Plast 2026 scheduled for this June in Milan
Milan, Italy – At PLAST 2026, the international triennial trade fair for the plastics and rubber industry, scheduled from 9 to 12 June at Rho Fiera Milano, the satellite event 3D Plast is reinventing itself, establishing itself as one of the most innovative and dynamic formats of the entire show.
‘No longer a conventional exhibition space, but an experiential hub designed to convey the evolution of additive manufacturing in a clear and tangible way. This is how 3DplastLab is born, a platform where content, people and technologies converge to redefine, in real time, the way in which innovation is presented and shared.
Already a fixture at previous editions, 3D Plast takes a significant step forward this year: from a dedicated 3D printing area to an international ecosystem for dialogue – a laboratory capable of bringing together research, industry, design and emerging technological frontiers, including artificial intelligence and advanced engineering.
The renewed identity of 3D Plast stems from a collaboration between the PLAST organisational secretariat and Simone Maccagan, Business Development Manager at Gimac and CEO & Founder of eXgineering. It has been developed, designed and coordinated by Pierpaolo Ruttico, Founder and Managing Director of Indexlab, a digital fabrication laboratory at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
At the heart of this new edition will be the participation of dozens of globally recognised innovators, selected through a mapping process involving more than 1,000 sector professionals from around the world.
Throughout the duration of the event, the area will be animated by a continuous programme of speeches, presentations and discussion sessions, creating a sustained flow of content on the theme of advanced additive manufacturing. Topics will include: new materials, artificial intelligence applied to production, computational design, distributed ledger, sustainability and new industrial models.
Within an area of over 400 m², visitors will be able to engage directly with prototypes, applications and concrete projects, interacting physically or digitally with their creators.
The exhibition will be organised around four thematic areas, representing the main evolutionary trajectories of the sector:
Materials – new substances, new performance
Technologies – advanced processes and machinery
Construction systems – applications and production models
Design techniques – new approaches to design
Each thematic area will be awarded a prize for the most innovative project, recognising the most advanced solutions in terms of research and application.
With this new format, 3DPlastLab definitively moves beyond the traditional exhibition model, establishing itself as a laboratory for stimulating the creation and long-term planning of content, relationships and visions around additive manufacturing, a place where professionals, companies, researchers and decision-makers do not merely observe innovation, but bring it into being, plan its development and watch it take shape in real time, edition after edition.