W3+ Fair Rhine Valley 2021: High-tech innovations in Dornbirn
As the curtain is about to rise on 22 September 2021 for the W3+ Fair Rhine Valley, a trade show for the optics, photonics, electronics and mechanics sectors, exhibitors are giving some initial glimpses into the highlights they’ll be presenting this year at Dornbirn. Numerous company stands will be putting innovations on show for the very first time after the lockdown.
Hamburg, 1 September 2021. 22+23 September will see the W3+ Fair Rhine Valley high-tech show and conference (www.w3-fair.com) take place at the Exhibition Centre Dornbirn in Austria. Major companies such as Bruker, S.I.E Solutions, EOS, Swarotec and Materion Optics Balzers will be there, along with numerous hidden champions. The trade fair is a platform for technology providers to meet invited experts from key application areas such as medical technology, life science, automotive, aerospace, tools & machinery and consumer electronics. After a lengthy dry spell with no trade shows or opportunities for face-to-face exchanges, more than 100 exhibitors, partners, and speakers are now looking forward to again presenting their innovations live to trade visitors at the W3+ Fair, a unique cross-industry platform.
One exhibitor at Dornbirn, nortus Optronic, will be presenting the Interferometer D7, a new compact system, which sets new standards in interferometric measurement technology with a precision of Lambda/1000 or 0.6 nm and enhanced levels of user-friendliness.
DIOPTIC: New automation scratch and dig inspection system, and new lens series
The DIOPTIC stand will feature the ARGOS matrix 200, a new automated scratch/dig inspection system for optical surfaces. The system detects scratches, digs, edge chipping and coating defects down to 1 µm in size, and assesses components in accordance with ISO 10110-7 or the customer’s own specific specifications. Another DIOPTIC trade fair debut will be its new product line of 70 double-sided telecentric lenses for sensors with a diagonal of 11.5 mm to 44 mm and object sizes from 25 mm to 315 mm. The modular design for every sensor size covers the entire fields of view range.
Phoenix Optical Technologies: 6 times tougher than before
A new, ultra-stable, optical construction element for photonics and special applications will be presented by Phoenix Optical Technologies at the W3+ Rhine Valley. It is 6 times tougher than all conventional optical protective glass types, meaning it has more impact resistance than any other standard lenses available on the market, and it offer reliable protection in application areas with exposure to extreme environmental conditions.
VON ARDENNE: Coating systems innovation for precision optics
As a PVD systems and technologies vendor, VON ARDENNE will be presenting its latest platform, OPTA X, which was specially developed for the most demanding coating systems in the precision optics sector. The turntable system delivers the greatest precision coatings for optical filters, as well as anti-reflecting and high-reflecting coatings extending across the UV to the IR spectrums.
Materion Balzers Optics: New space-saving CupLid Cavity windows
Specially designed for the packaging of photonic chips, photodetectors, laser diodes, LEDs and MEMS mirrors, Materion Balzers Optics has developed CupLid Cavity Windows – a space-saving surface-mounted housing. CupLid Cavity windows form a fine-leak hermetic package by solder bonding a window cavity with a ceramic submount (alumina or AlN) under a vacuum or inert gas atmosphere. CupLids are available with various anti-reflecting or filter coatings and can be shipped fully-furnished with solder preforms.
HOYA Optics Europe: New SD-2 glass for anodic bonding
HOYA Optics Europe’s new SD-2 glass has been specially developed for anodic bonding using Si wafers. The bond is creating by pressing and heating the wafer, while a stress force is applied to it. Borosilicate glass is frequently used as the bonding material for Si wafers. The CTE curves of borosilicate glass and silicon intersect at 240°C. When the anodic bonding takes place at 400°C , the differing expansion rates under cooling produce residual stresses within the Si chip. In contrast, SD-2 has the same CTE as silicon, and enables bonding to be performed without any stresses occurring.
alphacam demonstrating 3D printing live at the fair
alphacam is the German-speaking region’s solitary provider of the complete product portfolio of the 3D printing market-leader, Stratasys. Alongside FDM 3D industrial printing, the company’s portfolio has been strategically expanded to successively include Desktop Metal, One Click Metal and, for the first time this year, Tritone Technologies. 3D printed components will be presented at Dornbirn. A 3D printer installed on-site will also demonstrate the benefits of the technology.
Lot size 1 with fpm with the aid of additive manufacturing
As a globally renowned manufacturer of precision parts and producer of surveying instruments, fpm, from Freiberg in Saxony, will be showcasing its know-how in precision engineering optics, the production of high-precision parts and their arrangement into complete assembly units. The use of cutting-edge additive manufacturing methods facilitates customer-specific lot sizes of 1 to max. 1000 units using a diverse range of materials.
High-resolution and detail identification from SWAROTEC
Telecentric lenses produce a constantly sized image of an object with no distortion whatever the distance – a key capability for many devices used in measurement, inspection and production engineering. SWAROTEC develops and manufactures customised system solutions for industrial applications. SWAROTEC ‘s telecentric lens has an impressively high resolution – resolutions in the single-digit μm range are no problem – and detail identification will be one of the functions highlighted at the company’s stand.
Novel Optics will be at the W3+ Rhine Valley to present its latest components and modules for LiDAR, camera and other optical sensor solutions. One novel development are its lenses for automotive ADAS cameras with various fields of view, and which are compatible with Mobileye and Nvidia-based system solutions. Other innovations include camera modules with liquid lenses for harsh operating conditions and modules for automotive Surround View and DMS.
Sill Optics has earned its reputation as an international specialist for customised product developments and standardised solutions in the photonic technologies sector. One of the highlights at the tradeshow stand this year will be its F-Theta lenses for welding applications, designed for two wave lengths at 450 nm and in the infrared spectrum between 1030 nm – 1090 nm.
The innovation on show at the stand of the Swiss-based company, KYBURZ SAPPHIRE, is its expertise in the highly precise manufacture and inspection of nano-level micro lenses, which are essential for making negative lenses and meniscus lenses with a radius of 0.95 to 9.53 mm for use in medical technology.
NANEO is a specialist in the development and manufacture of particularly durable optical coatings for customers in the laser industry, microscopy, life sciences and research. Ahead of the W3+ Fair, the company has just announced the commissioning of its newest IBS coating plant, its third such system. The increased production capacities this entails, means it now has the resources needed to quickly fulfil coating jobs placed at short-notice.
ACKTAR is coming to Dornbirn to demonstrate the advantages of its super black products. They enhance signal strengths and detectability, meaning they also boost the speed and efficiency of analyses and diagnostics. The individualised optimisation of lighting and the suppression or exclusion of unwanted light signals is crucial in bio-analytics, as one example.
ACMIT is a research and development centre operating in the field of medical technology and it boasts an EN ISO 13485-certified quality management system . It service range on show at W3+ Fair will include R&D services starting with the idea and culminating in the series production-ready medical device, usability engineering and testing, made-to-order small series production and the development of medical products. ACMIT’s role is to function as an incubator for start-ups and it has more than 60 international corporate and clinical partners.
Of course, the W3+ Fair at Dornbirn wouldn’t be complete without RhySearch, the Rhine Valley Research and Innovation Centre. RhySearch collaborates with industrial partners, offers in-house research services, and is the contact point for firms seeking wide-ranging research and innovation support. RhySearch provides know-how for process and product solutions right across the optical coating and precision manufacturing production chain. Attending the W3+ Rhine Valley is also like being on home turf for the OST: Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences. The university’s technical education offering includes its Systems Engineering degree course delivered at the Buchs campus, where students are taught the practical fundamentals of engineering. Equally important are the practical research initiatives conducted by the OST’s institutes in partnership with the industry.
All exhibitors at this year’s W3+ Rhine Valley are eagerly anticipating personally meeting and greeting customers – whether existing or potential – and sharing ideas with them.
More information available at www.w3-fair.com
W3+ Fair Rhine Valley image material – with permission to reprint – is available here: www.w3-messe.de/de/Presse/Pressefotos_Rheintal_2019.html
At a glance:
Event: W3+ Fair Rhine Valley, specialist trade fair and high-tech conference for technology-driven innovation
When: 22+23 September 2021
Where: Exhibition Centre Dornbirn, Austria
Opening times: 9.30 am – 5.00 pm
Admission prices: Day tickets 25 euro / Two-day ticket 40 euro
About the W3+ Fair
Originally established as an industry initiative between the administrations of Wetzlar and Mittelhessen, the event seeks to encourage networking within the optics, electronics and mechanics sectors. The aim is that these newly created interfaces will promote the development of forward-looking technologies. The inaugural trade fair took place in the Rittal Arena in Wetzlar in February 2014. Wetzlar Network and EPIC are Gold Partners to the event. The W3+ Fair/Convention is organised by FLEET Events of Hamburg (www.fleet-events.de). The W3+ Fair Rhine Valley event was held for the first time in the transnational region of Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany in September 2019 with EPIC, Swissphotonics and Photonics Austria as its Gold Partners
