MATEXPO is one of Europe’s biggest international construction trade fairs. This year, it was held in Kortrijk, Belgium, from September 11-15. Doka had its first reasons to celebrate before the trade fair officially begun: Its mobile fall protection system FreeFalcon had won the Safety Award.The highlights The 38th trade expo for construction industry machinery, equipment and tech covered 135,000 sq m, in which 370 exhibitors demonstrated products and innovations for road construction, civil engineering, recycling and public works. Doka Belgium is a veteran of the biennial trade fair, with this year being its fifteenth MATEXPO. Its bright, modern 160 sq m booth had a variety of formwork systems on display. The highlights this year were Framax Xlife plus, DokaXlight, Staxo 40 and Dokadek 30.Safety first The MATEXPO Awards were introduced in 2007, with prizes going to the exhibitors with the most innovative and most environmentally-friendly products. A third prize, the Safety Award, was added this year. A total of 30 dossiers were submitted for the Innovation Award, 20 for the Green Award and 15 for the new Safety Award. On 10 September, during the official opening ceremony, the individual award winners were announced for this seventh year. Doka was thrilled to receive the Safety Award for its mobile fall protection system FreeFalcon.“With FreeFalcon, we have a professional and adequate solution that allows our customers to work safely and mobile without losing any time with the installation. As formwork specialists, we are always optimising our formwork systems and offering safety systems and digital services for the future. Winning the Safety Award is very motivating for our Doka team, because it proves that we have good products and that the customers trust us,” emphasised Koen Lamers, Managing Director, Doka Belgium.FreeFalcon is one of Doka’s latest safety products. It provides flexible attachment points above head height, closing a safety gap on construction sites and offering the perfect synthesis of security and freedom of movement. The mobile fall protection anchor ensures that individuals are secured in just those locations where the danger of falling is greatest. This significantly increases safety without compromising flexibility, reducing the risk of fall accidents.DokaXact reaches the podiumSafety was not the only domain where a Doka product was singled out: DokaXact also reached a podium spot. DokaXact is the first interactive, sensor-based system for accurately positioning wall formwork elements for vertical structures, eg concrete cores in high-rise buildings. It is a tool that allows surveyors and construction site teams to quickly and precisely plumb and align wall formwork used with climbing systems. It consists of a collection of sensors, which are attached to defined measuring points and communicate wirelessly with the central processing unit.(Communication by the management of the company)