Nearly 70,000 people attended Schweissen & Schneiden, the international trade show dedicated to welding technologies that is held every four years in Essen, Germany. This year's show, held Sept. 12 through 17, featured more than 1,000 exhibitors who took up more than 1 million square feet of exhibition space to display their newest technologies and products. "Schweissen" and " schneiden" are the German words for "weld" and "cut".

This year's exhibition was put on concurrently with two related trade show events at the Essen exhibition center,

Quality Testing International and Structural Bonding International. QTI featured manufacturers and service providers from the fields of measurement technology, quality assurance and materials testing, while SBI was an event for adhesive-bonding technology exhibits.

The event was a showcase for welding and cutting technologies on a worldwide basis, and the leading U.S. manufacturers — for the most part through their European branches — were well represented, and used the show to introduce new primary and support equipment, software and services.