Motek 2028

How it compares

automatica in Munich is the larger robotics and automation event, with 798 exhibitors and 49,284 visitors in 2025, and it now runs in odd-numbered years while Motek takes the even ones. Anyone comparing robot makers, cobot platforms or full turnkey cells will see more of them in Munich. Motek is the better trip when the job is detailed assembly engineering: feeding small parts, gripping, joining, dosing and checking them, with the people who design those components on the stand.

SPS - Smart Production Solutions in Nuremberg each November is the reference fair for controls, drives and industrial networks, with 1,175 exhibitors in 2025. Controls and electrical engineers belong there. Mechanical designers and assembly planners get more from Motek's narrower floor, where most stands deal with how parts move and are put together.

VISION is less an alternative than the other half of the trip. It fills the neighboring halls on the same days, and the Motek ticket covers it, so a team planning inspection or robot guidance on an assembly line can meet camera and software suppliers and the handling hardware they connect to in one visit.

Motek is the right trip for production and design engineers sourcing feeding, handling, joining and inspection hardware for assembly lines who want machine vision covered on the same visit.

Who exhibits

The 2026 list leaned toward assembly specialists from Germany and Switzerland. Feed technology came from Asyril, MAFU Automation and AFT Advanced Feeding Technologies, marking from Bluhm Systeme, and dosing from DOPAG and dosmatix, with Henkel on the bonding side. DENSO Robotics and Doosan Robotics brought robots, Cognex and LMI Technologies brought vision, and young companies such as Maddox AI and Vision4Quality showed AI-based defect detection and operator guidance.

This year's list is on its way. A HallBrief brief picks the exhibitors worth meeting for your goals and the people to talk to at each. Get a brief

Motek 2028

The 2026 show was the first in the new two-year rhythm: a three-day run in a single hall, with VISION, the new EFX electronics manufacturing expo and Quantum Effects running at the same time on a shared ticket. Exhibitors such as MAFU, Maddox AI and Asyril reported specific, technical enquiries, and forum sessions on AI in image processing, digital worker guidance and outdoor AMRs were full.

The 44th Motek and 19th Bondexpo keep that format and again share their dates with VISION at Messe Stuttgart.

• The Motek ticket also opens VISION next door, so plan the day as a route from the camera or inspection supplier to the feeder and gripper makers whose hardware it has to work with.
• The free presentation forum sits in the Motek hall and covers practical topics such as separating bulk parts, AI inspection and worker guidance; in 2026 the popular sessions filled up.
• With the venue beside Stuttgart Airport and Motek and Bondexpo now in a single hall, a same-day trip works for visitors flying in from elsewhere in Germany or neighboring countries.

Exhibiting

Space is sold per square meter with higher rates for stands open on more sides, and Schall bundles a lot into the space fee: unlimited co-exhibitors, a free second story, digital visitor tickets and a full online profile. A flat marketing fee applies to the main exhibitor and each co-exhibitor. Complete packages with a built stand cover 12 to 50 square meters, and a Start-up Area offers small packaged stands. The format pays off for component and subsystem suppliers selling to design and production engineers in southern Germany.