Exhibition News

With visitors from 135 countries, this year’s wire^® Düsseldorf saw a global spectrum of international visitors. Assistant Editor, Becca England, visited the show to find out how it’s still proving to be an integral part of the fastener industry exhibition calendar after 40 years.

Taking place from 15^th – 19^th April, the five day show saw 1,500 exhibitors from 60 countries showcase trends in wire and cable machines, wire and cable manufacture, glass fibre technologies, mesh welding machinery, as well as fastener and spring technologies across 67,400m² – making this year the biggest wire^®, in terms of exhibitors, in its history. 

Fastener manufacturers were mainly housed in hall 16, with exhibiting companies including Aachener Maschinenbau GmbH, Aichelin, Bonotto Packaging Srl, Can-Eng Furnaces International Ltd, Carlo Salvi SpA, Dimac Srl, Doss Visual Solution Srl, EJOT SE & Co KG, ENKOTEC AS, GH INDUCTION, GWI Werkzeug und Stahl Vertriebs GmbH, HEROSLAM S.A.L, MANASSERO & C. Srl, MARPOSS GmbH, Mayes & Warwick Ltd, National Machinery LLC, NEDSCHROEF HERENTALS NV, Rockford Manufacturing Group Inc, Sacma Limbiate SpA, Tecno Impianti Srl, Teudeloff GmbH & Co KG, Videx Machine Engineering Ltd, Vision Engineering Ltd, and Weighpack International, among others. 

With the record number of exhibitors underlining the importance the show still holds in the industry, the general consensus among fastener industry leaders present was that visitor numbers were quality – not quantity. “We have exhibited in previous years and felt that overall the show matched expectations with its good atmosphere and was the perfect opportunity to showcase our latest developments, see many of our clients, meet new prospects, and have some fruitful discussions. Whilst overall we felt that there were less people in attendance, we had many relevant and serious visitors to our stand,” reflects Lilia Prelević, marketing and sales enablement specialist at ENKOTEC AS.

ENKOTEC showcased its latest innovations, with live demonstrations of the next generation of its ENKOline – the company’s most autonomous in-line set-up to date. The company also used the show to introduce its brand new ENKOfence – a safety feature that enables the auto-start/stop capabilities of the line. In addition to this, it also presented a new generation of collating equipment via live stream, as well as the unveiling of a new ENKOsmart Factory software solution – a system which facilitates ‘real time’ monitoring of nail production facilities, enabling businesses to collect data and analyse their performance in order to make fact-based decisions and improve their efficiency.

Also offering machine demonstrations were National Machinery, exhibiting together with SMART Machinery. The companies offered demonstrations of its FXH2 Lightning double stroke cold header machine, capable of producing up to 400 parts per minute, as well as the SMART NG20 threader which rolls four features in one pass by adding a ring, thread, groove and point.

“The overall show volume was certainly better traffic than in 2022,” states Jerry Bupp, vice-president sales operations and marketing at National Machinery. “However, we found we had some high-quality conversations with visitors from all over the world. In addition to almost all European countries, we had visitors from Brazil, Turkey, the USA, Mexico, Canada and India.” 

This years’ event gained global engagement, with visitors of the fair flying in from 135 countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the UK and the USA. Trade fair organisers also noted that more visitors came from Central and North America, Turkey, as well as Asia, in comparison to previous shows. 

Echoing this trend was returning Tube exhibitor GH INDUCTION, an induction machine manufacturer for heat treatment and heating solutions, that exhibited for the first time in the fastener hall, presenting its induction solutions for hardening trilobular and concrete screws, as well as wind turbine fasteners. “There were many visitors interested in our machines including fastener manufacturers, machine manufacturers, automotive parts manufacturers, as well as visitors from the wire and cable sector. Because of the show’s high global presence, only 15% of our visitors were from the German market and we had visitors from India, Turkey, Spain, France, the USA, as well as eastern European countries,” comments Olga Bader, senior marketing specialist at GH INDUCTION. 

wire^® is set to return to Düsseldorf in two years’ time, taking place from 13^th – 17^th April 2026.