Hannover. Home office, meetings via video conference, or remote service - the corona crisis has been causing profound changes in many areas of working life worldwide - even where this was previously considered impossible. "The flexibilization, virtualization and digitalization of work processes made necessary by corona is also leading to changes in industrial parts cleaning," says Olaf Daebler, Global Director parts2clean at Deutsche Messe AG. "Many suppliers have been creative in finding solutions in order to eliminate user problems and provide support without having to be on-site".

The pandemic can become an accelerator for the use of new technologies and processes for the changes which were already emerging in many branches and markets before the crisis. Due to its huge impact on quality, functionality and manufacturing costs of products, industrial parts and surface cleaning is also an enabler for optimizing manufacturing processes and make them more efficient. Additionally, sufficient parts cleanliness is an essential prerequisite for using innovative manufacturing, joining and coating technologies as well as for implementing new products successfully. "The cross-industry and cross-material offerings at parts2clean make it an ideal information and procurement platform for the manufacturing step component cleaning", says Daebler. The 18th edition of the leading international trade fair for industrial parts and surface cleaning will take place at Stuttgart Exhibition Centre (Germany) from 27 to 29 October 2020.

Solutions and trends for all industries

Whether plant and process engineering, media, cleanliness control or automation and digitalization of cleaning processes – all relevant suppliers from the various segments of cleaning technology will be on-site, including the market and technology leaders. They traditionally present their new and further developments at the leading international trade fair. Be it for the versatile and demanding cleaning tasks in general industry and remanufacturing. The range of products in this area includes robust and reliable individual systems for intermediate and final cleaning as well as fully automated cleaning systems for highest demands on cleanliness and flexibility, integrable in interlinked production environments, and expandable as required. For electronic and already assembled parts, there is a notable trend towards dry cleaning technologies. When it comes to fulfilling very high particulate, organic and/or inorganic or biological cleanliness requirements, visitors can expect new cleaning and drying processes for wet chemical cleaning, as well as new and optimized alternative cleaning solutions like plasma, laser and CO2 snow-jet cleaning. Among others, the focus will be on applications from the semiconductor supply industry, medical technology, optics, precision engineering, sensor and laser technology, and the coating industry. The automotive industry is also in great demand for new cleaning solutions. Additionally, to the previously dominant particulate cleanliness requirements, film-like contaminants are increasingly coming into focus in the automotive. The reasons for this are new manufacturing and production processes, the continuing increase in lightweight construction and technical developments in drive technology such as battery-based electric drives, fuel cells, hybrid vehicles and the use of so-called E-Fuels. On the other hand, the topic of autonomous driving also plays a role. More than in other industrial sectors, cleaning technologies for the targeted cleaning of functional surfaces, such as adhesive and laser welding areas, are therefore becoming increasingly important in the automotive and supplier industry. A further aspect is the requirements resulting from interlinking and digitalization with regard to communication capability and flexibility.

Transfer of knowledge: parts2clean expert forum

"Among the highlights of the fair are the simultaneously translated lectures (German <> English) of the three-day expert forum", reports Daebler. The meeting point for knowledge, organized jointly with the Fraunhofer Cleaning Technology Alliance and the Industrial Parts Cleaning Association (FiT), enables visitors to obtain specific information about solutions, innovations and trends in industrial parts and surface cleaning.

Parallel event: SurfaceTechnology GERMANY

SurfaceTechnology GERMANY will be held concurrently to parts2clean this year. The international trade fair covers the entire spectrum of surface technology. "With parts and surface cleaning, parts2clean practically dedicates itself to an important production step upstream of coating", says Daebler. "As a result, there are good synergy effects between the two trade fairs, which are of interest to many visitors." parts2clean and SurfaceTechnology GERMANY will be located in the neighboring halls 7 and 9 at the Stuttgart Exhibition Centre.