Press releases

Feedback from visitors was also positive, with 67 per cent interested in both RecyclingAKTIV and TiefbauLIVE. Daniel Kohler, Managing Director of Gerike Bau, was impressed by the combination of topics: “We love the idea behind the trade fair. As a civil engineering company, we are constantly faced with the question of how to transport or recycle excavated earth. This event is therefore perfect for staying up to date. We were also able to meet many long-standing colleagues of ours here and enjoy in-person discussions again.”

This was the industry’s first major gathering since the start of the pandemic, with participants also praising the dedication and service of organiser Messe Karlsruhe. Günther Braun, a consultant at Agrotel, said: “The team at the trade fair centre were extremely friendly and delivered excellent service. We received professional help whenever we needed it. We have never experienced such support at any other trade fair.

Focus on networking and professional discussions

The desire for a live event was palpable, and both visitors and exhibitors used the double trade fair to reignite their personal contacts. Jochen Schwab, Managing Director of SCHWAB GmbH, says: “The action is finally back! Everywhere you look there is something exciting happening. We are delighted to be close to our customers again. The event gives us the chance to showcase our products and our customers have shown great interest. This euphoria is infectious, and we have already used it to initiate new business.” Jonas Pillmayer, Marketing Manager at SkanCraft, agrees: “The double trade fair is simply a must for any manufacturer or dealer in the construction sector. The event programme is open and well thought out, allowing lots of time for networking after the action of the trade fair.”

Companies from all over Germany came to Karlsruhe to participate. A third of visitors travelled over 100 kilometres and over half travelled over 300 kilometres.

Visitors closing deals at the event

95 per cent of visitors attended the trade fair in a professional capacity, with a particularly high proportion of decision-makers. Over half of visitors worked in executive or company management, were company owners or self-employed businesspeople. They were also more willing to invest than in 2019. Thomas Knapp, Head of Sales Germany at Wacker Neuson, says: “It’s great to have industry visitors here, as it allows us to have high-quality discussions that deliver leads. We are pleased to have been here and will keep coming back to Karlsruhe. Nothing compares to in-person trade fairs. Digital events really struggle to recreate the personal contact.” Carsten Obrecht, CEO at HS Schoch, adds: “The quality of the visitors is very high, with lots of important decision-makers. We have already concluded some sales.”

New demonstration formats and special areas delight visitors

The 90,000 square metres of outdoor exhibition area at RecyclingAKTIV & TiefbauLIVE featured some wide-ranging demonstration areas. Three quarters of exhibitors used the event to showcase their products in action, either at their own stand or on one of the five demonstration areas. These included the special theme area scrap and metal, and the demonstration building sites for special heavy construction, conduit construction, and e-mobility in compact construction, gardening and landscaping. These were accompanied by the new attachments arena. In total, visitors were treated to 24 action-packed hours of machine and system demonstrations across three days.

“The event certainly delivered on its promise! For industry visitors, it was a compact and very professional trade fair. Most of all, I enjoyed the live demonstrations. You just cannot do something like that digitally. It’s this that makes trade fairs so special”, says Andreas Gruber, Head of Wood & Biomass at Zeller Recycling.

First SBM Summit held alongside demonstration trade fair

Demand for environmentally friendly construction materials and sustainable solutions in the construction sector has grown massively in recent years. Participants were given a preview of tomorrow’s construction methods at the very first Sustainable Building Materials Summit (SBM). This one-day industry congress for sustainable and ecological materials used in the construction and expansion of buildings was held alongside RecyclingAKTIV & TiefbauLIVE on 6 May. Presentations from leading names in the industry gave architects, interior designers, construction engineers and manufacturers information about the latest developments in sustainable construction. The event also allowed delegates to network with colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere. More opportunities for discussion were provided by the accompanying special materials show, in which material researchers presented their latest results up close and in person.

Delegates were pleased with how the inaugural congress went. Monika Meier, CEO of NeptuGmbH, said: “It is a really nice and informative event that is incredibly important for anyone who works in construction. I’m extremely happy with the programme. It was both comprehensive and diverse.” Sylvia Mitschele-Mörmann, a freelance interior designer and Vice Chairwoman of the bdia Baden-Württemberg association, added: “This is where researchers, manufacturers and users meet to see how the sustainable construction materials of the future are being developed. There is a nice family atmosphere here, which is great for networking.”

The next RecyclingAKTIV & TiefbauLIVE will take place from 27 to 29 April 2023 at the Karlsruhe Trade Fair Centre.

“The trade fair is an incredible chance to show the innovative way in which the metal recycling industry works. Our sector is the ecological backbone, so to speak, when it comes to creating sustainable industry. This fact is clear to see at an event like RecyclingAKTIV & TiefbauLIVE, especially at the special theme area scrap metal”, says Kilian Schwaiger, Deputy Managing Director of the Association of German Metal Traders (VDM). Also supporting RecyclingAKTIV with their industry knowledge are the German Association of Recycled Construction Materials (BRB), the Quality Assurance System for Recycled Construction Materials for Baden-Württemberg (QRB), the Baden-Württemberg Industrial Association for Stone and Earth (iste) and the gravel body KIWI Oberrhein.

VDBUM as a strategic partner for civil engineering

TiefbauLIVE is partnered by the German Association of the Building Industry, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering (VDBUM). “RecyclingAKTIV & TiefbauLIVE will be the sector’s first trade fair in what promises to be an exciting year of events. What makes this double trade fair so special are the incredibly wide-ranging show programmes across five demonstration areas, as well as the exhibitors’ own interactive stands. Our members are already looking forward to exciting demonstrations of construction machinery and equipment”, says Dieter Schnittjer, Managing Director of the VDBUM. The VDBUM will be responsible for the content and on-site moderation at the three demonstration building sites, and has set up two guided tours. In addition, the association will host a dedicated industry event for special heavy construction on Friday 6 May at the Karlsruhe Trade Fair Centre. For the second day of the trade fair, the VDBUM is planning a very special event. “Our two Baden-Württemberg offices in Freiburg and Stuttgart are celebrating their 50th anniversary. We want to mark this occasion with a joint tour of the trade fair at 2 pm, an anniversary party from 5.30 pm, and an anniversary and trade fair evening from 7 pm”, says Schnittjer.

Alternative drives for construction machinery, vehicles and recycling systems, building site processes, digitalisation and the ongoing struggle to find qualified workers are the issues on everyone’s lips in the construction and environmental engineering sectors. The solutions to these market challenges will be on show at over 200 exhibitor stands across 90,000 m² of indoor and outdoor exhibition space in Karlsruhe. The burning issues will also be the subject of five focused live demonstration formats, which will address them in practical processes. As the demonstration trade fair returns to the Karlsruhe Trade Fair Centre for the third time from 5 to 7 May, the event’s clear focus on live demonstrations has been intensified and expanded with more programme highlights reflecting the needs of the market.

Action-packed highlights across five demo formats

The trade fair will feature a total of three new demonstration formats, including the attachments arena. This will offer visitors a series of three specialist demonstrations per day that will provide an action-packed show highlighting the versatility of the carrier vehicles as they take part in demolition, recycling or ground preparation work. Visitors will therefore easily be able to find the perfect equipment to boost productivity in their own businesses. Alongside construction machinery and vehicles, the focus here will be on attachments. Tools like bucket screeners, demolition hammers and attached compactors will be demonstrated in realistic construction processes. Expert advisers will be on hand to provide information about the features and applications of the attachments, perfectly complimenting the impressive show.

Alongside the trade fair, the German Association of the Building Industry, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering (VDBUM) will host a dedicated event for special heavy construction on Friday 6 May. It will feature a series of business leaders and managers from leading heavy construction companies, engineering offices, machinery and component manufacturers as well as assembly service providers. Together with the demonstration building site heavy construction, this will create a combination of theory and practice that will form the basis for expanding on the topic going forward. The demonstration building site will showcase a rotary drilling system from Bauer alongside a MOVAX pile driver and auger. The issues of safety and process orientation will be at the heart of the demonstration building site. The VDBUM will also focus on construction sites logistics, security and material transport in its two daily demonstrations, which will expand the product presentation with intensive and individual consultation as the equipment is working.

Another new addition is the demonstration building site e-mobility in compact construction, gardening and landscaping. This was initiated by the VDBUM and created together with the regional gardening and landscaping association GaLaBau BW. The demonstration building site will feature around ten participants, including major industry players like Wacker Neuson, Kiesel with Giant and Hitachi, Wilhelm Schäfer, AVANT Tecno, Husqvarna and JCB. A total of around 16 powerful yet efficient machines will be demonstrated, including battery-driven mini-excavators, multifunction loaders, forklifts and dumpers. This aims to highlight practical solutions to increasingly strict noise and exhaust pollution requirements in tenders for urban construction. The demonstration building site will address two current topics simultaneously, showcasing alternative drive systems for machinery while also focusing on the topic of qualification and training. The machinery will be demonstrated by apprentices from participating businesses. This will bring to life exciting jobs like operating construction machinery, while also highlighting the variety in these youngsters’ training programmes.

The topics of the demonstration building site conduit construction range from earth excavation and compaction to underground duct construction, material preparation and excavator control. Activities like excavation for underground supply lines, earth moving and material preparation, or the transport and loading of pipe elements and other construction materials, will be demonstrated here as a single construction process. This will be just like a real construction site, but in a compact format and with expert moderation from the VDBUM. Participating companies will include Moba, Hydrema, ALLU, Kemroc, SANY, RSP and Zeppelin. Visitors can look forward to seeing mobile and chain excavators in various weight classes using attachments like bucket screens, cutters, attached compactors or pipe connectors. These typical activities showcased on and around the demonstration building site will be rounded off with vehicles for material transport and machines for disposing of mineral materials, such as suction excavators.

The specific infrastructure of a modern scrap yard, featuring all the common work steps like storage, shredding, handling and processing, will be recreated across around 2,000 square metres of demonstration area. Every demonstration will be accompanied by professional dialogue with product specialists from the respective participating companies. The highlight of the special theme area scrap metal will be a system consisting of four units for processing light mixed scrap metal. This will showcase the material recycling process chain from pre-shredding to clean output. The system will be fed by a CAT MH3024 material handler fitted with an orange-peel gripper. Also on show will be scrap shears from VENETO Schwenter and MBI, as well as a hydraulic magnet from SkanCraft. In this realistic scrapyard environment, analyticon instruments will provide insights into mobile analytics by presenting the benefits of analysers for determining different alloys. Finally, the scrapyard will also feature a modular system for storage boxes and the demonstration of a BUTTI forklift brush attachment.

Specialist tours address current developments

A total of five specialist tours will address topics that are influencing the industry today, as well as providing inspiration, showcasing solutions and offering a compact insight into the latest issues in special heavy engineering, demolition and recycling. With expert moderation from the associations BDSV, bvse, DA, VDBUM and GaLaBau BW, each tour will take groups of no more than 30 participants to speak with industry experts from the respective association partners. The tours will last around 90 minutes and visit between six and 10 selected stands, offering a huge amount of expert input. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet the right contact partners at the respective stands without waiting. They will also be able to follow the product presentations that they are interested in and find new inspiration to take back with them for their own activities. Tours are free for visitors.

The topics of the tours are as follows:

• Construction processes (presented by VDBUM)

• Construction site logistics (presented by VDBUM)

• Gardening and landscaping (presented by GaLaBau BW)

• Mobile processing technology in steel recycling (presented by BDSV and ISM – German Institute for Scrap and Metals)

• From demolition to the use of quality-assured secondary building materials (presented by bvse and DA)

Discover your future at the job fair

RecyclingAKTIV & TiefbauLIVE will also provide an area for jobs with prospects close to two dynamic demonstration building sites. Leading construction, demolition and recycling companies like Peter Gross Bau, Leonhard Weiss, the Oettinger Group and the Reif Group from Raststatt will be represented here and will present both themselves and their vacancies in the realistic working environment. As this area will also feature apprentices from the construction sector, it will be easy for school and university students, apprentices, young professionals, specialists and those looking for a new career challenge to join discussions with the companies in a relaxed atmosphere.

Founders’ Garage: Start-ups to showcase product innovations

The hall area will also host the Founders’ Garage, a start-up zone in collaboration with COREUM. This will offer young businesses a promising platform to market their innovative solutions, sound out potential partnerships, or draw the attention of investors and media. Their ideas address the future trends of the construction industry, recycling and environmental engineering. SODEX, for example, will present its assistant system SDX-4DVision. Based on laser and camera technology, this automates measurement and documentation work in special heavy engineering. Another start-up, Wastebox, will showcase its newly developed app that digitally maps out the entire disposal process. It connects customers and suppliers in real time, allowing them to organise the disposal of construction waste quickly and transparently. Other start-ups at the Founders’ Garage will include Quiky, Recalm and PistonPower.

SBM Summit for sustainable building materials

The SBM Summit (sustainable building materials) is the first industry congress for sustainable and ecological materials used in the construction and conversion of buildings. The event will offer an exclusive programme of presentations. “Demand for environmentally friendly construction materials and sustainable solutions in the construction sector has grown massively in recent years. With the SBM Summit, we want to offer the industry a forum dedicated to the materials of the future. We aim to discover how they can be used, share experiences and enable networking”, says Frank Thieme, project manager of the SBM Summit.

More information about the event programme and activities at RecyclingAKTIV & TiefbauLIVE, along with demonstration times, can be found at: tiefbaulive.com/programme/

Trade fair returns with new demonstration formats

RecyclingAKTIV & TiefbauLIVE will offer three new demonstration formats to respond to the needs of visitors. The new attachments arena, for example, will offer visitors a series of three specialist tours per day. These will provide an action-packed show highlighting the versatility of the carrier vehicles as they take part in demolition, recycling or ground preparation work. This will make it easier for visitors to find the perfect equipment to boost productivity in their own business. Alongside construction machinery and vehicles, the event will showcase tools like bucket screeners, demolition hammers and attached compactors being demonstrated in realistic construction processes. Expert advisers will be on hand to provide information about the features and applications of the attachments, perfectly complimenting the impressive show. Topics like special heavy construction and e-mobility are becoming ever more important to market players. The trade fair duo will respond with new and dedicated demonstration areas at the demonstration building sites for both special heavy construction and e-mobility in compact construction, gardening and landscaping. Areas from previous events, like the demonstration building site conduit construction and the special theme area scrap metal, will of course return.

Sector focused on e-mobility in compact construction

As well as their own stands, exhibitors can take part in the special theme areas. The outdoor exhibition area offers 90,000 square metres of exhibition space for static product presentations or live demonstrations at the stands. Alongside this, there will be additional space in the air-conditioned hall area located next to the visitor entrance. The neighbouring Atrium will be the venue for the demonstration building site e-mobility in compact construction, gardening and landscaping. This will feature live demonstrations of processes like earth transport, compaction and path construction across six different construction areas, in order to showcase the benefits of electrically driven machinery in urban projects.

Trade visitors in management positions

The international orientation of the demonstration trade fairs was also evident on the visitor side, as can be seen from the survey, which indicated that visitors came from all over Germany and from 18 different countries.

Pia Steiner from Lindner-Recyclingtech in Austria described the demonstrations on the special theme areas as “an ideal means of presenting our products” and praised the high international component among visitors: “We use the trade fair to cultivate existing customer contacts and make new ones – in fact, we had more international visitors to our stand than expected, for example from Estonia, Hungary and Serbia.” The excellent opportunity for gaining new customers can also be seen in the visitor survey, since 65 percent of trade fair participants were visiting RecyclingAKTIV and TiefbauLIVE for the first time.

Extensive demonstration areas were set up on the 80,000 m² open-air exhibition area at RecyclingAKTIV and TiefbauLIVE. 29 percent of exhibitors showed their products in action – either at their own stand or on one of the four special theme areas: Mobile Scrap & Metal Yard, Wood & Biomass and the demonstration building sites for road and path construction and for canalisation. Here alone, there were ten hours of live demonstrations every day.

Tours touch on legal changes and digitalisation trend

One highlight of the supporting programme – in addition to the special theme areas – was the newly introduced guided tours given by experts and covering topics such as digitalisation in road construction, legal requirements regarding substitute building materials, and garden and landscape construction.