The Cleanzone trade fair and congress took place for the second time on 22–23 October 2013, drawing more than 800 participants from 44 countries to the Frankfurt exhibition centre to see new cleanroom technologies and services.
Launched in 2012, this specialist event is aimed at all sectors using cleanrooms or controlled environments for product manufacturing, assembly, packaging or for research. Promoted services and products ranged from design and construction, to cleanroom equipment, consumables and training.
This year’s show, which attracted 50 exhibitors, saw visitor numbers increase by around a third compared with the 600 visitors in 2012. Not only did the numbers increase, but the geographical spread was also broader. Suppliers from nine European countries welcomed visitors from around the world. The top five visitor countries were The Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, the Russian Federation and the US.
Commenting on the visitor quality, Nico Thevissen, Senior Developer at Vision Competence Center/SAC-Nederland, said: ‘We were able to make good contacts with potential customers with concrete projects. Visitors came not only from neighbouring European countries, but also from markets that are new for us such as Egypt, Algeria, India, Iran and Slovenia.’
Cleanroom congress
In addition to a range of presentations by experts, the event also played host to discussions on ‘Interdisciplinarity in cleanroom technology – the ideal and reality’ and ‘New cleanroom standards’.
The congress, organised in conjunction with the Reinraum-Akademie (Leipzig) focused on the ever more stringent requirements for cleanrooms worldwide and new solutions for the healthcare sector.
The keynote speaker, cardiologist Dr Luis Vasquez, gave a presentation on the challenges of running a cleanroom in a diagnostic centre in Yantaló, a rural district in the Peruvian Amazon. As founder and president of the Yantaló Peru Foundation, he highlighted the special issues posed by operating a cleanroom in such a rural area and some of the creative solutions employed.
Other speakers included Kai Dirscherl from Denmark’s National Metrology Institute, who gave a presentation on the history of particle size measurement and recent changes in techniques and requirements, and Koos Agricola, a process engineer active in the Dutch Contamination Control Society, who talked about developments in particle deposition and the automation of particle measurement.
Many of the exhibition stands had demonstrations running during the two-day event and had equipment and products on show. Wolfgang Henker, Managing Director of Cleanroom Competence, said: ‘We made a conscious decision to showcase a walk-in cleanroom and a model of an entire cleanroom system here at Cleanzone. Both of these exhibits drew a great deal of interest from visitors, giving rise to numerous promising talks.’
The next Cleanzone will take place at the Frankfurt Messe on 21–22 October 2014.