ICE Europe, CCE International and InPrint Munich

Last week, from 15 – 17 March 2022, ICE Europe, CCE International and InPrint Munich took place side-by-side at the Munich Trade Fair Centre in Germany, providing the industries with a much-needed live event. The three specialised exhibitions marked a long-awaited return of unrivalled business and networking opportunities. A total of 10,618 attendees from 65 countries came to the Bavarian capital to discover machinery, systems, materials, and accessories, of which 5,675 were trade visitors. A total of 474 exhibitors from 23 countries presented their latest technologies on a net exhibition space of some 12,500 square meters.

The majority of visitors came from Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Austria and France. The most important exhibitor countries were Germany, Italy, France, UK and Switzerland. Taking place in early 2022, the exhibitions set a milestone for the whole converting, corrugated and industrial print industry since the outbreak of the pandemic.

“To provide a central platform for the industries and to bring the right people together to do business has always been our contribution to the economy” says Nicola Hamann, Managing Director at Mack-Brooks Exhibitions. “However, it was more important than ever to do our job this year. And I must admit, it felt good to see the appreciation in the attendees’ smiles and to get the mainly positive feedback from all participants.”

The results of the visitor analysis have also shown that the visitors mainly came from the following industry sectors:

• Packaging, printing, plastics, engineering, paper, chemicals, automotive, textiles and nonwovens as well as electronics (ICE Europe)
• Corrugated board plants and sheet plants, packaging, printing, folding carton converters, packaging designers and specifiers, corrugated sheet feeders (CCE International)
• Printing Industry, packaging industry, manufacturing industry, designer/advertising agency (InPrint Munich)

“With ICE Europe, CCE International and InPrint Munich we provided a central marketplace for industry specialists in times where it was needed the most”, explains Patrick Herman, Event Director of the Converting, Paper and Print Events at Mack-Brooks Exhibitions. “Both exhibitors and visitors were highly satisfied with their newly established business relations. Some exhibitors were even able to sell their machines on-site.”

“ICE Europe 2022 provided the ideal platform to finally meet with our existing and new customers again. We were really happy to be back on the show grounds and meet with people in person after such a long time. The quality of the generated business leads at our booth was outstanding and for us the exhibition was a success. We are looking forward to coming back next year.” – Dirk Schröder, Sales Division Manager, Erhardt+Leimer GmbH

ICE Awards 2022 & Extensive Conference Programmes

For the third time, the organisers Mack-Brooks Exhibitions honoured best practice, excellence, innovation and outstanding achievements of exhibitors with the ICE Awards, in three categories: ‘Digital Converting Solutions’, ‘Sustainable Products and Manufacturing Processes’, and ‘Efficient Production Solutions’. Nicola Hamann, Managing Director of Mack-Brooks Exhibitions, presented the ICE Awards 2022 to the exhibiting companies on the first day of the show. The winners had been determined via an online voting on the show website. A total of 29 exhibitor entries made it onto the short list; and some 1,000 industry experts cast their vote to establish the winners of the individual categories.

The company DIENES Werke für Maschinenteile GmbH & Co. KG. received 44% of all votes in the category ‘Digital Converting Solutions’ and won an ICE Award for their TEOC AddOn – the connectivity device for knife holders. TEOC is processing the collected machine-, environmental- and service data and the findings based on further data analysis are used primarily in process optimization at the customer’s site to reduce machine downtime and increase productivity.

In the category ‘Sustainable Products and Manufacturing Processes’, the company WORK Microwave GmbH received 52% of all votes and won the ICE Award for their WORKSens SR Series. This solution offers an extensive solution for continuous accurate inline moisture monitoring during product manufacturing, which is able to integrate in established lines and is harmonizing with new digital Industry-4.0 concepts.

With 53% of all votes, the company tesa SE won the ICE Award in the category ‘Efficient Production Solutions’ for its tesa® 51948 Black X, which provides excellent wetting properties on high-slip films to ensure a secure splice performance even at high machine speeds and reduces waste at the same time.

The comprehensive conference programme at InPrint Munich, powered by XAAR and hosted by Werner Zapka (WZA-Consulting) offered attendees exciting insight into market developments and innovative projects. With more than 60 speaker slots on two bespoke conference stages, including the FuturePrint Sessions hosted by Frazer Chesterman and Marcus Timson, there were plenty of topics to choose from. The CCE Open Seminar Sessions featured case studies, technical talks and panel discussions on the latest trends and developments in the corrugated and cartonboard industry.

Date of the next show

Many exhibitors at this year’s show have already announced that they will exhibit again at the next ICE Europe, CCE International and InPrint Munich 2023. The next editions will take place from 21 – 23 March 2023 at the Munich Trade Fair Centre in Germany.