Your Eyes and Ears at Euromold

Given that Euromold occurred during the week of Thanksgiving, I wasn’t surprised that there didn’t seem to be very many Americans attending this year's iteration of the Frankfurt, Germany trade show. Still, given the annual event’s long-standing importance to our corner of the industry, somebody had to serve as your eyes and ears at the show. MoldMaking Technology has always aimed to fill that role. As for yours truly … well, let’s just say I rarely pass up an opportunity for a trip to Europe, and to Germany in particular. After all, I’ve always been partial to sausages, sauerkraut, potato pancakes and a nice, frothy beer (it turns out that the Germans don’t cook a bad turkey dinner, either).

Notably, Americans won’t have to worry about any holiday overlap with Euromold next year. The show hadn’t even closed when organizers announced big news: Euromold is moving to Dusseldorf next year and is scheduled for September 22-25. Meanwhile, Messe Frankfurt, the exhibit hall that has historically hosted the show, announced an entirely new event, "formnext," which is scheduled for November 24-27, 2015. Farther south, Moulding Expo Stuttgart, another new biennial event serving the tool and die sector, is gearing up for its debut May 5-8, 2015.

Suffice to say it will be interesting to see what happens with these German exhibitions in the future. As for this year’s Euromold, the tooling, design and application development event attracted more than 1,000 exhibitors and some 55,000 visitors from across the globe. As in recent years, additive manufacturing proved a particularly big draw, with an entire hall dedicated to that technology drawing plenty of traffic day-in and day-out. Yet, the show also offered plenty of innovations from more traditional players in the die and mold industry.

For a sampling of what caught my eye, click through this picture gallery. Technology on display included laser welders integrated with laser powder cladding, an innovative quick-change mold system, an unusual lifter design, and an additive machine that uses the same material as a plastic-injection press.