From 14 – 16 March ICE Europe, CCE International, and InPrint Munich took place at the Munich Trade Fair Centre, offering attendees three full days of flourishing business opportunities, ranging from bespoke product sourcing, industry-specific educational forums, all the way to networking and investment opportunities. Throughout the shows, a total of 6,944 trade visitors from 78 countries came to Munich to discover the latest machinery, systems, materials, and accessories, which is an increase of some 23 % in visitor numbers compared to the previous event editions in 2022. Shaping the future of the corrugated, industrial print and converting industry, 438 exhibitors from 24 countries showcased their products and services on a net exhibition space of more than 11,300 square metres.

“It was great to witness the return of such a vibrant atmosphere, which matched the energy and enthusiasm of our shows before the pandemic! Both exhibitors and visitors were highly satisfied with the opportunity of meeting existing and new business contacts in person, here at CCE International, InPrint Munich and ICE Europe,” states Patrick Herman, Event Director of the Converting, Paper and Print Events, on behalf of RX.

Show analysis: First results

The majority of visitors came from Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Poland, Spain, Czech Republic, France, Turkey, and the Netherlands. The first results of the show analysis have also shown that the visitors mainly came from the following industry sectors:

• Printing, packaging, corrugated board plants and sheet plants, packaging design and specifying, folding carton converters, corrugated sheet feeders, surface imaging, automotive, electrical appliances and electronics, rigid carton manufacturers (CCE International / InPrint Munich).
• Packaging, engineering, printing, plastics, paper, chemical, automotive, textiles/ nonwovens, electronics, pharma/ healthcare/ medical, and others (ICE Europe).

Visitors were primarily interested in:

• Printing machinery, systems and solutions, corrugating line and corrugated converting equipment, machine and plant controls, inks/ fluids/ chemicals/ additives, folding carton converting equipment, consultancy for print technology and applications, print components and special parts, materials handling and warehousing, software solutions, and consumables
  (CCE International / InPrint Munich).
• Coating/ laminating, slitting/ rewinding, print technology, accessories and machine upgrades, control, test & measurement technology, finishing, drying/ curing, film extrusion, materials/ (semi) finished products and (pre) treatment (ICE Europe).

The top exhibitor countries included Germany, Italy, Turkey, China, Great Britain, Spain, the United States, Switzerland, France, Poland, and the Netherlands.

 CCE International Open Seminars provide top-tier industry knowledge

The CCE Open Seminar Sessions featured technical talks on the latest trends and developments in the corrugated and folding carton sector. Over the course of three days, top industry experts presented technical solutions and services aimed at optimising the production process and value creation. This year’s topics included: corrugated e-commerce packaging, retail-ready microflute solutions, advanced digital cutting and creasing, short run box production, digital manufacturing, corrugator moisture control, no-nick die-cutting, warehouse retrofitting and energy-regeneration, client data management, and many more.

Popular InPrint Munich Conference

CCE International featured the offerings of InPrint Munich, which included the popular InPrint Conference on print applications in the industrial production sector. With around 50 well-attended sessions delivered over the course of three days, there were plenty of topics to choose from, including the latest applications in printed electronics, smart packaging, direct-to-shape, data management, and

carbon footprint reduction. Sessions were delivered by top industry experts, including representatives from AGFA, Fraunhofer ENAS, FujiFilm, HP, Inkatronic, MABI, Meteor Inkjet, Seiko Instruments, Xeikon, and many more. The InPrint Munich conference was sponsored by Xaar, a world-leading printhead manufacturer, and hosted by Werner Zapka, WZA-Consulting.

ICE Awards 2023: Innovative exhibitors honoured with prestigious awards

The ICE Awards ceremony took place on the first show day, honouring three ICE Europe exhibitors with the prestigious ICE Awards for their outstanding technological achievements. The award ceremony was hosted by RX, and for the very first time, in cooperation with C2 Magazines, where best practice, excellence, innovation and outstanding achievements of exhibitors were honoured with the ICE Awards, in the following categories: ‘Digital Converting Solutions’, ‘Sustainable Products and Converting Processes’, and ‘Efficient Production Solutions’.

• DIENES Werke für Maschinenteile GmbH & Co.KG. received the majority of all votes in the category ‘Digital Converting Solutions’ and won an ICE Award for its TEOC (“The End of Coincidences”).
• In the category ‘Sustainable Products and Converting Processes’, the company INOMETA GmbH won the ICE Award for its heating roller.
• The company tesa SE won the ICE Award in the category ‘Efficient Production Solutions’ for its highly durable roller wrapping tape (tesa Printer’s Friend 4863).

Dates for the next shows

The exhibition trio for the converting, corrugated and industrial print industries will take place again from 11 – 13 March 2025, at the Munich Trade Fair Centre.