drupa 2024 in Düsseldorf, the world’s leading trade fair for printing technologies, closed on 7 June after eleven days. 1,643 exhibitors from 52 countries were present in the 18 exhibition halls. The proportion of international visitors was 80%, with attendees coming from 174 countries: „a record figure“, organiser Messe Düsseldorf points out. After Europe, Asia was the most strongly represented region. Many key players reported signing deals that far exceeded expectations. According to Messe Düsseldorf, some 96% of all visitors confirmed that they had fully achieved the objectives associated with their visit. At over 50%, the majority of visitors came from the printing industry, followed by the packaging industry, whose share has increased significantly. Sustainability, automation and process efficiency were the main topics discussed at the show. A total of 170,000 visitors were counted at drupa 2024, compared to 260,000 at the previous trade fair eight years ago. The next drupa will be held in 2028. (See also the OE-A’s report on drupa 2024, page 28.)
Impressive presentations and running machines were well received by the public at drupa 2024. However, visitor numbers did not match those of previous events.
Image source: Messe Düsseldorf/ctillmann
IDEEL project:
Industry-relevant scaling of laser drying processes
for lithium-ion batteries within reach
In the IDEEL project (implementation of laser drying processes for economical and ecological lithium-ion battery production), several partners, including Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology in Aachen, Germany, are jointly developing a process for the more climate-friendly and economical mass production of lithium-ion batteries. This year, Fraunhofer ILT succeeded for the first time in scaling up the laser drying process in a roll-to-roll system from Coatema, Dormagen, Germany, to a web speed of 5 m/min. This doubling of the web speed compared to the previous year was made possible by the use of laser beam sources and drying optics specially developed for the requirements of laser drying by Laserline from Mülheim-Kärlich, Germany. According to Coatema, this proves that industrial implementation is technically possible and economically viable. In the project, high-precision thermal cameras from Berlin-based company Optris, in combination with a laser power control system, ensure homogeneous drying. Together with the short response times of the laser sources used, this control concept enables highly dynamic process control. In addition, the thermographic images enable reliable detection of defects in the electrodes. At the same time, Coatema’s research and development team simulated the drying and coating process using CFD (computational fluid dynamics) to further improve the electrode quality. Later this year, the laser optics developed by Laserline will be integrated into the system on site at Coatema and the up-scaling of the drying process to up to 30 m/min will be tested.
Innovative process technology enables energy-efficient
drying of anodes and cathodes while at the same time
reducing space requirements.
