On the opening day of the 30th Fakuma trade fair Monday, organizers honored Arburg with the first Paul Eberhard Schall Medal for its connection to the fair and to plastics processing.

Schall and Eugen Hehl, then managing director of Arburg, laid the foundations for Fakuma.

“When Paul E. Schall presented his idea for a plastics trade fair in the border triangle to my father, Eugen Hehl, in 1980, he was immediately enthusiastic — and Arburg was there a year later at the inaugural Fakuma,” managing partner Michael Hehl said at Arburg’s press conference Monday.

“We are therefore delighted to have been honored today as an ‘exhibitor from the very beginning.’ And we are, of course, particularly proud of this double honor: we have just become the first company to receive the newly established Paul Eberhard Schall Medal,” he said.

Engel “set milestones, shaped an industry and, ultimately, through new products, had a far-reaching impact on people’s everyday lives,” said Bettina Schall, managing director of the trade fair organizer P. E. Schall, in her opening address.

Twelve companies that participated in the inaugural Fakuma in 1981 are still among current exhibitors. Schall presented each company representative with an award.

Besides Arburg, they are: Engel Austria, Getecha, Technotrans Solutions, Hasco Hasenclever, Ihne & Tesch, Kistler Instrumente, Werner Koch Maschinentechnik, Mold Masters Europa, Schuma Maschinenbau, Single Group and Wittmann Battenfeld.