POWTECH 2014: powder and bulk solids technology en masse

POWTECH from 30 September to 2 October 2014 in Nürnberg is a must event for anyone wanting to find out how to really handle powder and bulk solids. At the World-Leading Trade Fair for Processing, Analysis and Handling of Powder and Bulk Solids, over 700 exhibitors from more than 25 countries show cutting-edge technology for mixers, mills & co. The large international involvement and the many new products make the trade fair the undisputed number one bulk solids event for process engineers from many industries all over the world. A visit to the parallel TechnoPharm, the Trade Fair for Life Science Process Technologies, is also worthwhile, especially for engineers from pharmacy and the food industry.

“We’re looking forward to three productive days at the exhibition in Nürnberg,” says Willy Viethen, Director Exhibitions for POWTECH and TechnoPharm at NürnbergMesse. “The hustle and bustle in the halls will be highly international again. Many exhibitors also bring innovations. These are exactly the ingredients that have made POWTECH the world’s biggest and most exciting shop window for processing and handling powder and bulk solids for years.”

This year too, POWTECH offers a 360-degree view of current worldwide processing, analysis and handling of powder and bulk solids. Nowhere else can process engineers from the fields of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and feed manufacture and processing of mineral source materials obtain such a comprehensive overview of new products for milling, mixing, screening, dosing, conveying and weighing. Every third exhibitor at the trade fair is an international firm. The POWTECH exhibitors travel from a total of more than 25 countries and from four continents. Over 200 other exhibitors at the parallel TechnoPharm supplement the range of products with the latest process technologies for production in a sterile environment.

An industry between CO2 footprint and automation

We constantly hear that the powder and bulk solids industry is not characterized by particularly large innovation changes. But the exhibitors at POWTECH present many new products every one and a half years. More than a third of the exhibitors in 2013 said they presented an innovation. Over 100 new products have also already been announced for autumn 2014. Nürnberg shows that processing technology is not available off the peg. Every powder and every bulk solid imposes different challenges on the technology.

“What makes POWTECH so unique is that here you find engineers with very specific solutions,” says Viethen. “The exhibitors are prepared to tailor their solutions exactly to the customers’ requirements. Here in Nürnberg specialists talk to specialists in order to solve apparently insoluble problems.”

Nevertheless, some general trends can be recognized. Popular topics at the moment are energy efficiency, CO2 footprint and system retrofitting. Analysis and automation are also penetrating increasingly deeper into processing technology processes. Today hardly any system can manage without recipe management, batch control and transparent tracking and tracing. It is therefore not surprising that the world-leading providers of field instrumentation or process control systems too have presented their products at POWTECH for years.

Also very interesting: almost a quarter of the POWTECH exhibitors offer analysis. This large number of exhibitors reflects the outstanding role of analysis in powder and bulk solids processing. Optimized process control and, of course, the pressure of quality and cost are the main drivers of particle analysis in or at least close to the process. Some 150 exhibitors at POWTECH provide probably the world’s most comprehensive overview of various analysis systems for powder, granule and bulk solids technology.

Highlights of supporting programme

This year’s product spectrum is supplemented by a broad-based supporting programme at POWTECH and TechnoPharm. Well-known experts from the industry provide information on the latest trends in processing powder and bulk solids in over 60 presentations.