Maintec 2025: A Tale of Big Beasts and Minnows

While Maintec has 90 plus exhibition stands of its own the cross-over of visitors from the ‘other’ shows taking place at the same time (Smart Factory Expo, Design and Engineering Expo, Drives and Controls) provides a buzz of excitement which even the most ardent supporter of the event could not deny was lacking when it stood on its own. 

Names You Know - and Trust

Wandering the aisles at Maintec 2025, it was reassuring to see lots of familiar names such as IFS Ultimo, Fluke and Hansford Sensors all using the event to promote their latest products and services and connect with people. But what was most exciting was talking to some of the new maintenance-focused start-ups that were featured in Innovation Alley (part of Smart Factory Expo). It demonstrated the dynamism of the maintenance sector and how it is embracing AI and IOT advances and showcasing the minnows of today who may become the big beasts of Maintec’s tomorrow!

Innovation Alley is open to university spinouts, start-ups and scale-ups who are less than 5 years old, employ less than 10 members of staff, and have an innovative digital product or service targeting manufacturers.  The first business that caught our eye was Uie (www.uie.group) which was launching 'Moniture’, its miniature, wireless, temperature sensor. Labelled by Uie spokesperson Keith Gallant as "electrical condition monitoring" the Moniture provides low cost, real-time temperature monitoring for a variety of electrical devices including cables, connections, fuses, busbars etc. and delivers early fault warnings and alerts via email, beacon or distributed control system. The product was a winner in the ‘Smart Tank’ competition and the judges really liked that its ultra-low energy harvesting using electromagnetic induction meant it was battery free and safer than opening a live panel for traditional condition monitoring survey.

Redefining MRO Supply Chains

Another more established business that made us think about MRO spare parts and the supply chain in a new way was replique (www.replique.io). Speaking to their COO and founder Henrike Wonnenberger it was clear that replique was more than just a ‘machine tool capacity broker’ and in fact had access to over 250 trusted production partners and 25+ manufacturing methods - from 3D printing and CNC machining to casting and injection molding. Quality assurance and a secure digital manufacturing platform made the business stand-out and in a world where the MRO supply chain is under more pressure than ever it would serve businesses well to have a relationship with such a business that could help in any number of ways. 

Not strictly a maintenance specific tool but one business that stood out because of its use of data was Track My Machines (https://trackmymachines.com/). The company’s simple custom hardware can connect directly to any machine tool providing detailed utilisation data by job, work order, operator, setup and shift to identify waste and improvement opportunities.

Putting AI at the Heart of Maintenance

Back to hard core maintenance and a business that wears its AI credentials with pride is iMaintain (https://imaintain.uk). Speaking on behalf of the company Adam Stockwell said the next generation CMMS, where user enquiries such as checking machine specs, confirming PPE requirements or spares allocations can be answered by AI using a Large Language Model (LLM) in seconds was "Like having 1000 engineers in your pocket." His was a compelling argument and while other, established CMMS providers are also integrating AI technology into their products this is an entirely ‘AI from the ground up’ solution and they are always interesting in terms of the originality of their approach.

Another interesting CMMS business in Innovation Alley was AnyWare (www.any-ware.nl). This Dutch business is a smart, agile rival of the established CMMS players that has experienced people running it and perhaps their only barrier to UK success is marketing and brand awareness. Their platform has all of the elements that you would expect from the big players in the market but according to spokesperson Thomas Brekelmans, "We can deploy in weeks and not months and therefore we are a great fit for SME businesses fearful of the inertia that implementing a traditional CMMS can have on a business."

The final business to mention was also a winner of the second session of the ‘Smart Tank’ competition. Logidot’s (www.logidot.com) IOT solution was neatly described by its CEO, Niccolo Corsini as being similar to ‘Ways’ or akin to an ‘indoor GPS’. The solution consists of a cloud platform and sensors that can be placed on assets (or worn by operator) to detect hazardous behaviour and non-compliance but also to maximise productivity. While at an early stage the potential for the system to expand from the warehouse into the MRO stores environment for both product and people made it an exciting prospect for Maintec events of the future.

Big Names and Bold Newcomers

Maintec continues to be the pre-eminent UK event for the industrial maintenance sector with all well-known maintenance-focused businesses taking part in most years. Names such as Emerson, Kluber Lubrication, FLIR, SPM and Monitran can usually be found and for visitors this enables them to target a range of companies and disciplines in order to assist their specification or problem solving. However, for the more curious visitor the expanding influence of the event and its alignment with Smart Factory Expo brings in those at the cutting edge of maintenance technology and aligning those two, very different, elements of the sector - the minnows and the big beasts - makes for an exciting future.

Maintec 2026 is on 3-4 June at the NEC, Birmingham.

Maintec

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