CHINAPLAS 2026 ran from 21 to 24 April at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai. It is the largest plastics and rubber exhibition in the world by exhibitor count, and for a blade manufacturer it is less a sales floor than an engineering meeting: most of the useful conversations happen with machine builders who are designing the cutting station that our knives will eventually sit in.
Dekeer attended as an industrial cutting blade manufacturer serving printing, packaging and plastics converters. This page records what we showed, what buyers asked about, and what the conversations told us about where blade demand is moving.
1. The Exhibition in Numbers
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Dates | 21–24 April 2026 |
| Venue | National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC), Shanghai |
| Scope | Raw materials, processing machinery, recycled plastics, environmentally friendly materials and supporting components |
| Exhibitors | More than 5,000, drawn from the global plastics and rubber supply chain |
| Stated themes for 2026 | Intelligent manufacturing, green sustainability, circular economy, innovative materials |
The theme mix matters for a blade supplier. Circular economy and recycled content are not abstract policy at a show like this — they arrive at the cutting edge as harder, more abrasive material. Recycled polymer carries mineral fillers and contamination that virgin resin does not, and the knife has to survive it.
2. What We Showed
Our stand covered four product families, each aimed at a different cutting problem on a plastics or packaging line.
| Product family | Application | What buyers asked about most |
|---|---|---|
| Tungsten carbide blades | High-wear slitting and cutting of film, foil and filled compound | Edge life in tonnes or metres versus the tool steel grade they currently run |
| Serrated and saw-tooth blades | Bag sealing, film cross-cutting, woven and laminated material | Tooth pitch for thin film, and whether the pattern can be reground |
| Zig-zag packaging knives | Pillow-pack and flow-wrap cross-cutting | Tooth apex position relative to the register, not just pitch |
| Custom industrial cutting tools | Machine-specific geometries with no standard equivalent | How quickly a drawing can be turned into a first article |
Product pages for these families are on the site: titanium-coated serrated blades, zig-zag cutting knives and the full product range.
3. What the Conversations Actually Revealed
Three themes came up repeatedly, across visitors from different regions and different end markets. None of them were about unit price.
3.1 Blade life is now a cost line, not a maintenance detail
With polymer prices volatile, converters are measuring scrap and downtime more closely than they used to. Several visitors arrived with a specific figure in mind: how many tonnes or metres they get per knife set, and whether a different grade would move it. That is a much better question than a price per piece, and it is the question our engineers are set up to answer.
3.2 Recycled content is changing blade demand
Several machine builders said their customers are running higher recycled fractions than the machine was specified for. The mechanical consequence is more abrasive wear and more frequent knife changes, which pushes demand toward harder grades and toward coatings that were previously considered a premium option.
3.3 Machine builders want the blade specified with the machine
The most productive meetings were with equipment manufacturers who were finalising a cutting station design. When a blade is specified alongside the machine rather than after it, clearance, holder geometry and edge angle are decided once and consistently, instead of being reverse-engineered from a worn sample three years later.
4. What We Took Away
| Observation | What it means for our production |
|---|---|
| Recycled and filled materials are becoming standard, not niche | Harder grades and coated options need to be presented as mainstream choices rather than upgrades |
| Buyers measure life in tonnes or metres | Technical documentation has to state edge life assumptions and the conditions they apply to |
| Machine builders specify earlier in the design cycle | Drawing turnaround and first-article confirmation speed become competitive factors |
| Regrind allowance is a recurring question | It should be stated in the quotation rather than negotiated at reorder |
5. Where to Find Us Next
We publish exhibition participation and technical notes on the news page. If you met the team in Shanghai and are following up on a specific geometry, sending the drawing or a photograph of the existing blade with a rule across it is the fastest way to get a firm answer.
Next Step: Continue the Conversation
DEKEER has manufactured precision industrial blades for more than 20 years, exporting to Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. We forge, vacuum heat treat and CNC grind in-house, in D2 / SKD11, HSS and tungsten carbide, with edge geometry matched to the material being cut.
Send your machine model and the blade you are replacing through dkeblade.com contact, and our engineers will confirm grade, dimensions and edge angle before anything is ground.
Related reading: packaging machine blades guide, slitting knife selection guide, choosing blade material and tungsten carbide price increase 2026.