The 6th edition of the International Cooperative Trade Fair of Tools and Processing Industry INNOFORM® has concluded. From April 16-18, toolmakers and plastic processors gathered in Bydgoszcz to explore the offerings of 170 companies from around the world. A total of 2723 professionals had the opportunity to discover products aimed at the broadly understood moulding industry and actively participated in company presentations, discussion panels, conferences, and brokerage event. An important part of the fair was also the educational day aimed at vocational school and university students.
The first day of the 6th edition of the INNOFORM® International Cooperative Trade Fair of Tools and Processing Industry.
This year’s tooling and processing conference was aimed at people from the industry and beyond who wanted to deepen their knowledge of good environmental practices. The consequence of these activities was the conference “Recycling of plastics in the thicket of regulations. Still a noble idea or already a utopia”. The first part of the conference dealt with the topic of sustainability in the field of polymers and the impact of new regulations on the condition of companies. The second part was devoted to ESG reporting, which will have a significant impact on business operations in the near future. Panelists included practitioners, representatives of the banking sector and academia, who guided how to implement sustainability policies in the context of competitive advantage.
In addition, an INFO SESSION was held as part of the Better Factory project entitled: “Innovation unleashed: Discoveries from Better Factory’s agile production and personalization of products initiatives”. The methodology, results and outcomes of the project were presented during this presentation. Rodolfo Groenewoud van Vliet from In4Art in his speech highlighted the discoveries made in SME + tech suppliers + Artist collaboration for new, personalized products and agile production to sustainably optimize manufacturing processes, working on COBOTS, digital factory set-ups, IOT devices, and personalized products and services. There were also presentations of Polish companies – winners of the second competition – financed under the project. In the end, Olga Skalska from Funding BOX talked about other EU projects with the cascade funding opportunities.
A novelty of this year’s edition was the separation of the Plastics Recycling Exhibition into a part of the exhibition. It was attended by more than a dozen companies, which presented the latest technologies, machines and recyclates.
The second day of the 6th edition of the INNOFORM® International Cooperative Trade Fair of Tools and Processing Industry.
On the second day of the fair, a brokerage event was organised by the Enterprise Europe Network Center at the Toruń Regional Development Agency S.A. The event brought together many manufacturers, distributors and specialists from the toolmaking and polymer plastics processing sector.
In addition, individual meetings with project partners and representatives of the winning companies participating in international cascade-funded projects were held.
The third and final day of the 6th edition of the INNOFORM® International Cooperative Trade Fair of Tools and Processing Industry.
The final day was an educational day aimed at secondary school and university students. A meeting on the competencies needed in the tool and polymer processing industry and career opportunities as well as competencies needed in the light of job advertisements was held. After the lecture part, a tour of the exhibition hall was organized for young people under the supervision of mentors from our industry. The Cooperative Exchange also continued, in an online format, for those who could not come to the fair in person.
