Under the motto "Cleaning Redefined", the 20th leading trade fair for industrial parts cleaning, parts2clean, came to a close at the Stuttgart Exhibition Center on September 28. More than 150 exhibitors from 14 countries presented products and services along the parts cleaning process chain on an area of around 4500 m². The High-Purity highlight theme proclaimed by the organizer was well received by visitors and exhibitors alike. According to a survey, 70 percent of visitors would like to see more in-depth coverage of this topic in the future. The highlight topic was also reflected in numerous presentations at the specialist forum accompanying the trade show, for example in the keynote presentation by Dr. Nicole Smits of ASML Netherlands, the world's technologically leading equipment manufacturer for chip production. All in all, the great response of the visitors to the topics of the forum was surprising, especially in comparison to other events; it was consistently well attended and for some presentations, veritable clusters of listeners formed around the event area - a picture that reflects well the positive and dynamic mood at the trade fair despite all the imponderables and adversities in the economic environment. In addition, the FiT2clean Award of the FiT was presented for the second time. The prize is endowed with €10,000 and a one-year free membership in the trade association. "
"The consistently exciting and forward-looking developments did not make it easy for the expert jury, which was made up of members from science, research, industry and the media, to select the three finalists," reports Dr. Michael Flämmich, chairman of the FiT board. The prize was won by Intelligent Fluids GmbH, which is competing with the concept of phase fluids to replace classic solvents in a wide range of cleaning applications. Second place went to Sphera Technologie with a solution for controlling technical cleanliness in the micro and nano range. Here, dyed, high-precision test particles form the basis for using corresponding test specimens to make the cleaning performance achieved evaluable and thus comparable. Third place went to Fronius for the development of a hot-active plasma system that enables selective cleaning processes, for example before bonding or welding. You can find a concrete application at a southern German automobile manufacturer in issue ten of the magazine for surface technology.
Even though parts2clean is still quite a way away from the years before the Corona pandemic in terms of exhibitor numbers, the aisles were already very well filled at times on the first day of the trade fair - the second day of the trade fair naturally increased significantly here - but even the last day of the trade fair surprised many once again with a pleasing visitor dynamic. The exhibitors' response to parts2clean 2023 was predominantly very positive, with particular praise for the targeted expert audience and the fact that many had come to the trade fair with very specific topics. You can find a more detailed follow-up report on parts2clean 2023 in the October issue of Surface Technology magazine. In addition, you will soon find summaries and news from the exhibitors, footage of the press tour and other content from the trade show, such as the FiT2Clean award ceremony and the presentations of the award winners, in the "mo-TV" section of oberflaeche.de.