The FOBA is not as large or elaborate as some of the others, but the people were friendly, their machines were impressive and they engraved my name in a pen for me. They had a couple laser machines on display. I asked one of the gentlemen about their laser engraving machine and he offered to [...]

With the iDatix booth located at the far end of the North hall, I pass by hundreds of exhibitors every day. One booth that always caught my eye was from Lincoln Electric. Their intelligent robotic system is different than any of the other robots I have seen at IMTS, I have seen some impressive machines. [...]

ROFIN is one of the largest laser exhibits in the North hall. Their greenmix product, built in Switzerland, is a revolutionary solution for effective copper welding with lasers. It is used for spot welding highly reflective metals and is ideal in industries such as aerospace, automotive and defense. A laser solution such as this means [...]

Yaskawa Motoman certainly stole the show in the North Building this year. With a wide variety of robots on display, including a Black Jack dealer nicknamed Dexter Bot, crowds could always been seeing gathering at their booth. Several of their systems combine robotics with lasers. Their dual arm service robot will challenge you to a [...]

The Fanuc robots in the South building are contenders for “Most Impressive.” With over 100,000 robots installed in the US and 250,000 worldwide, they are the leading supplier of industrial robots. The Gakushu Learning Robot was the first I encountered in their massive booth. Another amazing display involved two robots working together. The largest robot [...]

Schunk is a leader in workholding and automation solution, their slogan “Tomorrow starts today!” signifies what the company is all about. In booth W-2000 you can see their dual arm robot managing the sorting and organizing of parts. Other highlights at their IMTS booth include: TENDO E compact, which is claimed to be the most [...]

The West building consists of a wide range of Tooling and Work holding systems. One unique booth that caught my eye was from Kitagawa-NorthTec who creates innovative systems that combine traditional workholding with automation. Their engineers design custom fixtures and work holding devices ensuring you get the best tooling piece required to run your operations. [...]

Reduce waste, cut costs and improve productivity through the use of waterjet technology. There are a number of large water jet companies here in the North building; Flow, Omax, Accustream and Techni Waterjets just to name a few. The water is fully recyclable, supporting lean and green manufacturing initiatives and reducing costs. Waterjet technology is [...]

In the Emerging Technology Center at the entrance of the North Building lies four of the leading Additive Manufacturing Organizations including ExOne, Renishaw and Objet. Rather than using traditional techniques that begin with a block of material and shave away to form parts, additive manufacturing creates parts by adding material. Layer upon layer, plastic or [...]

The first highlight is API and their laser tracking and measurement technology. Here at IMTS, Automated Precision’s theme is “Building You A Better Process.” Their laser tracking technology can improve the durability and accuracy of your measurement process and reduce the time spent taking manual measurements. Their claim is that one of their feature products, [...]

My first stop in the East Building was at the CNC Productivity experts, Shop Floor Automation, booth (E 3240) where I had the privilege of speaking with Josh Davids, President of Scytec. The cloud based machine monitoring and data collection services he offers, Data Xchange, stands alone in the industry. Highlights of the product include: [...]

Today is my third day here at IMTS and I am still amazed every time I walk into the show. For the 6 days I will be attending I still don’t think I will discover everything there is here. In my quest to ensure that I am delivering the most interesting, relevant and must see [...]

A replica of the Wright Brothers plane Flyer 1 attracts a lot of visitors. Aviation has evolved leaps and bounds in the 100+ years it has been in existence. From a simple design made of spruce, the aviation industry has grown to the creation of elaborate unmanned air vehicles like K-Max from Lockheed Martin.

In the North building, booth 7000, is the Gleason Corporation. Machines to produce and inspect bevel and cylindrical gears are their specialty. Here at IMTS Gleason unveiled their new bevel and cylindrical gear production and inspection solutions. Featured at their booth are a number of new machines, including: The Genesis 400H Vertical Hobbing Machine Gleason [...]

At the Sunnen booth (N-7400) I had the privilege of meeting Gary Conley, 2012 Metalworking Craftsman of the Year and creator of the the world’s smallest V8 engine. The engine was built to scale and powers a mini 1923 Ford T-bucket roadster. As a successful model engineer he contributes his 30 years of business to [...]