Services

About us

Contact us

Alu-TV^® Events

Trend towards aluminium continues!

Alu-TV^®reflects mood of lightweight construction sector at euroLITE and euroSUPPLY

With 181 exhibitors from 11 countries, euroLITE 2009 offered a representative overview of software tools, materials, manufacturing technologies and series-produced parts for turning ideas for lightweight construction into reality. Despite the crisis in the car industry, the international trade fair for lightweight construction, which took place from 23-25 June 2009 at the exhibition centre in Salzburg, demonstrated the continuing trend towards the use of aluminium.

Alu-TV^® team was also present in Salzburg. In co-operation with the event organiser, H & K Messe GmbH, Alu-TV^® conducted interviews with experts and makers and shakers and thus captured the current mood in the industry and learned about new developments.

This year, 1,963 trade visitors made their way to Salzburg’s exhibition centre to find out more about efficient solutions for lightweight construction. The figure represented a decline of 8.4% in visitor numbers compared with last year, but this was no real surprise given the general depressed state of the lightweight construction sector and the resultant travel restrictions being imposed by organisations at present. “We did not expect a new record,” is the comment from Wieland Kniffka, managing director of H&K Messe GmbH on the number of visitors at euroLITE 2009. Commenting on the fair itself, he said: “euroLITE made an impression thanks to the very high technical expertise and decision-making powers of its visitors.”

In the interviews on Alu-TV^®, the subject turned time and again to alternative fields of application for aluminium. More and more producers no longer have only carmakers and their component suppliers as customers. The fields of medicine, aerospace, mechanical and plant engineering, shipping as well as the packaging industry are increasingly turning to aluminium – a sign of more a stable market outlook for the future.

It was not only aluminium products that were presented at euroLITE, which ran in parallel to the euroSUPPLY trade fair: fibre composites are also finding greater use, although these materials are not regarded as competitive products to aluminium but more as successful complements. This is because where a high degree of heat resistance or cooling is needed, there does not appear to be any real alternative to aluminium, at least in the short to medium term.

Another trend was apparent at the fair: the joint presentation of companies. This so-called fair service enables companies to demonstrate a presence at the fair on a shared stand. A noticeable example at euroLITE was the Dutch exhibitors’ joint stand. Here, several companies presented themselves jointly with a common identity: floor covering, seating, even the water in the flower vases, everything was in orange.

Major companies from the aluminium sector also had representative stands at euroLITE and euroSUPPLY. Video presentations and a background showing dolphins in blue water communicated a message that was unmistakeable: especially in times of economic downturn we have to demonstrate our presence, find new customers and establish new partnerships for the future.