Plant & Asset Management Exhibition returns to the NEC, event organiser DFA Media is excited about the prospects for the event.

Plant & Asset Management 2016, the UK's premier event for plant, asset, maintenance and works management engineers and directors, will once again open its doors to showcase the very latest in condition monitoring, computerised maintenance management, outsourcing/contract maintenance, energy efficiency, boilers/burners/combustion, handling and storage plus much more.

Industry spends huge sums of money maintaining its plant, machinery and building assets and, because of constantly increasing business and financial pressures, there is an on-going need to achieve the best performance from those assets. The combination of the exhibition and concurrent seminars really is a one-stop shop for all industrial engineering professionals to source solutions to these problems, with many companies in the sector represented at the show (for a full exhibitor list please visit www.maintenanceuk-expo.com).

2014's co-location of events was highly praised by exhibitors and trade bodies alike, with an official attendance figure of 12,793. This was an increase of nearly 15 per cent on 2012 and amounted to a notably exceptional figure for a UK-based B2B exhibition.

Event organiser DFA Media says the overall 2016 co-location could increase in size by as much as 20 per cent compared with 2014. Ian Atkinson, DFA Media managing director, comments: "For 2016 we will build on the success of our 2014 show by further improving the look and layout of each exhibition within our co-location of events, as well as making it as easy as possible for visitors to navigate their way around each separate event."

Free technical seminars

Complementing the Plant & Asset Management 2016 will be a full programme of FREE technical seminars, with speakers offering expert insight and practical advice on important and topical issues concerning today's maintenance professionals. At a time when engineers are under increasing pressure, and time out of the office for attending exhibitions needs to be balanced against heavy workloads, one growing justification is attending a well-balanced and focused seminar programme where gaining further industry knowledge is at the core.

Ian Atkinson, DFA Media managing director, comments: "The anticipated variety and scope of the seminar programme for 2016 is extremely exciting, adding real value. The combination of leading manufacturing events, with a highly focused seminar programme, will give visitors a genuine opportunity to keep abreast of the latest industry developments."

The Plant & Asset Management 2016 free seminars will include sessions on Improving maintenance: how a combination of condition monitoring technology and international standards can help; The convergence of calibration activities with maintenance inspections to drive efficiency; Quantifying the business case for timely maintenance or asset renewal; Managing plant availability & lifecycle cost; Oil sampling and analysis - online and onsite tests; Steam trap management; Challenges and opportunities in lubricating modern integrated systems; One-stop maintenance, repair and overhaul of rotating equipment; Learn how less can be more: develop a multi-skilled workforce; De-risking your electrical infrastructure by identifying problems early; New horizons in asset reliability.

In addition Paul Sacker, Crimson Industrial Vision, will present an overview of the current status of the thermography technology market. Specific references will be made to the increased user choice of resolution; an explanation of the technology used in various image overlay and resolution enhancement incorporated in thermography cameras, and their increasing use in production quality and NDT applications.

Other presentations will include Jyoti Sinha from the University of Manchester, who will look at vibration-based condition monitoring of rotating machines; Andrew Starr, Cranfield University, will present a session on autonomous maintenance scheduling; Tom Berry from GE will look at production asset reliability (PAR) - predictive maintenance to better manage your assets; and Geoff Walker from Artesis will present a session on improving maintenance: how a combination of condition monitoring technology and international standards can help. George Varga, SPM Instrument, will also look at the economic benefits of condition-based maintenance.

These are just a few of the range of seminars being presented at the 2016 Plant & Asset Management Exhibition. The full seminar programme, including full session synopses, can be viewed at www.maintenanceuk-expo.com, from where you can pre-register for both the exhibition and seminars.