For the first time ever, the Hannover Fair was held as a purely digital forum, with Rittal as one of the ten premium partners of the “Digital Days” on 14 and 15 July 2020. The system provider presented its range of services and innovations through the web from a virtual trade fair booth and by live video presentations direct from the Rittal Innovation Center. ONCITE, the first AI-based and real-time capable edge cloud solution for in-house Industry 4.0 processes was one of the highlights: it was nominated for the 2020 Hermes Award. There was also a focus on IT-infrastructure solutions, such as the new VX IT rack, as well as on quicker value creation processes in panel building and switchgear manufacturing.
Experts from the Friedhelm Loh Group took part in a live link-up from the Rittal Innovation Center in Haiger and were involved in top-class panel discussions, keynote speeches and presentations of innovations at no less than seven digital events.
The world’s fastest IT rack
This year, the focus was on IT. Rittal proudly unveiled 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 showed 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.
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.
