Interplas 2023 Review

Tantec UK and sister company Ebble Manufacturing work in a number of industries and with a wide range of materials. The most common applications for us have always been with plastic materials and one of our favourite exhibitions has always been Interplas.

Only taking place once every three years, it’s a show that has something about it. Exhibitors put on extra special stands, visitors really make a day of it and the atmosphere is always exciting. The Interplas show took place at the end of Sept 2023 and took place over three days – Sept 26h to 28^th.

Run up to the Interplas show

We take on a variety of stand shapes and sizes, but Interplas is usually one of the larger events we work with. This year, the 21sqm stand hosted four of the team, one vacuum plasma unit, two plasma nozzles, a Universal Robot and all the videos, brochures and samples we thought would be useful to show.

We were planning for the how for months, considering how to get the message across and speak with customers in the best way.

The Big Event

Coming to the show, which is located alongside PPMA, was busy from the first hour. We were really excited to welcome new customers to the stand, but a really big bonus was how many existing customers and suppliers came to say hello.

Companies we might not have seen so much over the last few years because of reduced travelling during covid, or older customers that don’t have as much onsite support came along and made sure to say hello. 

Managing Director Chris Howey says “we saw more customers in the first few hours than we normally would in a month, it put a really positive spin on the whole event and it felt like we were talking to everyone passing by”

The three day event gives lots of opportunities for visitors to make the journey, and there was a fantastic mix of industries ranging from cutting edge battery tech companies to more traditional medical device manufacturing companies and everything in between.

The star of the show equipment wise on our stand was the collaborative robot with a plasma nozzle attached, it caught the eye of many passing by and we could demonstrate the safety of the process by touching the robot and the nozzle – something that many people have a misconception about.

Stand Out Stands

Obviously, we loved our stand, but with the energy of the show, it was great to head off on an exploration and see who else was there. A firm favourite has to be the injection mould machine stands, they always look impressive and the freebies go down a treat (we took a lot of trays from Borche to use in our production area)

Other impressive stands were showing off equipment, customer samples, printers and many other bits. Even after looking around for three days, there still seemed to be something to see.

Interplas Show organisers and the NEC

A mention to the show organisers, who must have a real challenge when it comes to running things. It’s a big show, with a lot of visitors and exhibitors, a wide variety of companies and people from all over the world. The organisers helped every time we needed it and put on a really nice exhibitor party, thank you for your support!

See you in 2026!

We’ll have a few in between 2023 and 2026, but we can confirm that we will be exhibiting at Interplas 2026, moving to the summer to spread the plastic exhibitions out a little.

We’ve booked a similar size stand to last time, but the location looks even better and I think we will need to come up with some extra special equipment to really stand out next time.

Thanks again to all those who said hello, and see you in 2026!