IMTS 2016 Retrospective – 5 Insights from the Show Floor

We’ve had a long week of excitement and exhaustion in Chicago.

Although IMTS 2016 doesn’t officially wrap up until Saturday, our editorial team is back in the office, poring over dozens of interviews and hours of video accumulated during our time at the show.

To borrow a phrase from our own James Anderton, “Attending IMTS is like drinking from a firehose.” I didn’t fully appreciate that sentiment until I was in the thick of it. Although I did my best to live tweet my experiences, there was so much going on that it was hard to cover everything.

Now that I’ve had some time to reflect (and a half-decent night’s sleep) I want to share a few insights from my first International Manufacturing Technology Show.

1. Scale

The view from atop the ABB booth in the North B Hall.

I already mentioned this in my first post from IMTS, but it bears repeating. Everything about IMTS is big—from the exhibitor booths to the halls they occupy to and the crowds streaming through them. At least one exhibitor—the name of which I won’t mention—spent literally millions of dollars and the better part of a month setting up its booth.

The view from atop the Renishaw booth in the East Hall.

The sheer amount of effort involved in putting the show together displayed itself in a hundred different ways. To take just one example, the C Hall in the North Building was experiencing low foot traffic over the first two days of the show. To remedy the situation, the IMTS organizers set up scores of signs advertising free beer and pizza in the “IMTS Beer Garden” strategically located at the back of the hall.

As you might expect, the C Hall foot traffic noticeably improved.

2. Diversity

Future NASA engineers?

Although a lack of diversity is still a major issue in STEM, the level of diversity seen throughout IMTS 2016 was encouraging. True, Caucasian males still constitute the vast majority of the old guard in manufacturing, but the multiplicity of genders and ethnicities was noticeable amongst those attendees and exhibitors under 35. It was even more pronounced amongst those under 18.

It was heartening to see so many young people attending the show, and their excitement over the exhibits was palpable. The manufacturing skills gap was a frequent topic of discussion, but seeing so many kids drawn into the show was a good reason to be optimistic.

3. Automation

Ice Cream!

Although it’s by no means a new subject in manufacturing, automation was a common theme at IMTS 2016. Of course there were the big names, such as ABB, Fanuc, KUKA and Yaskawa, but many companies in other market segments were also exhibiting their automation capabilities. These included metrology companies like Hexagon and Nikon, and machine tool manufacturers like DMG Mori and Mazak.

Take your pick.

Collaborative robots were also out in force, suggesting that they will indeed become a multi-billion-dollar market.

By the time we left the show, two separate robots had served me coffee and ice cream, one had retrieved a candy bar of my choice from a conveyor and yet another had played a rousing game of tic-tac-toe. These aren’t manufacturing applications, but they nevertheless illustrate the versatility of industrial robots today.

I can’t wait to see what the automation industry will be serving up at IMTS 2018.

4. Additive Manufacturing

Inside a 3D-printed building. Note the layers on the left.

Although it represented a relatively tiny part of the overall trade show, additive manufacturing is clearly on the rise. Here’s my prediction: by the next IMTS, additive manufacturing will take up more than double the floor space, perhaps even to the point where it occupies its own hall.

I counted a total of five 3D-printed vehicles—six if you include Olli, the autonomous shuttle built by Local Motors. Compare that to the previous IMTS, which featured one 3D-printed car as a major highlight of the show. There was even a small 3D-printed building sponsored by the Department of Energy.

More and more companies seemed to be featuring additive manufacturing as part of their portfolios. HP was there with its Multi Jet Fusion printers and the company was adamant that these machines have been specifically designed for manufacturing and not just prototyping.

5. Autonomous Driving

It's Olli!

Although I’ve already mentioned Olli, the self-driving shuttle deserves special emphasis. Initially, it may seem unimpressive: the shuttle travelled a short distance at a mere five miles per hour, making only a single unassisted left turn.

However, it’s what Ollie represents that made it the highlight of the show for me.

The shuttle was 3D printed by Local Motors, a company with ample experience in automotive additive manufacturing. Olli also incorporates some of the latest sensor technology, as Alex Fiechter, head of product development, explained:

“This particular unit, since it’s the first prototype, and especially since we’re underground, uses LiDAR exclusively for this event. But the actual ones are going to be working with LiDAR, RADAR, visual and haptic sensors as well as GPS.”

Olli represents another major theme from IMTS: big data. That’s why Olli includes the cognitive computing capabilities of IBM Watson.

“For me, the most exciting thing about Olli are the possibilities of what you can do with a user group when you have nothing but passengers,” said Fiechter. “You’ve got this group of users who can give you all kinds of input because they aren’t concentrating on the act of driving; they’re just experiencing the vehicle. You can get all kinds of interesting input to help you improve the ride experience, the routing, how we can improve their drive-time productivity and things like that. It’s really the combination of where the tech meets the people that’s most interesting to me.”

I have a lot of great memories from IMTS, but my first-ever ride in an autonomous vehicle is one I’m sure to be boring my grandchildren with a few decades from now.

For more on IMTS, check out some of our videos from the show floor.