All aboard the technology train

British industry will be invited to open its eyes to the sheer possibilities of new technology next month when automation, controls and project management giant Siemens Automation and Drives rolls out its multi-million euro Explorer computerised exhibition train across the UK. The train will be officially opened on 24 April at Euston station by secretary of state for the DTI Patricia Hewitt. It will then go the Mach Show at the NEC from 29 April to 1 May, before doing the rounds of Swindon, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Leeds, returning to the NEC for the Drives & Controls exhibition at the end of May. UK marketing manager Ian Bowman says it’s a train and an exhibition with a difference. “It showcases what we’ve done around the world, it shows best practice, it shows applications, and it shows up front what’s possible – the scope of our industry expertise.” The train is 300 metres long, occupying 14 wagons and providing an interactive, multi-media experience covering everything from process industry operations and technologies, to discrete manufacturing automation process advances and on to modern machine building and buildings infrastructure, with Siemens’ totally integrated automation technology and implementation services. Siemens, says Bowman, is following the lead of its American business and shrugging off its dour Teutonic engineering excellence roots in favour of image building. During 2002 and beyond the Siemens Explorer train will travel the length and breadth of Europe. “It’s our main event for this year,” says Bowman. “Only an event the size of the Hanover Fair can do justice to the scale of our engineering portfolio. The train allows us to bring that portfolio to the whole of Europe.” Bowman insists that Siemens hopes the train will act as a stimulant to the UK’s manufacturing economy, and hence the DTI’s buy-in to the launch. But he concedes that it’s not entirely altruism: “If manufacturing isn’t here, we’re not here. We are manufacturing,” he says. Also represented on the train at several of its stop-offs will be Siemens Business Services, Fujitsu Siemens, Aurega (now the Software House, Siemens’ world-wide IT and integration arm) and Siemens Mobile.