DESMA holds successful House Fair

Reporting on the innovation on display at the latest edition of this popular in-company trade show.

The 2024 DESMA House Fair attracted around 800 guests from Germany and abroad who gathered to meet 57 international co-exhibitors at the company’s facilities in the north German town of Achim. The event – held every two years by the industrial footwear machinery specialist – is intended to share knowledge about the latest trends and technologies. This year’s motto was ‘Pioneering. Together.’

In addition to learning about the latest DESMA innovations and discussing their needs with other footwear industry service providers, visitors were able to benefit from a comprehensive programme of technical lectures, presentations and live demonstrations which focused on the topics of innovation, sustainability and artificial intelligence as they relate to global footwear production.

New technology on show

One of the highlights at this year’s House Fair was the presentation of new technology that produces soles made of thermoplastic materials using pioneering DESMA ‘super critical foaming’ (SCF) technology. This method is said to create a microcellular foam that enables the production of extremely light soles which deliver high performance. According to DESMA, these components are used primarily in sophisticated sports and running shoes, but also have an application in sneakers as well as trekking and hiking shoes. At the end of their lifespan, soles made from this materials are reportedly suitable for thermomechanical recycling.

Another DESMA presentation featured its particle dosing unit (PDU), which can be used for the addition of granulated production waste, and is thus claimed to reduce the quantity of waste and material consumption.

SATRA’s Paul Sheppard spoke at a breakout event on the subject ‘production efficiency for the footwear industry’. During this session, he focused on the new SATRA TimeLine software which allows ideal and true times and labour costs to be calculated for every shoemaking operation, providing users with the ability to accurately cost their products and maximise efficiencies to be made in production.

While at the two-day show, workshop participants designed a shoe for which the data was transmitted directly to a 3D printer and a 3D knitting machine. This produced flexible sole prototypes and near-series uppers within just a few hours. Christian Decker, DESMA managing director in charge of engineering, said: “At the House Fair, we clearly showed that it is possible to reduce the time from the design of a shoe and prototype production through to series production to just a few days or even hours.”

Future plans

DESMA Schuhmaschinen GmbH was founded in Achim in 1946. Today, it employs more than 230 members of staff who are engaged in the development and manufacture of machinery and plant for industrial footwear production. The company’s core technology involves direct soling and 90 per cent of its output is exported to destinations around the world. The next House Fair will be held in 2026 – the year which corresponds to DESMA’s 80th business anniversary.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 4 of the November 2024 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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