Siemens Energy & Automation, Alpharetta, Ga., brought its Exider technology train to Chicago for National Manufacturing Week, Feb. 23-26, kicking off a 10-city, coast-to-coast tour of the 1,000-foot exhibit on rails.
Siemens E&A President and Chief Executive Officer Aubert Martin, and U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Ill, opened the exhibit on Monday morning, the first day of the show, citing the technology contributions of Siemens, as well as its U.S. presence.
The 14 rail cars house 224 plasma screens and monitors, 189 DVD players, four servers, nine miles of electrical cables and almost two miles of data lines.
Rolling coast-to-coast, the “trade show on rails” puts that technology to use to simulate specific customer applications in pharmaceutical and chemical industries, automobile manufacturing, commercial power distribution and other customer sectors.
Since its rollout in Europe in 2002, the Exider has toured more than 120 cities in 22 countries and hosted more than 100,000 visitors, including its most recent 16-city, three-month tour of China.
After Chicago, the train heads to Atlanta (March 16-17), then, over a two and-a-half month period, on to Washington, D.C. (March 22), New York (March 24-25), Boston (March 29-30), Detroit (April 2), Houston (April 7), Los Angeles (May 14), San Francisco (May 18) and Seattle (May 24). Between Houston and Los Angeles the train will be on loan to Grupo Siemens S.A. de C.V., in Mexico, and after Seattle, will continue north for a tour with Siemens Canada Ltd.
