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The International Exhibition for Track Technology (iaf) was a resounding success once again this year. More than 12,000 visitors from 72 countries visited 140 international exhibitors who presented many new and innovative products and services of the railway construction industry in Münster with a focus on environmental protection, digitalisation and automation. As a special highlight this year, the organisers welcomed Poland as guest country. With this, the association acknowledged the positive development of the Polish railway infrastructure and the planned modernisation steps in the coming years.

Dr Siegfried Krause, Managing Director of VDEI Service GmbH and organisational director of the trade fair, is extremely positive about iaf 2022. Due to the circumstances resulting from the Corona pandemic, there was uncertainty in the run-up as to how many visitors would come to Münster. However, after three days of the trade fair, the result is very positive: “We are very pleasantly surprised that so many trade visitors from all over the world have remained loyal to the iaf and used the trade fair days to find out about the latest developments in the railway construction industry,” says Krause.

The extraordinarily high proportion of trade visitors was particularly noteworthy. In addition to engineers, it was mainly machine operators who visited the iaf and were able to see for themselves the latest innovations in the field of railway construction machinery.

The high number of world premieres at this year's fair was also particularly remarkable. Dr Krause says: “This is a positive side effect of the Corona-related postponement: the companies had one more year than usual to develop new products and solutions - and it shows”.

The President of the Association of German Railway Engineers (VDEI), Dr Thomas Mainka, was also impressed by the atmosphere at the fair: “I was impressed by the good mood and the enthusiasm of the visitors, who were delighted to meet colleagues they had missed for a long time and to discuss the products on display. Thanks to the exhibitors' great innovations, the iaf was also able to impressively demonstrate once again why it is the international trade fair in the field of track technology.”

Trends & Focal Points

A number of trends can be identified: first and foremost, sustainability and decarbonisation, especially through the move away from fossil fuels to electric drives. In addition, exhibitors presented numerous innovations in the field of digitalisation and automation.

Highly specialised lectures within the framework of the seminars were presented in the iaf Salon. Here, companies presented their latest findings and shared them with interested trade visitors. This contributed to increasing the knowledge of the entire industry.

The iaf has once again proven its position as a catalyst for the industry: modern technologies through which processes can be optimised and the quality of work further increased.

After the trade fair is before the trade fair and the Association of German Railway Engineers is already looking forward to the future: the 29th iaf will take place from 20 - 22 May 2025 - in Münster again, of course.