We love a good exhibition where there is a chance to showcase how we can support manufacturers with our digital solutions; so we loved the show’s strapline ‘join the digital revolution’ they had for manufacturers attending this year’s Smart Manufacturing Week’s exhibition ‘Smart Factory’.
Showcasing our advanced Test & Measurement solutions at Smart Manufacturing Week
Smart Factory Expo 2026, part of Smart Manufacturing Week, returned to the NEC Birmingham as the UK’s largest gathering for advanced manufacturing, digital transformation, and industrial technology innovation.
Bringing together thousands of engineers, manufacturers, and technology providers, the 2026 event focused on practical solutions for real-world manufacturing challenges — from AI-driven production systems and industrial IoT, through to connected factories, predictive maintenance, sustainability, and advanced test & measurement systems.
For Devtank, exhibiting at the NEC provided the perfect platform to demonstrate how our expertise in embedded electronics, industrial data acquisition, and test & measurement systems supports the next generation of smart manufacturing.
Smart Manufacturing Week 2026: From Concept to Real-World Implementation
According to the show organisers, Smart Manufacturing Week is designed to help manufacturers move beyond theory and into practical, scalable digital transformation. The 2026 agenda highlighted key themes including:
- Artificial intelligence in manufacturing
- Industrial IoT (IIoT) and connectivity
- Digital transformation and smart factories
- Industrial data and analytics
- Maintenance and reliability engineering
- Sustainability and energy efficiency
- Automation and robotics
- Design and product innovation
- Workforce and leadership development
These themes reflect a clear industry shift: manufacturers are no longer exploring whether to adopt smart technologies, but how to implement them effectively at scale with reliable partners and technology solutions.
Test & Measurement at the Core of Smart Factory Innovation
One of the strongest cross-cutting themes throughout Smart Factory Expo 2026 was the importance of accurate, reliable, and real-time industrial data.
Across the exhibition floor and conference theatres, visitors and exhibitors consistently highlighted challenges such as:
- Capturing high-integrity sensor data in harsh environments
- Integrating legacy machinery with modern digital systems
- Improving production quality through real-time monitoring
- Reducing downtime with predictive maintenance systems
- Ensuring compliance through traceable measurement systems
- Improving energy monitoring and sustainability reporting
- Moving data processing closer to the edge for faster decision-making
These challenges sit directly within Devtank’s core expertise.
Our test & measurement and embedded engineering solutions are designed to bridge the gap between physical industrial systems and digital intelligence enabling manufacturers to capture, process, and act on data more effectively.
Demonstrating Devtank’s Engineering excellence at Smart Factory Week
At Smart Factory Expo 2026, Devtank showcased live demonstration systems designed to illustrate real-world industrial applications of our technology.
Our stand focused on showing how integrated engineering solutions can solve complex manufacturing problems, including:
- Embedded hardware design for industrial environments
- Custom PCB and electronics development
- Industrial data acquisition systems
- Edge computing for real-time decision making
- Linux-based embedded platforms
- Industrial communications (including CAN and Ethernet-based systems)
- Sensor integration and signal conditioning
- Firmware and software development for industrial control systems
Visitors to our stand were particularly interested in how bespoke engineering solutions can reduce development risk while accelerating time-to-market for new industrial products. With our eye catching demonstration models we had plenty of people wanting to get hands on, there weren’t many people who passed up the opportunity to pull a pint on our stand!
Industrial IoT and Edge Computing Driving Factory Transformation
A major theme throughout Smart Factory Expo 2026 was the continued expansion of Industrial IoT (IIoT) and edge computing technologies.
As manufacturing systems become more connected, the volume of data generated on the factory floor continues to grow exponentially. This has driven a shift toward processing data closer to the source.
Edge computing enables manufacturers to:
- Reduce reliance on cloud-only architectures
- Improve system response times
- Increase operational resilience
- Lower bandwidth and data storage costs
- Enhance cybersecurity in industrial environments
- Enable real-time automation and decision-making
Devtank’s embedded systems and industrial electronics are designed specifically to support these requirements, helping customers build smarter, more efficient connected products.
Key Visitor Priorities at Smart Factory Expo 2026
Conversations at the Devtank stand reflected wider industry priorities identified across Smart Manufacturing Week 2026. Visitors were actively seeking solutions that could help them:
- Improve manufacturing efficiency and output quality
- Reduce unplanned downtime and maintenance costs
- Improve visibility across production systems
- Connect legacy and modern industrial equipment
- Develop custom test and measurement solutions
- Implement scalable IoT architectures
- Enhance sustainability and energy monitoring
- Accelerate product development cycles
This strong focus on practical outcomes reinforces the growing demand for engineering partners who can deliver complete end-to-end solutions — from hardware design through to embedded software and system integration.
Engineering Partnership from Prototype to Production
Devtank’s approach is built around supporting customers throughout the full product lifecycle, including:
- Concept development and feasibility
- Electronic hardware design
- PCB layout and prototyping
- Embedded firmware and software development
- Industrial communications and system integration
- Test system design and validation
- Compliance support and production readiness
This end-to-end capability enables customers to move from initial idea to fully deployed industrial systems with reduced risk and improved performance.
Thank you for visiting Devtank at Smart Manufacturing Week 2026 Expo
We would like to thank everyone who visited the Devtank stand at the NEC during Smart Manufacturing Week 2026. It was certainly very busy for us and we’ve already had multiple follow up conversations with people to see how we can support them.
It was excellent to meet engineers, manufacturers, and innovators working on the next generation of industrial systems, and to discuss how Devtank’s expertise in embedded electronics, industrial IoT, and test & measurement can support their projects.
The conversations throughout the event confirmed a clear direction for the industry: smarter, more connected, and more data-driven manufacturing that is powered by robust engineering.
