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October 2004
City of music, coffee and cream cakes set to welcome Congress
Vienna, city of Mozart and Strauss, is the venue for the
2004 PM World Congress and Exhibition and a truly international
cross section of the PM world will be there for four days
of technical sessions, business exchanges and less formal
discussions. But it's not all serious and Vienna has a light-hearted
reputation...
The wagons roll into Vienna this month to set up the stalls
and halls at the Austria Centre for the "Greatest PM
Show on Earth" - the 2004 World Congress and Exhibition.
This latest in the biennial series of World Congresses is
a first for Austria and provides an especial focus for PM
people based in the Eastern European new member countries
of the European Union. It is six years since a World Congress
was last held in Europe.
But interest is strong too from the US and Asia. European,
US and Asian companies are among entrants in the prestigious
EPMA Innovation Awards, sponsored this year by Metal Powder
Report, in categories for Components, Materials and Production
Equipment as well as the International section. They will
be presented at the EPMA Awards Lunch on Tuesday, 19 October.
As ever, the event offers a packed technical programme over
the four-day event offering some 500 papers and posters covering
the spectrum of PM activity across the globe.
After the opening ceremony and a welcome from Congress Chairman
Peter Mitterbauer, President of the Miba Group, delegates
will hear a presentation from Austria's Federal Minister for
Economic Affairs and Labour, Dr Martin Bartenstein, on business
and economics in Austria.
He will be followed to the podium by the EPMA's Cesar Molins,
the JPMA's Yoshio Hirano and the MPIF's David Schaeffer, who
will review PM activities in Europe, Asia and the US respectively.
A new feature of this year's event will be the End-User Day
on 21 October. The morning session - The end-user meets PM
- will provide a chance for end-users to learn about the latest
innovations and potential of PM technologies. In the afternoon
a reciprocal session - PM meets the end-user - will feature
plenary lectures by invited experts from outside the PM industry
presenting their views on developments in their respective
industries and outline future opportunities for PM.
Most importantly for the long-term interests of the industry,
the Vienna Congress will also see the launch of the PM Properties
Global database (See Newsview),
the fruit of two years' hard work and complex - at times delicate
- negotiation between the European Powder Metallurgy Association
and their US and Japanese counterparts. The database represents
a real step forward on the road towards standardisation across
the global PM industry and will enable design engineers to
assess, almost at a glance, the suitability of PM materials
for particular configurations and designs. The hope is that
by easing user access to otherwise sometimes confusing data,
powder metallurgy will move up the order of consideration
when component design answers are being sought in the competitive
and rapidly changing automotive and other high-tech industries.
The Congress will be rounded off with a Gala Dinner at Vienna
City Hall. Delegates will be able to find less formal relaxation
at the many coffee house and bars in the maze of streets near
St Stephen's cathedral. But for those accompanying delegates
a diverse programme of trips in and around the ancient capital
can include a morning tour of the town, followed by a trip
to the Vienna Woods, the country playground for city dwellers
in the afternoon. Mozart's connections with Vienna are explored
in Mozart's Vienna and a Panorama Tour is another option.
And for those delegates still truly wedded to their work
after four days of intensive discussion, post-Congress tours
can be taken on Friday 22 October to the Fiat powertrain plant
at Aspern, the Battenfeld moulding plant at Kottingbrun or
the Böhlerit tungsten carbide plant in Kapfenberg, before
heading for the airport and a weekend at home.
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