Fakuma 2024 got off to an excellent start

With 1,6639 exhibitors in twelve full halls and fully booked foyers, the 29th Fakuma, the international trade fair for plastics processing, has kicked off in Friedrichshafen. From October 15 to 19, 2024, the industry will meet here to present innovations in efficiency, sustainability and the circular economy over five days.

Fakuma is becoming increasingly international. With an exhibitor share of 47.5 percent (previous year: 44.0 percent), this year’s trade fair event for the plastics processing industry once again holds a high position worldwide. Of the total of 1,639 exhibitors, 778 came from many countries, including 167 companies from China, 142 from Italy, 81 from Switzerland, 77 from Austria and 51 from Turkey. For manufacturers and users, the topics of increasing efficiency, process stability, reproducibility and minimizing set-up times are at the top of the agenda. Plastics processors are adjusting all conceivable parameters with technical and organizational measures as well as through investments in order to secure their competitiveness. This is because they are forced to produce even more economically.

Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart got the specialist community in the mood for the topic of the circular economy with a highly interesting presentation at the press conference to open the trade fair. “Everything is a nutrient,” was his approach. Biological nutrients should be kept in the biological cycle, technical nutrients in the technical cycle. Products that wear out should be designed in such a way that they can be returned to the cycle. And: “It has to be worthwhile for the materials to come back,” says Braungart. His “cradle-to-cradle” approach, which he has been developing since the late 1990s, will provide further inspiration at Fakuma.

The guests are just as excited about the second edition of the “Fakuma Round Table” this afternoon with the topic “Digitalization – Top or Flop?” as they are about the top-class supporting programme of the forum on all days of the trade fair. The “Career Friday” will also be particularly exciting: For the first time this year, trade fair organizers, the Exhibitor Advisory Board and exhibitors are jointly organizing a campaign for school pupils, students and career starters under the motto “Mold your dreams, mold your future”. It aims to inform young people about career opportunities in the plastics industry and at the same time impart knowledge about plastics. Many groups have registered and will experience guided tours and exhibitor activities on Friday. Participants in the information day can win one of two vouchers for a 60-minute zeppelin flight for two people; the winner will be drawn on October 18 at 4 pm.

Bettina Schall, Managing Director of trade fair organizer P. E. Schall, named the challenges facing the industry at the opening of the trade fair: “Increasing cost pressure, the need to protect the environment, the demand for sustainability, high raw material prices, energy prices, serious economic and political uncertainties, a shortage of skilled workers – all of these issues are acute threats to our competitiveness,” said Bettina Schall. “Each topic in itself is highly complex and almost impossible to manage. The tricky thing about the current situation is that they all have to be tackled at the same time.” And yet optimism prevails: “We have to tackle these issues – boldly and confidently. The five days of Fakuma 2024 will help to make constructive approaches feasible step by step. This trade fair is an excellent opportunity to talk to each other personally and at eye level.”

Every day until 5 p.m. and on Saturday until 3 p.m., visitors will have the opportunity to benefit from new ideas and feasible approaches in plastics processing during their visit to the trade fair. Fakuma is an ideal platform for exhibitors and trade visitors to make new contacts, maintain existing contacts and leverage new potential.

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Schall has developed successful business platforms with internationally recognised trade fairs for quality assurance (Control), optical technologies, components and systems (Optatec), stamping technology (Stanztec), automation in production and assembly (Motek), bonding technology (Bondexpo), plastics processing (Fakuma), sheet metal working (Blechexpo) and joining technology (Schweisstec). This has given rise to entirely new markets in various sectors, whose protagonists are distinguished by tremendous innovative strength, comprehensive systems competence and practical application solutions.