In March Connection Magazines Jeff Patchell joined more than 200 members of the local plumbing industry to travel to Frankfurt, Germany for the popular bi-annual ISH exhibition.

Like many exhibitions, ISH, a normally huge event, has been tempered somewhat over the past four years due to the effect of the GFC. However this year more than 2400 exhibitors from around the globe showed-off their latest designs and technologies. The R&D has finally come out of the lab and onto the sales floor.

ISH has two main themes: Energy and Water. And if you wanted any convincing of why energy is so important to Europe, you only needed to be there on the first day of this five day event.

Flying in from a steamy Melbourne 36 degrees early-Autumn day to minus five degrees and 20cm of snow and ice, due to a late onset of winter, is a stark reminder of the northern hemisphere’s necessary focus on reducing energy use and cost. And it has a rub-off for us as well.

Due to the weather conditions on the first day or two, the visitor numbers were slightly down to 190,000, but you could be forgiven for barely noticing the difference.

One of the difficulties in reporting on such an event is simply how to cover such a broad array of product and technology.
Thus, I’ve made some general observations and had a post-event chat with some of the Australian visitors and suppliers, to share their thoughts and experiences with you.

Typically not all new products displayed make their way here; in fact there were hundreds of brands exhibiting that are not even represented in Australia. Where else would you see a Lamborghini on display?

Greg Gilboy runs his own hydraulic consultancy in Cairns. This was his first visit to ISH, after hearing how good it was 24 years ago.

And what an experience it was.

The motivation for him was an invitation from Stiebel Eltron to join their touring party that took in a factory tour and some pre-event German hospitality.

As Greg said, “ISH itself showed me how small our market is in Australia as about 95% of the products we saw don’t come anywhere near our shores.

“Some of that is due to our small market, but a number of the product manufacturers that I spoke to said it was also due to our laws and regulations.

“That’s a good thing in regard to some of the products that I saw there, we wouldn’t want to let them come in. However, at the same time, there was some interesting alternate technology.”

While Greg has been specifying heat pumps from Stiebel Eltron’s range for the past 25 years, the opportunity to see them being made on the assembly line was an eye opener.

“The precision and the smarts used at the factories blew me away. I assumed that they used imported parts for the electronic components, but I was very surprised to learn that they make their own. Stiebel have 3500 products in their range and we only get 16 of them, so that says to me that we have so much more growth in our way of thinking.

“The most exciting products that we are not currently getting in Australia are from their renewable energy range. The geothermal heating systems using heat pump technology left me speechless.

Our politicians should be pushing this stuff into legislation, rather than going down the track of carbon taxing. I personally think it could have more impact for our nation overall.”

So for Greg, he has enhanced respect for German technology and a greater appreciation and understanding of what he hears from his local Stiebel Eltron rep! Greg’s advice to Plumbing Connection readers: “Get over to the next ISH and open your eyes, you’ll be quite amazed.”

Another hydraulic consultant in the Stiebel party was Queenslander Simon Lynch, a director of MRP Hydraulic and Fire Services Consultants. Simon says he was also blown away with the scale and efficiencies of the Stiebel factories at Holzminden and Eschwege and the technologies they are outputting.

In terms of the energy efficiency standards they have to meet in Europe, Simon came away thinking that “it was not unreasonable to suggest that by comparison we have it easy in Australia – but we don’t appreciate that”.

Overall Simon was impressed with ISH but if someone could have waved a magic wand and put all the stands/products suited to the Australian market in one area, it might have saved him two or three days of aisle walking.

“To my surprise I was underwhelmed by a lack of exposure to new plumbing and drainage technologies suited to the Australian market. Perhaps my expectations of the ISH experience were too high, or perhaps it’s just a case of recognising that plumbing and drainage in this country is as good – if not better – than what is being done anywhere else in the world. Maybe I have just been around for too long…” Simon says.

“To put things in context, I came away with a sense of how small the Australian product market is when compared to the vast range of products available internationally. No doubt, to some extent, this is a result of the tight regulations and approvals needed to achieve product certification and authorisation in accordance with The Plumbing Code of Australia. From my perspective we seem to be getting it right here in Australia, whilst it could be said that we are a little over-regulated when compared to our international counterparts. In the big picture we enjoy clean drinking water and sanitation for a healthy nation. In my humble opinion, that is what our industry is all about and it is the collaborative efforts of our plumbers, designers, local government inspectors and regulators that help ensure Australian children will enjoy the same high standard into the future.”

Improving hygiene – a prominent theme
There is always something at ISH that makes you stop and take a second look and a couple of new designs/technologies in the toilet pan sector did just that.

ISH saw the introduction of Rimless Toilets, which all of a sudden seem to have popped up in the product ranges of a number of leading brands. I’m not sure who invented Rimless, but no doubt more than one manufacturer will likely take the credit.

As can be seen in the accompanying illustration of the Duravit brand model, rimless pans don’t have the usual roll-over rim; where the underneath is not glazed and the porous surface can capture grime and infection.

Thus the primary selling feature of this style of fully-glazed pan is cleanliness and hygiene. The key markets for such a product will likely be medical/aged-care institutions, high-use commercial facilities (airports/hotels/sporting arenas) and high-end residential.

Suppliers claim there is no splashing (better hygiene) and that they work effectively with a 4.5L flush. It will be interesting to see how they perform in the long-term. You can expect to see versions of this product in Australia in the not too distant future.

The third option
As we all know, there are two common configurations of toilets in the world: sitting and squatting. However a Turkish company, Gural Vit has challenged that norm and introduced an interesting alternative.

This low-slung hybrid solution is an interesting concept – although, if you are a bit weak in the knees it may be more difficult to get on and off (or should that be in and out), without having wall handrails on both sides to assist.

Nonetheless Gural is confident that this new design offers the most natural anatomic position for the human body to defecate. They claim this in turn reduces the potential to damage your internals.

So, just when you thought you’d seen everything in toilets … here we go again.

ComfortZone testing
This is an interesting idea introduced by Hansgrohe.
In an ideal world, suppliers would like to think consumers will install wash basins and mixer taps of the same brand – safe in the knowledge they have been ‘matched’ and there is no annoying splashing or misalignment of connections and the like.

However, in the real world buyers generally select their basin of choice first, then a mixer tap, which may often come from another brand.

To solve this problem, Hansgrohe have taken the initiative and put a major program in place to test their basin mixers with wash basins from respected brands likes Duravit, Ideal Standard, Keramag and Roca among others. Via their website you can check the test results of these combinations and be confident that your customer will be satisfied after installation. And the good news is that they intend to conduct the same testing program with Caroma’s range of basins and other leading brands sold in our market. That’s a win:win for the industry.

Anti-Microbial everything
Stopping the spread of bacterial infection throughout buildings, particularly medical facilities is one of the world’s great industrial challenges.

The issue is being worked on from a number of angles; washbasin/sanitary facilities, flooring, door handles and trim, just to name a few.

Copper and silver contain properties that make them a natural antimicrobial agent. In fact Samsung applies a nano-silver coating to its product range, which they claim maintains the freshness of stored food over time.

Therefore it is not surprising that silver treatment is being considered in ventilation systems, given their ability to transfer air particles from one room to another.

AFS, a Turkish HVAC supplier recently launched a new hygienic solution, an anti-microbial flexible air duct. Using silver technology as an internal surface coating, the company claims long-lasting antimicrobial performance.

Nano-sized silver particles are encapsulated in a polymer capsule, which is activated by catalytic mechanism.

The silver atoms radiate energy in narrow wavelengths which leads to the formation of O and OH radicals that terminate the pathogens. As there is no specific killing mechanisms for pathogens in this catalytic mechanism, microorganisms cannot develop immunity against the anti-microbial capsules.

As you can see, there is a lot to take in at ISH and that’s why you have five days to do it. Not all products are available in Australia, however we should be looking to the technical advancements of other nations to improve our own and shake the plumbing industry up a little.

EXHIBITION FACTS
12 – 16 March 2013
Location – Frankfurt Fair & Exhibition Centre
Space – 258,000 sq metres (approx. 10x Sydney’s Darling Harbour hall)
Suppliers exhibiting – 2,434
Trade visitors – 190,000
The next ISH Exhibition will be held in Frankfurt March 10-14, 2015
Jeff Patchell attended ISH 2013 as a guest of Messe Frankfurt