Cross-sector exchange creates competitive advantages

Two-thirds of exhibitors offer technology for the pharmaceutical industry

Thanks to this diverse range of offerings, POWTECH TECHNOPHARM appeals to a wide variety of sectors. A good three-quarters of exhibitors showcase technologies for the chemical industry, and almost as many offer solutions for the food industry or process engineering. More than 50 per cent are targeting visitors from the cosmetics and personal care, construction, stone, earth, ceramics and glass, as well as plastics and rubber sectors with their innovations. 

The range of products and services for pharmaceutical production received a significant boost in 2025 with the revival of the TECHNOPHARM exhibition area – supported by the APV (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Pharmazeutische Verfahrenstechnik e. V.). The focus is on GMP-compliant plants and equipment that meet the highest standards of hygiene and product safety. Added to this are specialised cleaning and tableting processes, as well as systems for comprehensive documentation. By 2026, two-thirds of exhibitors will already be contributing solutions for the highly regulated pharmaceutical sector.

Benefiting from the experience of neighbouring sectors

If you put two and two together, it becomes clear that most exhibitors target significantly more than one visitor sector with their product portfolio. It is precisely this that makes the fair so appealing: visitors gain a broad overview of new products, processes and developments, whilst also being able to track trends from neighbouring sectors of the process industry. This allows boundaries between disciplines to be overcome and new approaches to be discovered. Conversely, many exhibitors are also keen to present the benefits of new products to a wide audience. Even if these were initially developed with the needs of a specific sector in mind, discussions with technical experts allow the opportunities and possibilities for their application in other industries to be explored. In this way, many long-standing exhibitors have succeeded in using POWTECH TECHNOPHARM as a springboard into new markets and have gradually expanded their sectoral focus.

Newer sectors stand to benefit particularly when established solutions are applied to new areas of application. The circular economy, for example, is driving progress and change, spurred on by legislation such as the Packaging Ordinance, the Waste Framework Directive, the Ecodesign Regulation and the planned new Circular Economy Act (CEA). Recycling plays a central role in this. Many of the process technologies on display at POWTECH TECHNOPHARM are used in this context: from shredding and the separation of materials and their cleaning through to further processing into recyclates. Proven processes exist for glass, plastics, metals and paper. The recycling of electronic waste and batteries offers growing potential, with numerous critical raw materials able to be recovered. Textile recycling is also gaining in importance, with the aim of moving away from downcycling towards fibre-to-fibre recycling.