The trade fair Factory Automation in Hanover is a regular event in the Schmalz calendar. This year, from 24.04 – 28.04.2006, J. Schmalz GmbH in Glatten again presented both new and well-known products for production automation to the international visitors to the fair.

The big innovation in this year was, however, the new stand design in accordance with the company's new trade-fair concept – an attractive, modular stand with clearly defined visitor guidance. As of 2007, all 14 Schmalz companies outside Germany will also have stands with a similar design in order to present Schmalz uniformly as a homogenous group at trade fairs all over the world..

For Schmalz, trade fairs are an important platform for maintaining contacts with existing customers and winning new customers, at which Schmalz present themselves as the world's leading partner for vacuum technology in automation, handling and clamping. The new products displayed by Schmalz at this year's Factory Automation included the new high-performance ejectors for energy-saving vacuum generation, with which Schmalz set two new standards. The first of these is the compact version of the new basic ejector, called the "Schmalz Base Pump"“(SBP), which weighs only a fraction of the weight of comparable ejectors and still has an enormous suction capacity. The second is the very compact inline ejector "Schmalz Line Pump" (SLP), which weighs only 5 grams, hardly more than the piece of hose it replaces and the world's lightest ejector in its class.

The Factory Automation, the leading international trade fair for production automation, is held annually in Hanover. Visitors from every continent came to the stand of J. Schmalz GmbH. Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ernst Pfister, also visited the stand of J. Schmalz GmbH. Dr. Kurt Schmalz, Managing Director of Schmalz, showed him the newly stand design and this year's new products. The Minister also had the opportunity for a "hands-on" test of the vacuum tube lifter Jumbo and was impressed by the ease with which heavy cardboard boxes could be lifted and moved with this device.