Trade shows designs are usually constructed in a way that gains attendees’ attention and leaves a lasting impression. This is exactly what Nippon Tungsten did at the IDEA 2019 trade show in Miami. Read the full interview below to learn more about this project.

---

What does Nippon Tungsten do?

Nippon Tungsten Co., LTD, located in Japan, is a manufacturer and supplier of ultra-precise custom powder metal and ceramic products.  Japan is the primary production location for the creation of high-speed custom tungsten rotary cutters that are critical to the feminine hygiene and disposable diaper industries.  Nippon Tungsten USA Inc., located in Barboursville, West Virginia, is a subsidiary corporation that services the refurbishment of these high-speed custom tungsten cutters for the North American market, as well as a sales contact for English speaking customers.

What type of trade show did Nippon Tungsten exhibit at?

The custom project Stretch Shapes created was for IDEA 2019 in Miami, which is an expo for the nonwoven fabrics industry (baby diapers, adult diapers, feminine hygiene products, baby wipes, and so forth).

What was the overall objective and vision for this custom booth design? What was the inspiration behind the design?

The general concept of the booth was to create a booth shape that reflects the types of shapes that our customers cut out of nonwoven material with Nippon Tungsten products. The idea was to show the outside as a simple clean white surface that reflected the curves found in the manufacturing of products like diapers. On the inside, however, we wanted to show the engendering and teamwork required to create our Die Cutters.  To achieve this Stretch Shapes provided us a wonderful 20′ x 30′ booth design composed of arches that we were able to project slideshows, movies, and graphics onto.

How was your experience working with the Stretch Shapes team during the design process of your structure?

Working with Stretch Shapes was great.  They took our concept and simple renderings and helped us to fully realize our vision.  Our relationship manager was timely and informative at each stage of the design process.  We had no experience as a company in creating anything like this booth space previously, but Stretch Shapes was able to help us realize our vision.  From our simple foam core model, Stretch Shapes engineered a reusable aluminum frame and IFR (inherently flame retardant) stretch fabric product that looked fantastic and passed all rules and regulations set by the trade show.

How was set up and strike?

Set up was good; I am glad we did it twice.  Instructions were provided and everything is marked and there is only one way to assemble the object; but it is complex and took a while to figure out. That being said, once I understood how it all worked together the set up was easy and rapid. Because of the height of our object we were forced to use contract labor on site to set up.  This is a very high-cost hourly rate but the laborers were familiar with Stretch Shapes’ projects and were able to rapidly apply the fabric to our frame.  In fact, it was done slightly faster than anticipated and my budget was relieved.

Was the show a success?

We had a fantastic amount of interest because of our booth.  We had people just come by to see our booth that had no need for our products but were interested in our design.  The big bosses were very happy and proud of the outcome.

Do you plan to reuse this structure?

The goal is to reuse the structure but there are no immediate plans to do so.  Our industry does not have that many trade show events.  Some are held only every 3 years like the one in Miami.

Any last words you would like to add about your overall experience working with Stretch Shapes?

Stretch Shapes was great and by far the best of all the vendors that we used for our project.  Professional and excellent quality are the characteristics that stand out.