Industry 4.0 Centre of the Silesian University of Technology at the Maintenance Poland and Control & Drives Poland fairs
From 20th to 22nd January 2026, the International Maintenance Poland and Control & Drives Poland fairs took place at Ptak Warsaw Expo in Nadarzyn. The event was an opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience for representatives of the industry. The substantive partner of the fair was the Industry 4.0 Centre of the Silesian University of Technology, which organized two conferences.
The conference focused on key trends of innovation in maintenance, as well as current directions of development of drive and control solutions. The speakers of both conferences were representatives of universities, research institutes, and leading companies in the field of a given subject, and the participants of the events represented the management staff and specialists of companies in the manufacturing sector.
The conference “Innovative solutions in response to contemporary challenges of maintenance in industrial practice” was opened by Dr Andrzej Soldaty - Director of the Industry 4.0 Centre of the Silesian University of Technology and Prof. Ilona Jacyna-Gołda – Director of the Institute of Organization of Production Systems of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology. The introductory speeches presented current key trends in maintenance systems and indicated the role of the university as an active participant in shaping these trends, both through research and teaching activities.
The conference program focused on the most important issues determining the direction of the transformation of maintenance, including progress in the effective use of the digital twin in this area. Innovative methods of maintenance based on the application of artificial intelligence were the subject of the presentation by Prof. Anna Timofiejczuk from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Silesian University of Technology. Other presentations included issues related to the digitization of maintenance, modern IT tools, predictive maintenance, machine service in the “Manufacturer 4.0” model and change management, presented by representatives of Siemens Polska, Profesal, QRmaint, Bosch Rexroth, Turck and Explitia”.
The second conference, entitled “Innovative drive and control solutions in response to contemporary challenges in industrial practice,” was held on the 21st of January. The conference was opened by the Director of the Industry 4.0 Centre, referring to the main challenges faced by modern industry in relation to the area of drives and controls.
- In this respect, it is necessary to ensure functional security, cybersecurity, energy efficiency, ease of engineering and predictive maintenance – said Dr Andrzej Soldaty.
The following presentations discussed issues related to the cyber resilience of industrial systems, modern motion control solutions, functional safety and integration of drive control, logic, and safety, presented by representatives of NASK PIB, Mitsubishi Electric Europe, Beckhoff and OMRON.
The next part of the conference was opened by Dr Dominik Rabsztyn from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Silesian University of Technology, entitled “Modern hydrotronic drives in relation to the assumptions of the fourth industrial revolution.” This topic was complemented by presentations by representatives of Bosch Rexroth and Festo, devoted to the energy efficiency of hydraulic systems and intelligent monitoring of the condition of electric drives using solutions based on artificial intelligence.
-The conference program prepared by the Industry 4.0 Centre of the Silesian University of Technology and realized in cooperation with partners was a perfect complement to the exhibition, it allowed to show not only the current state of technology development in the area of drives and controls, but also new trends - said Dr Eng. Damian Krenczyk, Prof. SUT, Deputy Director of the Industry 4.0 Centre.
The opinions of the participants confirm that both conferences provided a significant resource of current knowledge to be used both in everyday practice and in planning development in the area of drives, control, and maintenance. Recordings of all the speeches from the conference will be available on the website of the Industry 4.0 Centre of the Silesian University of Technology.
The Centre’s activities to date in the field of developing and disseminating knowledge about Industry 4.0, carried out in cooperation with leading research institutions, companies that are technological leaders and state institutions, have built the Centre’s position as a permanent substantive partner of events related to the subject.
The next conferences, for which the Industry 4.0 Centre of the Silesian University of Technology was invited, are the events accompanying Automatica Expo fair held from 12th to 14th of May in Nadarzyn and ITM fair held from 26th to 28th of May in Poznań.
We invite the Units and employees of the University who are interested in speaking at the above conferences to contact at Cp4@polsl.pl with presentations on issues related to the subject of a given event .
