The world’s largest exhibition focusing on Micro/MEMS and Nanotechnologies, and the exhibition on service robot manufacturing technologies were held under the name of “Micronano 2012”, an integrated event in which various conferences and workshops took place. There were 206 exhibitors from 10 countries/regions this year, as well as 10,985 visitors from around the world.Exhibitors showcased the industries’ latest technologies and products and various programmes were run focusing on the theme “Open Innovation”. The theme aimed to drive exchange between the industry’s key players and build deeper cooperation between academia and industry. Quality and quantity of visitors to the show were high, leading to strong endorsement from exhibitors that Micronano is an influential aspect to Japan’s machinery and robotics industries. Regular exhibitor Naoki Tashiro from SIJ Technology, Inc. commented: “We invented the world’s smallest inkjet with high viscosity for use in various applications. We continue exhibiting at this fair because we want to increase our brand’s recognition. Our target visitors are R&D labs and organisations that have the technology to mass produce inkjets, and many of these firms came to our booth this year. We’ve seen many benefits to taking part in the hope to come back again next year.”

Yutaka Katano from the Japanese branch of YOLE Developpement, a regular exhibitor headquartered in France, said: “We support businesses in the MEMS sector globally, and we have many clients in Japan. Overseas’ trends in the MEMS industry has gained a lot of attention in Japan, and we are keen on providing as much information as possible to our Japanese clients to boost the domestic market. We’re getting more requests for customised market research from our clients and came to the fair to promote the service further. We were busy from the very first day and our seminar was packed. We would like to come back next year and continue to contribute to the development of this industry.”

First time exhibitor Yukio Ozawa from Fukoku Bussan Co, Ltd noted: “We manufacture the world’s first PDMS flow chamber that can be mass produced. We needed to promote this widely so we took part at this fair. Many people visited our booth and we were especially delighted that manufacturers in life science businesses such as medical equipment manufacturers attended. It was also great to  meet people who were planning to enter the field of life science.We’re happy to have taken part at the fair.”