Iran holds first exhibition of home-made laboratory tools, equipment

Iran held the first exhibition of its home-made laboratory tools and equipment (Iranlab 2013) from May 8 to 11, 2013. In this exhibition, 750 types of laboratorial devices and 275 laboratorial materials in the fields of biotechnology, nanotechnology, electronics, and mechanics were put on display by over 131 knowledge-based companies from the private sector and research institutes. In addition to the participant companies in the exhibition, 15 stalls provided services, including legal consultations, marketing, investment, patenting and obtaining European standards. According to Dr. Reza Asadifar, the Executive Secretary of the exhibition, 750 devices and 300 laboratorial materials were presented in the exhibition. \"Products were investigated and confirmed in various aspects before the organization of the exhibition. First of all, they should have been made in Iran. Secondly, they should have met the needs of research and laboratorial needs in the country. Industrial devices that are used for industrial production were not displayed in this exhibition.\" As the organizer of the exhibition, Science and Technology Department of the Presidential Office will pay 50% of the purchase cost of the devices to the state universities and research centers in order to support the production of advanced analytical devices. According to the Executive Secretary of the exhibition, more than 4,500 purchase requests were registered in the exhibition. Companies that produce equipment, specially those that are active in the field of nanotechnology, were satisfied with the very high number of the visitors. They said the number of visitors were unique in comparison with that of the other domestic exhibitions. According to the participating companies, the organization of specialized visits was among the most important differences of this exhibition with other domestic exhibitions.