The international valves trade fair Valve World Expo, held at the Düsseldorf exhibition centre, in Germany, from December 2 to 4, is a biennial trade fair for industrial valves and has experienced continuous growth at the Düsseldorf location, fair director Friedrich-Georg Kehrer says.

In 2010, its inception year, the fair was attended by 535 exhibitors, and in 2012, as many as 591 exhibitors from 37 countries participated. The exhibitors occupied 15 500 m2 of net exhibition space in two exhibition halls.

In 2012, more than 10 500 visitors from 57 countries attended the event, and of these, 70% came from abroad, especially the Netherlands, Italy, the UK, France, Belgium and Spain. However, trade visitors also came to Düsseldorf from as far away as India and China.

This year’s event is supported by a conference, which will be held for the third time.

Currently, as many as 626 companies from 40 countries have registered to attend next month’s event. The strongest exhibiting countries after Germany are Italy, Spain, the UK, France, the US, Turkey, the Netherlands, India, Taiwan and China.

“The fair will open up a third exhibition hall to satisfy the many requests for exhibition space. With over 17 700 m2 of occupied space, more exhibition space has already been sold at this stage than the total area sold in 2012,” he says.

Further, Kehrer explains that the Valve World Expo also holds great economic potential. “Valves form the basis and serve as the interface for upstream and downstream technologies, such as pumps, filter and tube systems. They are indispensable to all technological automation processes and a key component in nearly all sectors of industry.”

Conference
The 2014 conference will dovetail the content of the trade fair and the conference more closely, in visual terms, with the conference being held in Hall 4.

Plant, machinery, components and systems are presented at the trade fair, while conference seminars and workshops go into greater depth regarding valves application processes or discuss innovative solutions for the use of different valves. Various expert lectures will focus on topics such as emissions, seals, castings, standardisation, materials, testing and new designs.

“This means we offer experts an information and communication platform in Hall 4, in the heart of trade fair activity – as well as short distances to cover and a dovetailing of theory and practice,” he says.

This Year’s Event
At this year’s fair, there will be three exhibition halls, halls 3, 4 and 5.

“Given there was already a long waiting list of people interested in exhibiting in 2012, we were forced to meet this demand this time,” says Kehrer, adding that, with the addition of Hall 5 and opening the north entrance required by this move, the fair now has the chance to grow further within the fair grounds.

Further, an accompanying Pump Summit will be held for the first time at the Stadthalle at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre, on December 2 and 3. At the summit, manufacturers, suppliers, dealers and end-users of pumps, compressors and seals will experience a technical forum.