Company Announcement - Africa’s leading exhibitions company, Exhibition Management Services, has acquired the well-established AfriMold exhibition brand, which becomes a component show of the comprehensive South African Industry and Technology Fair . The 12-in-1 INDUTEC event is the logical co-location of several individual long-running EMS-staged industrial shows, all under one umbrella banner. AfriMold takes place alongside 11 other INDUTEC exhibitions at Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand from 20-22 May 2015.

AfriMold Moving into Africa

“We added the AfriMold Expo to the INDUTEC Fair because it is a perfect fit with the event’s other industrial and technological sectors,” says John Thomson of show organisers EMS. “AfriMold is a vital networking hub for showcasing innovations and solutions in all stages of product development by local and international exhibitors.” Exhibitors will showcase equipment and services for functions such as design, material selection, simulation, visualisation, computer-aided design, engineering and manufacturing, rapid prototyping and tooling, patternmaking, precision machining, mould-making, machine tools, automation, processing and finishing. This fifth edition of AfriMold will also highlight the huge advances in 3D printing and additive manufacturing.

“3D printing, or additive manufacturing, has advanced significantly since it was first developed,” says Ron Maclarty, EMS organiser of AfriMold. “Originally, only plastic prototypes could be printed, but these machines can now handle materials like titanium and human cartilage, and produce almost any fully functional complex mechanism, with greater precision, at a faster rate, and at lower cost.”

With AfriMold joining the INDUTEC umbrella, visitors and exhibitors can now interact through a wider variety of industries such as plastics, electrical, automation, design, petrochemical and energy, with companies from Italy, Germany, England, Nigeria, India, Turkey and China at the show. “Tooling and precision machining is used in all industries, and this multi-show format radically increases business-to-business networking and cross-sector opportunities for visitors and exhibitors. AfriMold connects them, from design through to finished product,” adds Maclarty. “AfriMold exhibitors are definitely looking at doing business in Africa. As South African and American supermarket chains move into Africa, they exert a pull-effect on infrastructure projects which boost manufacturing demand, creating huge business opportunities.”

Huge Potential in Africa

“Africa’s economy is growing fast and the need for more new infrastructure is rising,” says Thomson. “According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to spend $180-billion a year on infrastructure by 2025. This is double the amount projected by the World Bank.”

Blackstone, from America, and Dangote Industries, from Nigeria, have just invested $5-billion in energy infrastructure projects across Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly focussing on power, transmission and pipeline projects over the next five years. The Cenpower Generation Company Ltd has implemented its $900-million Kpone Independent Power Project in Ghana, for a 350 megawatt combined cycle gas turbine power plant, a 161kV substation, liquid fuel storage facility, and delivery and supply infrastructure.

“The infrastructure and engineering industry is currently booming in Africa with many of these types of projects taking off,” says Thomson. “Companies in the design, precision engineering and machining, tooling, tool making and production industry will definitely find business leads at INDUTEC, especially from African companies that are starting new projects.”

About AfriMold 2015

AfriMold is the leading exhibition for precision machining, tooling, mould-making, design and application development in Africa. AfriMold is endorsed by Manufacturing Circle, The South African Institute of Foundrymen, Plastics SA, Aluminium Federation South Africa, The Southern Africa Stainless Steel Development Association, National Foundry Technology Network and the Department of Trade and Industry South Africa.