IST METZ impresses at this year's drupa and sets the course for the future with its technological innovations
drupa 2024, the most important industry trade fair for us, came to a successful close on 7 June. Driven by the overall success of the trade fair, the IST was also able to return home with a more than satisfactory final result. Our 50 colleagues worked hard to achieve this and diligently presented our latest innovations and a contemporary company image to the more than 8,000 visitors to our stand, which covered more than 400 square metres. Contract conclusions and promising future prospects included. Preliminary summary: An impressive number of incoming orders and numerous project discussions on hold.
Due to the great demand and direct visitor response, it quickly became clear, as expected, that our innovation trio, consisting of SMARTcure, FREEcure and UV Analyzer, captured the trends of the time and also hit the key points in terms of expectations. IST has demonstrated a keen sense for the requirements of the market, which currently still demands the interplay of digital and analogue technologies. Nevertheless, the trade fair was dominated by buzzwords such as digitalisation, AI and intelligent workflows, including software solutions, and in this way also approached the omnipresent topic of sustainability. In any case, we can justifiably claim that IST still has a significant influence on the state of the art.
Another notable factor was that the packaging industry is still on the rise, and we see great potential here for our patented FREEcure system, whose approach of dispensing with photoinitiators was very well received.
This was clearly illustrated during our 35 print demonstrations, in which we demonstrated live three times a day how a modern printing process runs on the Heidelberg Speedmaster and uses UV and LED UV to achieve the desired result, in this case the print job for german brand Haribo, which we will donate to children's hospitals and kindergartens as previously announced.
The cheerful atmosphere and great teamwork at our stand also contributed to the success of the trade fair. Last but not least, this was also thanks to our co-exhibitors WEILBURGER Graphics GmbH and Kocher und Beck GmbH + Co. Rotationstanztechnik KG, who rocked the house with us. The uncomplicated and relaxed tone was greatly appreciated by the visitors, which was also reflected in the well-filled rows of our after-work sessions, where one or two after-work beers were enjoyed together.
The handover of the 100,000th light source to the company Peter Wiesendanger medien GmbH was of course also a nice milestone and reason to celebrate - such events speak for themselves and also make us a little proud.