For companies with in-house painting facilities as well as job-shop coaters, increasing material and energy efficiency in coating processes has top priority. Appropriate solutions will be presented at PaintExpo, whose exhibitor list already includes roughly 230 companies nine months before the event opens (status as of 27 June 2011). The exhibition programme at the leading international trade fair for industrial coating technology, which will be held at the Karlsruhe Exhibition Centre from 17 through 20 April 2012, ranges from pre-treatment right on up to quality control.

Regardless of the industry sector for which metals, plastics, glass, wood, wooden materials and other materials need to be coated - strong demand for improved efficiency and, at the same time, enhanced quality and ecology is being felt in all market segments. Increased flexibility is an additional issue, which concerns companies with in-house painting operations. On the one hand, this involves smaller and smaller manufacturing lot sizes in many areas. On the other hand, painting systems are in demand, which can be flexibly expanded and set up for various processes.

(J?rgen Hau??ann, FairFair GmbH, Germany. Email: info@paintexpo.de)