253 exhibitors from eight countries presented their branch-specific solutions on quality protection matters. Crab-Robot a remote Video Inspection System for Pipe Inspection. The robot is equiped with five miniaturize cameras. A video head equiped with two LCD-Displays of 1,5 Million pixela for Visual Testing with endoscopes. Remote vehicel equiped with color CCD camera for tube testing up to 900 mm.

Materials testing, measuring methods, and quality management were the central themes of the 8th trade fair on quality protection, the MTQ 2000, which was held at the Westfalenhallen Trade & Exhibition Centre in Dortmund from 21st to 24th November 2000.
Together with the simultaneous Techmo and FLUID TRANS/MOTION CONTROL trade fair events, the MTQ accounted all round for a total of 10,787 visitors.

As well as the MTQ, visitors were now for the first time able to take advantage of the 36th FLUID TRANS/MOTION CONTROL trade fair programme offer, covering fluid technology, motive power engineering and pneumatic systems, and this jointly with the 8th Techmo trade fair for assembly and manipulator technology. The three exhibition halls being located next to each other, the visitors, partly of the same interest-group, were offered an even wider range of specialist information than before.

At the MTQ, 253 exhibitors from eight countries presented their branch-specific solutions on quality protection matters. As well as exhibitors from throughout the whole of the German Republic, there were also companies represented from Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, the Czech Republic, Belgium, and the USA. Also taking part and providing a wide range of information in addition were a number of well-known associations, organizations and institutions - and among these, the fair's goodwill sponsors, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Qualität the Deutsche Gesellschaft für zerstörungsfreie Prüfung and the University of Dortmund. Visitors could also profit from a support feature of the fair's programme in which additional specialist information was given through a variety of lectures oriented on actual practice.

Longer term customer contacts

Also satisfied for the greater part were exhibitors who had been able to establish longer term customer contacts at the MTQ 2000. On account of the way talks with interested visitors at their stands had developed, 82 percent judged the possibility of conducting further successful business after the fair as either "very good" or "satisfactory".

With the visitors, it was above all the MTQ's broad spectrum of offers to choose from that found approval. 79 percent assessed what was offered as "good" or "very good". Only 1.3 percent thought that the offer was "poor". 91.5 percent said that their visit to the MTQ had for them been worth it. There was a particular interest shown in "testing systems" (55.8 pecent of the vistors were largely interested in this), "measuring methods" (49.5 percent), and CAQ hardware and software (30 percent CAQ = Computer Aided Quality).

The percentage of visitors who had travelled more than 100 kilometers to attend the MTQ was at 31.6 percent particularly high this year. By comparison: those living 50 to 100 kilometers away amounted to 26.5 percent, and 22 percent had travelled from between 25 to 50 kilometers. Only 19.9 percent had travelled less than 25 kilometers. The number of visitors who did not come from Northrhine-Westphalia, the fair's home federal state, was 21.1 percent. The highest percentage of visitors from the other German federal states was Lower Saxony, with a total of 5 percent.

The MTQ is organized on a two-year cycle by the Westfalenhallen Trade Fair & Exhibition Centre in Dortmund, and the 9th trade fair for materials testing, measuring methods, and quality management will next take place from between the 12th to 19th November 2002. During the course of this year's MTQ, 86.5 percent of the visitors said they would "definitely" or "very probably" come to the event again next time around. Those who said they would definitely not visit the fair again, amounted to just 4.2 percent.