Five months ahead of its official opening, 18 companies have already registered to exhibit at the “NPE3D” pavilion, featured at “NPE 2015” (www.npe.org), organiser SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association (Washington DC / USA; www.plasticsindustry.org) reports, adding that it has decided to expand the 3D exhibit space by eight more booths as a result. An innovative part of the five-day fair, held from 23-27 March in Orlando, Florida / USA, the pavilion will be open to all fair attendees and showcase 3D printing by means of both exhibits and actual demonstrations. In addition, the SPI’s Business of Plastics Conference will also include six presentations on 3D.

The pavilion will include a demonstration by 3D specialist Stratasys (Eden Prairie, Minnesota / USA; www.stratasys.com), which will showcase its new “Objet500 Connex1” multi-material 3D printer, capable of producing parts from three different materials in one production run. The printer means producers can manufacture parts containing both rigid and flexible materials. In addition, Stratasys will also be exhibiting plastics developed for 3D printing. The US group recently introduced a new UV-resistant ASA – for details, see Plasteurope.com of 29.09.2014.

Aside from a range of US companies, the 3D pavilion also includes two companies from China – Shanghai Xiesheng Machinery (Shanghai; www.x-machinery.com) and tool manufacturer Guangzhou Seal Mould (Guangzhou; www.seal-rp.com) – as well as Indian engineering services and software provider Geometric (Maharashtra; www.geometricglobal.com).