The Hanover Fair is being held as a virtual event this year, known as the “Digital Days”. Rittal will be one of the ten premium partners at the digital debut on 14 and 15 July. Experts from the Friedhelm Loh Group will take part in a live link-up from the Rittal Innovation Center in Haiger and will be involved in top-class panel discussions, keynote speeches and presentations of innovations at no less than seven digital events:

• High-level talk with Dr. Friedhelm Loh (kick-off event on 14 July at 10:15 a.m.): “BDI Economic Forum: Forward to the New – New opportunities for progress?” Peter Altmaier, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy; Klaus Helmrich, Siemens AG; Oliver Jung, Festo AG; Professor Dieter Kempf, President of the BDI (Federation of German Industries); Friedhelm Loh of the Friedhelm Loh Group; Rolf Najork, Robert Bosch GmbH; and Thomas Saueressig of SAP SE.

• Presentation of the 2020 Hermes Award (14 July at 2:30 p.m.): The Friedhelm Loh Group’s subsidiary German Edge Cloud has been nominated for the world’s most important industry award for ONCITE, the AI-based and real-time capable edge cloud data centre. ONCITE is located directly in the factory and ensures that data can be evaluated there in real time and in close proximity.

• Session 1 (14 July at 12:30 p.m.): “Digital integration of value chains – opportunities for competitiveness”. Speaker: Dr Thomas Steffen, Managing Director Research and Development at Rittal.

• Session 2 (15 July at 6 p.m.): “The ecosystem of industrial automation”. Speaker: Haluk Menderes, Managing Director of Eplan.

• Innovation Track (14 July at 4 p.m.): “The compact enclosure and the digital twin – integrated value creation using the example of the AX portfolio”. Speaker: Michael Schell, Vice President Product Management at Rittal.

• Track 2 (15 July at 2 p.m.): “IT for industry: from the rack to AI – real solutions for intelligent industries”. Speaker: Radek Stolar, Head of Business Development & Strategy IT Global at Rittal.

• Round table (14 July at 4 p.m.): “Data in industry: big or small, edge or cloud”. Participants: With Bernd Kremer, Head of Business ONCITE Industrial at IoTos / German Edge Cloud.

The world’s fastest IT rack

This year, the focus is on IT. Rittal proudly unveils its new VX IT rack system, an innovative modular system of variants for server and network racks at a trade fair. New IT infrastructures can now be assembled at unprecedented speed, from individual network racks to entire data centres. The VX IT offers maximum configuration freedom with a quick and easy online tool, fully certified with all components. That is unique.

Greater transparency in energy consumption

To ensure maximum transparency about how much energy IT solutions consume, Rittal has integrated wide-ranging measurement functions for detailed energy analysis in its new PDU (Power Distribution Unit) product range. The PDUs can be configured online. IT users can now implement high-quality power distribution based on individual needs within any IT rack both quickly and easily.

Faster processes in plant engineering

Together with its sister company Eplan, another partner of Hannover Messe Digital Days, Rittal will be showing how panel builders and switchgear manufacturers can successively establish a value chain that has data consistency. Virtually every element in plant engineering – from engineering and configuration to machining and fully automatic wire processing can be linked automatically and consistently through the highly efficient interplay of digital processes. The key to this is the digital twin. Rittal also supplies automation solutions that make these processes easier, faster, more precise and more reproducible.

Enclosure technology for Industry 4.0

How can housings and enclosure systems help with digitisation? Rittal has the answer with the new AX and KX compact and small enclosures series and the VX25 enclosure system, now rounded off with new, outdoor plastic enclosures. The enclosures incorporate digital equipment and fit ideally into the digital value chain of panel building and switchgear manufacturing. Alongside the high-quality 3D data and configuration tools, the presence of QR codes, for instance, on all the panels to be machined makes it easier to integrate them into the production workflow, thereby paving the way for cutting-edge digital monitoring at every stage – from goods receipt all the way through to completion.

Efficiency in outdoor cooling

Other product innovations include the Blue e+ outdoor cooling units, which are equipped with energy–saving and environmentally friendly climate control technology. Major savings can be made using Rittal’s innovative Blue e+ technology, which can also considerably reduce systems CO2 output.

Solutions for the automobile industry

Electric power demands are rising relentlessly across many industrial applications. This is leading to greater demands being placed on electricity distribution systems. Here, Rittal’s answer is the complete VX25 Ri4Power system for constructing type-tested low-voltage switchgear of up to 6,300 A. And thanks to the Power Engineering software application, the system is easy to configure, quick to install and saves a very large amount of copper.

For the future: Together with its partners, Rittal is also designing the central infrastructure elements that are needed to set up charging stations for e-mobility. The system provider is producing components for this infrastructure to be used along the entire value chain from power generation through to climate control for the charging station.