IMTS 2024: Trends & Takeaways From the Modern Machine Shop Editorial Team

IMTS 2024 — The International Manufacturing Technology Show ran Sept. 9-14 in Chicago, Ill. The show featured 1,737 exhibitors, more than 40 million pounds of machinery, 1,226,523 square feet of show space and 89,020 registrants, including 14,713 at the Smartforce Student Summit. Following IMTS 2024, the Modern Machine Shop editorial team created a video detailing their takeaways from the show, highlighting increased robotic presence, advancements in automation, TASC – The Automated Shop Conference, the Smartforce Student Summit, our annual Top Shops event and more.

Transcript:

Julia Hider — Senior Editor
Modern Machine Shop's editorial team recently attended IMTS 2024, the largest manufacturing trade show in North America, where we saw all kinds of machining technology. Here are some of the trends we noticed at the show.

It feels like every IMTS features more and more robotics, and 2024 was no exception. Robots could be found not only in the new automation sector in the North Hall, but all across the show floor. Collaborative robots continue to grow in popularity. Kawasaki Robotics released its CL cobot line, and Rethink Robotics released its Reacher cobot line at the show. Both lines are IP rated to handle Shopfloor environments, which indicates suppliers are focused on machine shops as markets for these cobots.

Robots are also going mobile. In addition to its Reacher cobot line, Rethink Robotics released its Ryder AMR, which can carry a cobot on top of it and drop it off at a machine tool. And Boston Dynamics was featuring its Spot robot dog, which can be used for a number of inspection and monitoring tasks.

Robots also abounded in the Smartforce Student Summit, where they've become a major way to interest students in the manufacturing industry. One of the most interesting examples was the Astorino, a desktop sized 3D printed robot from Kawasaki that students can program using the same methods as industrial robots.

Evan Doran — Associate Editor
Something that really struck me at IMTS is the way that OEMs are expanding their hardware and software capabilities to cover additional applications that would have once required multiple solutions.

For example, Hermle showed off a hybrid machine that combined one of its five axis mills with a relatively uncommon additive process, which enables the creation of functional features impossible with purely subtractive machining, while attaining better surface finishes than many additive processes. Romi's new C470 lathe, meanwhile, combines a hand wheel with a CNC control, splitting the difference between manual turning and CNC turning to simplify a shop's transition between these styles of turning.

From the software side, this same trend was visible both in expanded feature sets from software updates, as well as through the introduction of new products. For example, Heidenhain’s TNC7 MAS control has added real time predictions of part success based on extrapolations of machine data and completed first articles, enabling users to catch errors before full part runs are complete.

In another example, Harmoni's shop floor data system combines elements of a DNC machine monitoring software and EMS, and even a time clock to handle a wide range of tasks from the shop floor to the production office, increasing data visibility while streamlining operations.

Eli Plaskett — Senior Associate Editor
One trend I noticed this year was in the realm of digital manufacturing. Digital solutions and machine monitoring, in particular, have a reputation for requiring a lot from the user to get the value they advertise. Now, more and more digital solutions have very clear out of the box applications that require much less from the user.

For example, MachineMetrics now offers a system by which its machine monitoring software can connect to its customers’ scheduling software. This enables it to, through its monitoring system, examine the rate at which parts are being produced. Then, it can compare that to when these parts are due and, with a very simple math problem, know whether or not you're going to get your parts out to the customer on time.

Other companies are also building in these out of the box solutions, including companies that had only dipped their toes into the digital space before. This can range from tool management solutions, from both machine tool and cutting tool suppliers, to machine monitoring systems that have more advanced alerts to draw your attention to details that you might have overlooked.

The real difference between these kinds of digital solutions and what's been coming before is how immediately you can use them. They are out of the box, useful tools for any manufacturer to have, and it's a good idea to keep your eye out for them and research what might fit your shop best.

Brent Donaldson — Editor-in-Chief
So, my experience at IMTS 2024 was a little bit different than previous IMTSes. It was really anchored by events that Modern Machine Shop hosted and presented at the show.

So, if you're a fan of Modern Machine Shop, you're probably familiar with our Top Shops event and annual benchmarking survey. So, we won't go too far into that, except to say that this year's event at IMTS was fantastic. My favorite aspect of this year’s Top Shops event was something new that we tried, which was a round table event where we broke the audience into four small groups and had each of our Top Shop's honorees engage directly with these groups and offer tips and advice around topics like shop floor practices, business strategies, human resources and workforce issues, as well as machining technologies.

So, our other main event at IMTS this year was TASC. The Automated Shop Conference (TASC) is a technical conference specifically geared towards small and medium sized job shops looking for automation solutions. It's really another example of Modern Machine Shop using its long reach into the industry to find shop leaders who are innovating around automation and have them share their experiences directly with our audience.

So, I should note here that attendance at our TASC event at IMTS was really fantastic. It was about double what we were expecting, which means that a larger audience got to hear about topics such as profitable automation implementation, deploying AI to solve the machining skills gap, using automation to enhance shop culture and employee potential, as well as automation in coding and many, many more practical topics around automation.

So, if you missed these events at IMTS, do not worry. Both will be returning in 2025. So mark your calendars now for TASC, which will take place in Indianapolis at the Hyatt Regency on August 12th and 13th. And mark your calendars in November for Top Shops, which will take place on the 11th and 12th at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina.

As always, for the latest in machining and metalworking technology and trends, visit us online at mmsonline.com. Subscribe to our print magazine or follow Modern Machine Shop's YouTube channel. We’ll see you in 2025.