Faced with challenges from rising costs, growing competition and the need to raise productivity, manufacturers have begun assuming greater technological leadership, especially in converging high-end manufacturing equipment with next-generation ICT. These technological advances in automation, robotics and 3D printing are on show at MTA2015 - The Precision Engineering Industry Event.

The International Federation of Robotics states that demand for industrial robots will continue at an average annual growth rate of 12% between 2015 and 2017. In Asia and Australia, robot sales are expected to increase by around an average of 16% a year. The automotive and electronics industries will continue to see increasing investment in robots. Mr. Lim Say Leong, Assistant Vice President, ABB, thinks that in a new era of robotics, collaborati...