Extrusion International 4-2023

10 Extrusion International 4/2023 INDUSTRY NEWS Parts Competition Call for Entries – And Addition of Two New Categories The Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Thermoforming Division has announced a call for entries in its bi- ennial Parts Competition, including two new categories that will feature innovations in the use of Sustainable Thermoforming, and also innova- tions in applications for electric vehi- cles (EV’s) and batteries. The submis- sion deadline is September 23, 2023. Competition entries will be dis- played on the exhibit hall floor dur - ing the 29th SPE Thermoforming Conference®, which will be held October 23-26 at the Huntington Convention Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Awards for winning parts will be presented during the SPE Ther- moforming Awards Dinner on Oc- tober 24, at the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Tower. Competition entrants may submit parts in seven categories: • Roll-fed categories are Industri- al, Medical, or Food. • Heavy-gauge categories are Vacuum Form, Pressure Form, and Twin Sheet. • Parts Produced with Recycled/ Sustainable Materials. • Production Parts from 3D-Print- ed Tooling. • New this year: Parts Produced with Sustainable Thermoforming. • New this year: Parts Produced for Electric Vehicle (EV’s) and Bat- tery Applications. “At our last conference in 2021, we introduced 3D printing as a new category for our parts com- petition,” said Travis Kieffer, 2023 SPE Thermoforming Conference Parts Competition Chair. “This year we’re pleased to open the competi- tion to two new categories that are especially timely: bioplastics, and EV/battery applications. We are seeking part entries that show in- novative use of the thermoforming process for parts production.” Guidelines for Competition en- trants and the required product en- try form are posted online at https://thermoformingdivision. com/parts-competition/guideline- sentry-form/ All product images and descrip- tions must be emailed to Travis Kieffer at travisk@plasticsunlimit- ed.com by the September 23 dead- line. POWTECH to Rebrand as POWTECH TECHNOPHARM from 2025 POWTECH, the International Pro- cessing Trade Fair for Powder, Bulk Solids, Fluids and Liquids, is expand- ing its importance as the technology platform for the processing sector, and will in future operate under a new branding as POWTECH TECH- NOPHARM. POWTECH 2023 will take place under its known name; POWTECH TECHNOPHARM will fol- low from 23 to 25 September 2025 at the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg, where it will be co-located with PARTEC 2025 and FACHPACK 2025. POWTECH is consistently fine- tuning its efforts to promote the process engineering sector and adopting the current trends of de- globalization and re-Europeaniza- tion, all of which underlay its deci- sion to rebrand. Heike Slotta, Executive Direc- tor Exhibitions at NürnbergMesse, explains the motivation behind the new strategy: “The combined POWTECH TECHNOPHARM brand offers a home for the providers of process engineering and also for their customers. It is a three- day working trade fair for talking shop and finding solutions, with hands-on technology and a Euro- pean focus. And an important new development for the community is the fact that the strategy is being relaunched and adapted to meet current requirements.” In a survey, two-thirds of the POWTECH exhibitors stated to be in favour of a permanent autumn schedule for the event. This re- sults in the co-location with FACH- PACK every third year, followed each time by POWTECH TECHNO- PHARM on its own, and then a planned gap year. September is a free month in the trade fair cal- endar for the processing industry, and offers a fixed date outside the European summer holidays that will be easy for trade visitors in particular to remember. www.powtech.de www.smart-extrusion.com