It sounded like a battle cry against the well-established “EuroMold” (www.euromold.com) industry trade fair, usually held in early December in Frankfurt / Germany. “In launching Moulding Expo, we and our partners are bringing into being a central international platform for tool, model and mould design, to be held in odd-numbered years,” said Ulrich Kromer von Baerle, CEO of fair organiser Landesmesse Stuttgart (Stuttgart / Germany; www.messe-stuttgart.de).

The new fair enjoys the broad support of several associations – including the Association of German Tool and Mold Makers VDWF, Germany’s federal association of model and mould makers MF, the German association for plastics and rubber machinery VDMA and its German Machine Tool Builders' Association VDW – as well as the media. Together, this group of partners will determine the fair’s direction.

The associations plan to set up and develop the new fair together with its exhibitors. The aim is to actively engage tool and mould manufacturers, in order to create more “than just another procurement event”. At the end of September 2014, one-and-a-half halls of the debut fair had already been booked by common booths of VDWF and MF, with about 190 exhibitors taking up more than 7,500 m² of fairgrounds.

The event is to be separated into two separate exhibition spaces. The first will focus on traditional tool and mould manufacture, while the second will specialise in systems and service providers focused on plastics engineering and metal works – including tool manufacturers, hot runner providers as well as software designers.