The face-to-face talk is crucial

Fu Bingbingg

LOPEC 2002was held from March 22 to 24， 2022 in the ICM – Internationales Congress Center München. A total of 156 exhibitors from 23 countries and around 2，000 visitors from more than 35 countries visited Munich for this international exhibition and conference for flexible， organic and printed electronics. The proportion of international participants was over 50 percent. Reinhard Pfeiffer， Deputy CEO of Messe München， is extremely happy and emphasizes that， “this result impressively shows how strong the printed electronics sector is， and also how important it is for it to have a platform and meeting point， to exchange information and experiences in person. The eagerness of participants and exhibitors to speak with one another directly again was crystal clear and contributed enormously to the event’s success.”

Alain Schumacher， Chief Technology Officer at IEE， shares the above view in every sense： “LOPEC is THE event for printed electronics worldwide. I am personally very happy that after being physically absent for so long， we finally have the chance to attend in person and exchange with our partners， customers and visitors. LOPEC traditionally brings with it a wide-ranging portfolio of products and solutions. I am so happy to be here this year， among exhibitors from all over the world， research and technology organizations and everyone involved with the printed electronics industry.”Kathrin Fuss， Global Market and Customer Activation Manager at Henkel， agrees 100%： “Direct contact and interaction with our partners and customers at LOPEC is extremely important for us. We’re over the moon that this is happening live again at this year’s event.”

“Flexible and printed electronics is now a mass product，” says Klaus Hecker， Managing Director of the industry association and LOPEC co-host， OE-A （Organic and Printed Electronics Association）， adding： “Walking through the exhibition it was clear that a lot has been happening in the printed electronics industry in the last three years. Flexible displays in cell phones， 3D touch surfaces in cars or household appliances have conquered these markets. The positive vibes you could feel at LOPEC are also reflected in our current business climate survey—more than 76 percent of respondents plan to increase their investments in production for 2022.”

A lot is also going on with the Mobility and Smart Living focus topics， as Wolfgang Mildner， LOPEC General Chair， confirms： “Research and development in printed flexible electronics made huge progress in the last three years. The progress in the mobility and smart living focus topics in particular was visible in new applications and products—printed electronics enables more and more products and business.”

More than 200 presentations from a total of 23 countries were held at the conference. LOPEC is once again the world’s leading communication platform for technology， solutions， knowledge and research in the printed electronics industry. In the various conference formats， companies such as Heidelberger Druck， Merck， Philips， PolyIC， General Electric Research， KAUST， Sun Chemical or Holst and the University of Stuttgart， among others， presented application examples and trends in the printed electronics industry.

Numerous key players also took part as exhibitors， such as Coatema， DuPont Teijin Films， Eastman Kodak， ELANTAS， Operations， Hamamatsu Photonics， Henkel， Heraeus， Kroenert， NovaCentrix， Panasonic， Siemens， Varta Microbattery and others. Alongside Germany， the top exhibitor countries were France， the United States， the Netherlands and Italy.

Manfred Salat， LOPEC Project Manager， puts it in a nutshell：“We’re so happy that after two long years LOPEC is up and running again and offering the industry such a top-notch event. The mood among the participants and the feedback really were simply superb.”