The joy of the plastics and rubber industry at finally being able to exchange ideas in person on a global level again after three years characterised K 2022 Dusseldorf, and ensured an excellent mood among the 3037 exhibitors, including Windmoller & Holscher.
The organiser said companies that attended have reported extraordinarily good leads and a marked willingness to invest among trade visitors, mentioning promising new customer relations and the conclusion of numerous, in part, spontaneous business deals.
“K in Dusseldork has once again fulfilled highest expectations. It continues to be the most international, complete and innovative trade fair of the global plastics and rubber industry,” said Erhard Wienkamp, managing director at Messe Dusseldorf.
“The trade fair has impressively demonstrated just how valuable face-to-face networking, change meetings and physical brand and product experiences are.
“We are satisfied to see that K 2022 succeeded in sending out strong signals as an innovative driver of industry, and that our exhibitors did business with a high number of international customers with great decision-making powers.”
The verdict from Ulrich Reifenhauser, chairman of the Exhibitor Advisory Board at K 2022, was also very positive.
“After hardly any trade fairs could take place worldwide over the past three years, K 2022 was more eagerly anticipated, and succeeded in providing fresh impetus in all sectors of our industry,” Ulrich said.
“The current unpredictability and uncertainty of events does make for a tight situation in the sector overall, but this did not do any harm to exhibitor commitment and visitor interest, quite the opposite.
“Especially now in turbulent times and where the plastics industry is undergoing transformation towards the circular economy, K 2022 was the ideal place to jointly and actively chart the course for the future.”
Windmoller & Holscher (W&H), specialist for machinery in the flexible packaging market, presented new developments in three areas at K 2022 – efficient production, circular economy and digitisation.
The highlight for the company was the Varex II blown film line in operation at its booth. It also featured live demonstrations of the new Easy2 Change assistance system for product changes.
According to W&H, compared to an experienced operator, the number of necessary clicks for a product change is reduced by more than 70 per cent, and the time needed is cut by more than half – all with the certainty of no errors being made. This is especially important for difficult products, such as containing recycled materials with varying qualities.
W&H also highlighted new packaging solutions ready for the circular economy – six examples that are made for recycling and four solutions that use high percentages of recycled materials.
All solutions have been extruded and printed with W&H lines and have been tested for their practicability with W&H sack making lines or with converting partners.
“The K 2022 trade fair has proven itself as a meeting point for the industry, as a performance show and as an important point of contact with our customers,” explained Peter Steinbeck, CEO of W&H.
“Just like before the pandemic, we had visitors from all over the world at the W&H booth. With the live machine demonstrations three times a day, we reached several hundred visitors each time,” added Dr Sascha Witt, CSO of W&H.
K will return in Dusseldorf in 2025 from 8-15 October.
