drupa is the printing industry’s largest trade show; every four years, hundreds of thousands of printing professionals attend the two-week long trade show, held at Messe Dusseldorf.

At drupa 2012, nearly 315,000 attendees, not counting exhibitors, flocked to the 19 halls to see what is new in the printing field. For the first time, a section of a hall was set aside for printed electronics (PE), as well as a day at the drupa cube for presentations from industry leaders,

For PE manufacturers and suppliers alike, drupa 2012 presented a wide range of opportunities to meet with potential customers interested is seeing how printed electronics can benefit their businesses.

“We see people throughout the value chain are becoming aware of our Touchcode system,” said Joachim Keller of Printechnologics, which exhibited at Heidelberg’s Innovation Gallery. “We are seeing potential partnerships.”

ynvisible launched an online store during drupa, and Jani-Mikael Kuusisto, chief business development officer for ynvisible, said it was a huge success.

“We have had a lot of visitors, and many of them have commented that it is nice to see that printed organic electronics has a presence here at drupa,” Kuusisto said.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland showcased an NFC-interactive poster at its booth.

“We are presenting printed electronics as well as biomaterials that can replace plastic,” said Tomi Erho, principal scientist for VTT. “We are developing nanocellulose film produced on roll-to-roll equipment.”

“We are doing quite well. We have seen a lot of interest in products, as well as general interest in how the technology is developing,” said Wolfgang Mildner, managing director, PolyIC GmbH & Co. KG.

On the equipment side, manufacturers found that drupa attendees were interested in the possibilities that printed electronics offers.

“It’s been excellent,” said Stan Farnsworth, vice president of marketing for NovaCentrix. “There are a lot of international attendees, which is what we were hoping would be the case. Potential customers have been coming by with samples, which we are curing for them.”

“It is our first time at drupa, and it has been surprisingly good,” said Thomas Kolbusch, vice president of sales at Coatema Coating Machinery GmbH. “The number of people with specific printed electronics products and very specific questions has been surprising.”

“There is a lot of interest in PE coming from packaging printers who are interested in learning about the technology,” said Udo Dittmar, president of Ohio Gravure Technologies. “We are also seeing a lot of university and electronics people stopping by. We are quoting several machines to them.

“Our main business is the packaging gravure market,” Dittmar added. “Our new engraver brings features from our printed electronics engraver to the packaging market.”

“It’s a good show,” said 3D-Micromac CEO Tino Petsch. “Attendees are coming to this area to see new things, and we are getting good feedback. This could be a future for them.” Petsch added that 3D-Micromac machines are already producing 100 million antennas monthly.

Mathias Borella, sales and business development manager for Ceradrop, noted that the company made a last-minute decision to show at drupa, and it was worth it.

“We were unsure if it was a good idea,” Borella noted. “We are meeting end-users, and we are learning a lot from them on how we can help them add PE functionality.”

“drupa has been quite good,” said Jurgen Rexer, sales manager, RFID transponder processing and finishing for Bielomatik. “We’ve had good interest in all of our products, including RFID.”

Materials manufacturers were also happy with the interest at drupa.

“Interest is very good,” said Mark Abendroth, project manager, electronic and engineering materials at ELANTAS Beck GmbH. “PE is a new business for us, and through ALTANA, we have developed materials for the market.”

Overall, PE manufacturers had a good showing at drupa, and believe that they are meeting the right people to potentially partner with on projects.

“Our exhibitors have made good contacts across the board with printers, designers and consumer packaging goods companies,” said Klaus Hecker, OE-A’s managing director. “There are a lot of packaging and label printers here who are asking specific questions about printed electronics.”