After a long time, the sheet metal working exhibition EuroBLECH in Hannover took place again in the usual form and we were there.

Visits to trade fairs and events had taken a back seat for us for some time due to corona. Our information procurement was mainly done via the internet and this was often done on the side due to the daily business. Now, after three years, the time had come for us to visit our regular trade fair, EuroBlech, in October.

Changes in the industry are clearly evident

We were given an almost complete overview of the market in the exhibition halls, and within a short time of only two days on site, and were surprised at how much had changed in the meantime. The laser industry has grown. This was particularly evident from the strikingly large number of laser manufacturers. Our former perforated sheet exhibitor segment continued to decline, confirming a long-standing market trend. We ourselves had participated in a joint booth as an exhibitor at EuroBLECH a long time ago and have a special eye on the development. We will report on changes around perforated sheeting in another article.

Our trade fair highlight

In addition to spotting industry trends, we had other motives for visiting the show. We would like to further advance and automate the SCS area. Our goal is to expand our tube processing by acquiring a tube processing machine, such as a tube laser. Previous research had shown a purchase price of over 600 thousand euros. Machines of this type have very large production capacities and our production volume is currently still too low to justify such a high investment. Nowhere else than at a trade show can so many machines be viewed and compared in a short time. We visited well over 20 suppliers and were then successful. Fortunately, a Spanish manufacturer had an offer that ideally suited us. We were able to inspect the machine at the trade show booth. At around 150 thousand euros, it was within our range of requirements.

Personal meetings are the only alternative

The great thing about trade show visits are also the unplanned events. Our highlights included spontaneous meetings with customers. In addition, we had planned to visit customers specifically at their booths. Among them were Arslan Metallbau from Reiskirchen and HSF Industrietechnik from Dillenburg. We had stimulating conversations and were pleased to meet again and exchange ideas in a relaxed atmosphere. That's what makes networking fun.

The general trade fair concept has been the subject of controversial discussions in recent years and it was questionable whether exhibitors and visitors would come together again on site. Our impression was positive throughout. The advantages are obvious. We can visit many plants in a short time. In addition, there is personal consultation and exchange with other experts whom we would not have met without visiting the trade show. We don't see any alternative for a trade show visit, at least no digital offers got through to us that brought similar benefits. We do conduct digital customer meetings and show demos, for example, but in our industry, on-site contact will remain crucial. We therefore continue to schedule regular trade show appointments and look forward to numerous discussions in the future.