The 16th Blechexpo, international trade fair for sheet metal working, held jointly with the 9th Schweisstec, international trade fair for joining technology, was a success. The 40,103 trade visitors were delighted by 1256 exhibitors from 38 countries, nine fully booked halls and an unrivalled, packed programme of events. The best Award 2023 brought smiles to the faces of the many worthy winners.

With 1,256 exhibitors from 38 countries and nine fully booked halls, the trade fair duo was an international showcase for innovation and customer benefit in sheet metal and metal processing. The central themes revolved around automation, sustainability, energy efficiency, skilled labor shortage, and customer service. The trade show offered solutions for more efficient production, better material utilization, higher part quality, while simultaneously reducing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. With the goal of making steel production and sheet metal processing more sustainable, Blechexpo / Schweisstec provided significant impetus and demonstrated that even small businesses can successfully embrace automation. The winners of the best-Award 2023 impressively showcased what is possible with technical innovation and inventiveness.

The majority of foreign exhibitors in Stuttgart came from Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, China and the Benelux countries. The themes of the Blechexpo / Schweisstec fairs and solutions for current challenges presented there are disseminated worldwide and have a global impact. “It was clear that many companies are currently dedicating themselves to solving the same problems because this is the only way to ensure the future viability and competitiveness of our industry,” points out Georg Knauer, project manager at PE Schall. “These include further automation, especially in the periphery, higher productivity, improving part quality still further, eliminating scrap, saving energy, compensating for the shortage of skilled workers, employee protection and customer service. These are issues that affect every company,” says Knauer, summarizing the current topics. “The solutions and strategies we saw at the trade fair are laying the foundations for greater sustainability. The sheet metal industry also has long-term goals for becoming environmentally friendly and visitors to the trade fair could see at first hand which steps have been taken towards achieving this goal.”

The next Blechexpo and Schweisstec take place from 4 – 7 November 2025 in Stuttgart, Germany.