Paul Schall, founder and owner of P. E. Schall GmbH & Co. KG, the trade fair company which organizes the Fakuma exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany, has died. He was 76.
He founded the P.E. Schall company in 1975 and the first Fakuma trade fair for the plastics processing industry started in 1981. It was initially intended as a regional fair for the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria and neighboring countries along Lake Constance, Austria and Switzerland.
Although these geographical areas remain as important as ever, Fakuma fairs – held every year except for those when the K fair takes place in Düsseldorf – have taken on a much greater national and international profile.
The scope has also widened from the original focus on plastics processing machinery (Fakuma derives from “Fachmesse für KunststoffMaschinen”), with a strong emphasis on injection molding, to now include extrusion machinery, ancillary equipment, plastics materials, mold making, processors, research institutes, thermoforming and even newer rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing technologies.
Following an agreement with Schall, the Crain Global Polymer Group (including Plastics News, Plastics News Europe and PRW) has published English language Fakuma show daily publications at the Fakuma 2014 and 2015 fairs.
Paul Schall's death has come as a surprise to those whom have known him in the plastics and other industries with which he has been associated, as he was as active as ever at Fakuma 2015 last October.
Speaking with Plastics News at Fakuma 2014, Schall described how his professional career had started with the sale of machines for graphical arts in 1962 and this led to his first Mograma trade fair. This was followed in 1972 by the Fameta metal processing machinery trade fair.
As well as the Fakuma fair in Friedrichshafen, other exhibitions organized by Schall's company include Blechexpo (sheet metal), Bondexpo (bonding), Control (quality assurance), Druck+Form (printing), Motek (automation), Optatec (optical), Schweisstec (welding) and Stanztec (stamping) fairs. Blechexpo, Control and Motek are held in Stuttgart, Optatec in Frankfurt am Main. Schall ran Control and Motek fairs also in India for the first time in 2014.
Paul Schall held the position of managing partner of P.E. Schall GmbH & Co. KG and has been supported on the company board by his wife Bettina Schall as managing director with responsibility for marketing and public relations. The company owns the fairgrounds in Sinsheim through its ownership of Messe Sinsheim GmbH and also owns the Pescha Media-Agentur advertising and marketing agency.