On the 30th and 31st of May, the ECP4 Annual meeting was held in Athlone (Ireland). On this occasion the event took place at the Athlone Institute of Technology’s Materials Research Institute and was focused on “Industry 4.0 and how can it transform the European plastics and composite industry”.
The speakers at the conference included John Wallace, Chairman of Polymer Technology Ireland, who offered an overview of the industry in Ireland. Subsequently, representatives of the Academy presented their projects in this field, Prof. Conor McCarthy, Director Confirm Center for Smart Manufacturing and Niall Murray, Founder and Pi Truly Immersive and Interactive Multimedia Experiences, Software Research Institute, AIT. Finally, the vision of the companies in the sector was shared by Mike Wilson (ABB robotics); David Keely (Innovation at Enterprise Ireland) and Declan Byrne (TSM Control systems); and David Raine (Fanuk UK).
To end the day, the members of ECP4 visited the leading companies in the sector: Trend Technologies and Robotics and Drives.
The next ECP4 Annual Meeting will be hosted by Proplast in Milano and the dates will be announced in September 2018.