SPS 2024 Exclusive Report
31 January 2025 
Image: Mesago Messe Frankfurt / Arturo Rivas Gonzalez
Despite the weak German economy, the 2024 SPS automation show managed to attract a similar number of visitors and exhibitors to the 2023 event. We look at some of the technologies and products that made their debut at the show.
The 2024 edition of the SPS (Smart Production Solutions) automation exhibition – the 33rd in the series – attracted around 51,300 visitors and just over 1,100 exhibitors to its Nuremberg venue. These figures were similar to the 2023 event, which attracted 50,000 visitors and 1,229 exhibitors.
The 2024 show was spread across 16 exhibition halls, covering a total area of 125,000m2.
“In view of the current challenging economic situation in the industry, this increase in visitor numbers compared to the previous year is a strong and important signal for the automation sector,” says Martin Roschkowski, president of Mesago Messe Frankfurt, which organised the event.
“The SPS is the flagship event for the automation industry,” adds Steffen Winkler, CSO of Bosch Rexroth’s automation business. “Even in difficult economic times, the SPS remains an important platform for innovation and discussion.”
SPS has a lot of fans who believe that, unlike some other events that are essentially corporate shop windows, the Nuremberg exhibition is a meeting place for engineers. “The SPS attracts experts who listen to one another. It is a hub for technical professionals and developers,” says Stefan Hoppe, president and executive director of the OPC Foundation. “At no other exhibition can I meet so many technical decision-makers from other companies. That’s what makes the SPS truly unique.”
The 2025 SPS will take place from 25-27 November, thus returning to its traditional timing of the last week in November as happened in pre-Covid years.
Between exhibitions, the SPS offers digital events such as its monthly Technology Talks and the SPS Insights. On 22 May 2025, it will premiere an Industrial Technology Summit in Stuttgart to offer industry experts and decision-makers a further platform to discuss technological advances and their uses in automation.
On this Web site, we have reported on some of the products and technologies on show to visitors to SPS 2024. Tghey are listed below.
♦ Wear-free solid-state starter is ‘1,000 times faster’
♦ Motion and logic controller is a ‘paradigm shift’ for machine controls
♦ IPCs with Nvidia GPUs deliver 25-fold acceleration to shopfloor AI
♦ Clickable busbar distribution system will halve assembly times
♦ Drives-based platform will allow users to create custom applications
♦ Open approach to safety programming ‘overcomes barriers’
♦ Festo’s open automation platform is based on PLCnext
♦ Tool allows machine learning at a machine, avoiding need for the cloud
♦ Smart diagnostics built into servodrives will cut maintenance costs
♦ PNO declares that its SPE connector is a ‘a step into the future’
♦ Software-based machines ‘will define the factory of the future’
♦ Virtual PLCs could open up new applications
♦ New version of TIA Portal boosts performance and extends support for PLCs
♦ Integrated motor-drive is claimed to reach efficiencies up to ‘IE7’
♦ Next-gen MV drives detect problems up to ten times faster
♦ Raspberry Pi based IPC can act as a gateway or a soft-PLC
♦ Pinpoint LEDs enhance photoelectric set-up and reliability
♦ Beckhoff unveils next-gen PLCs, VSDs, servodrives and I/Os at SPS
♦ IPC motion controller leads Schneider releases at SPS show
♦ Chinese automation giant enters European AC motors market
♦ Siemens-Eplan data sharing will accelerate machine engineering
