Ausplas, Australia’s national trade show for the plastics processing industry, will break with tradition this year.

Ausplas has been held in October every three years since 1987, but this year moves into a May time frame to line up with the Austech and National Manufacturing Week events.

The three mega shows will be held concurrently at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre from May 24-27.

They will occupy the entire 30,000sqm of space at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, presenting what will be Australia’s largest ever dedicated manufacturing industry trade exhibition.

A feature of Ausplas has always been the display of plastics processing equipment, in operation under factory conditions. For 2011 the range of processing and ancillary equipment, robotics and automation will be double the number and variety shown in 2008. The number of injection moulding machines alone will be the largest showing since 2002.

This year the emphasis is on energy efficiency with energy now being a primary cost and innovations such as in mould labelling, which will be shown by several exhibitors representing European and Asian suppliers.

There will also be many large exhibits of other forms of plastics processing such as extrusion and blow moulding and thermo forming.

The range and variety of ancillary equipment has also expanded for 2011 and covers the whole range: Blenders, chillers, materials handling systems, silos, granulators, screws, barrels, mixers, controls and monitoring, testing and measuring, labelling and printing, automation and robotics.

There will also be a wide showing of new materials ranging from pigments and master batches through to specialty additives and colorants and the new exotics in space age materials and composites.

Ausplas will be held in Bays 19 and 20 alongside Austech. There will be no dividing walls with the visitor ID badge for either exhibition allowing admission to all three shows. Visiting hours will also be common for all three events.

Visitors can organise their FREE trade ID in advance online by visiting www.ausplas.com or ph: 03 9699 4699.