SmartFluidPower participated in SMAU 2023, an important event in Italy about innovation and startups, in which various protagonists of innovation come into contact through events created specifically to encourage connections among all the realities.

The days 18 and 19 of October, interactions were promoted through different methods of meeting between supply and demand for innovation: Startup Safari (guided tours through the various start-ups), speed pitching, themed workshops and networking events on specific subjects.

Among the 150 leading startups, SmartFluidPower was selected to present its innovative solution in a stand within the regional sector of Emilia-Romagna (10 startups in this sector) thanks to the fundamental support of ART-ER.

During the 2 days of the event, we had valuable networking opportunities with the startups and also with the other protagonists of the event, including various corporates, institutions and investors.

The objective set and which we managed to achieve through these meetings in such a large and varied event, is to make ourselves better known in our sector but also to explore different areas, not completely focused on fluid power.

We are therefore referring both to companies that have small parts of their systems with fluid power (worth noting several cases that use pneumatics), and to those who generally wish to enter the world of virtual simulation: in this second case, in fact, it was very useful the comparison with the most disparate needs (multi-phase fluids, heat transmission, robotics applications, etc.) for ideas for diversification and expansion of our products and services.

Finally, within the Live Show entitled ‘New digital processes in the Industry 4.0 of the future‘ we had the opportunity to present ourselves in 90s in a group of 9 startups related to this topic.

The second part of the workshop focused on more in-depth interviews with 7 protagonists of this sector, winners of the ‘2023 Smau Innovation Award’. Among this selection of companies excellent in innovation within Industry 4.0, there is Vis Hydraulics which presented the hydraulic valve simulation project created with the virtual library of SmartFluidPower.

The project, that allowed Vis Hydraulics to win the award, goes beyond the ‘simple’ simulation of the components, proving to be highly innovative in several aspects:

• the flexible OpenModelica open-source environment with direct access to the code, combined with the Modelica language specific for multi-domain systems
• the possibility of exchanging closed models with partners, allowing co-simulation also in other software
• the use of simplified and personalized interfaces based on the skills of the users, in order to transfer and share know-how: in this way access to the simulation is also opened up to operators who do not have specific training for the software, but have great experience and knowledge of the product

The event was fundamental in particular for the comparison with the excellence of innovation in Italy in sectors even distant from fluid power, but which allowed us to broaden the development horizons of our simulation products and services dedicated to companies.