IMTS 2024

The latest edition of IMTS 2024 – the International Manufacturing Technology Show – again filled the four exhibit buildings of Chicago’s McCormick Place with an abundance of high-tech machines and accessories leading manufacturing’s future. Most attendees were focused on seeking solutions to their production quandaries, asking pertinent questions, and sizing up new products.

Many attendees’ shopping lists included integrated, automated, and connected turnkey solutions, allowing them to do more with fewer people. And, as always, they were looking for ways to increase productivity at lower cost.

Douglas K. Woods, president of AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, which owns and produces IMTS, remarked after the show, “Rather than featuring a product, exhibitors showed how they solved problems with systems. That’s the genius that excited visitors.”

That visitors were attentive is reflected in the post-show comment by Tom Sheridan, president of Royal Products and incoming chair of the IMTS Show Committee, “This has been our best IMTS for quality engagements.”

Daniel Janka, president of Mazak and chairman of AMT’s board of directors, concurred: “Manufacturers of all sizes, representing all vertical industries, came to Chicago looking for new technology and manufacturing solutions enabling greater productivity, automation, and profitability. IMTS 2024 did not disappoint.”

AI, automation, digital transformation

Recurring themes throughout the show included artificial intelligence (AI), automation in numerous forms, and multiple pathways for digitally transforming even the smallest machine shop.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft may not be the companies one expects to see at a show heavily focused on machines, but they (and their partners) are active proponents of AI, machine learning, and cloud-based applications. Each of the tech giants’ booths featured numerous presentations covering topics such as: building smart products and services, accelerating smart manufacturing with generative AI, improving defect detection with AI (AWS); powering workflows with a secure and reliable operating system, active incident response, bridging design and production with closed-loop manufacturing (Google); empowering frontline workers with AI-driven automation, how manufacturers are using AI today, and intelligent factories (Microsoft). https://aws.amazon.com; https://cloud.google.com/solutions/manufacturing; https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/industry/manufacturing/microsoft-cloud-for-manufacturing

Automation solutions were featured nearly everywhere. At least one machining center in each booth in the South Building showcased: an automated tool changer, pallet changer, or gantry loader; bar feeder; robot or cobot work cell; or autonomous mobile robot (AMR) for lights-out operation between machines across the shop floor.

One example: 11 of 14 CNC machine tools in Okuma’s booth were paired with automation systems, including three making their debut in the Americas: the Okuma SmarTwinCELL – an entire manufacturing cell managed by Okuma technologies; Okuma Robot Loader (ORL) – an easy-to-integrate robot designed to load and unload workpieces from machines; and an Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) – a mobile robot designed to shuttle workpieces between processing stations. The automation systems were developed by its Okuma Factory Automation (OFA) Division and industry partners. https://www.okuma.com

At the Murata Machinery USA (Muratec) booth, under the banner “Celebrating 50 years of automation,” was the MSR60, making its North American debut. The single-spindle CNC turning center with Y-axis milling capabilities and a directly coupled 8,000rpm live tool spindle motor still has space for optional built-in gantry loader automation within its compact footprint. It’s also available with a dual gantry loader for faster operation. https://www.muratec-usa.com

HERMLE USA unveiled the HS flex hybrid, a single-source, fully automated pallet and vise handling system to maximize storage capacity, with up to 5x more storage locations. According to the company, the system allows significantly longer spindle run times, addressing industry trends such as increased part complexity, increased part customization, workforce shortages, and increasing pressure to reduce costs. https://www.hermleusa.net

At the entrance of the North Building, AMT’s Emerging Technology Center (ETC) at IMTS 2024 featured multiple solutions for automation, efficiency, agility, and productivity. A multi-process-convergent manufacturing cell developed by a cross-disciplinary team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory integrated existing technologies: a robotic, wire-arc, additive manufacturing (WAAM) system, machining center, pallet tower, heat-treating system, and 3D laser scanning metrology station. The goal is to develop a system that can cut long lead times, lower costs, and replace castings and forgings to reshore production for such parts as turbine blades, valve bodies, conformal heat exchangers, and propellers to meet growth in aerospace and defense spending. https://www.imts.com/show/etc.cfm

Sustainability

Reducing manufacturing’s environmental impact has become an important part of the mission statements of a wide range of suppliers, from cutting tool producers to makers of machining centers. Many of these initiatives are led by companies headquartered in Europe, where net-zero carbon emission goals have been embraced by aircraft and engine manufacturers and their tier suppliers. Sustainability goals are being adopted globally and eventually will become a deciding factor for which U.S. manufacturers are selected to receive aerospace production contracts. Their tooling suppliers will be ready to help.

Tooling supplier CERATIZIT Group released its sustainability report at the show. Starting from the base year of 2020, the company reduced CO₂ emissions by 22% – nearly 157 tons – by 2023. It plans to reduce that amount by 60% from the baseline by 2030 and targets 90% reduction by 2040. Part of the goal is to minimize the use of virgin raw materials and maximize the use of secondary materials by systematically collecting end-of-life tools, achieved with a 95% tungsten recycling rate. https://www.ceratizit.com

Magnus Ekbäck, VP of Strategy and Sustainability at cutting-tool producer Sandvik Coromant, says the most pressing area of sustainability is CO₂ emissions. “If a customer asks us, ‘What’s the carbon footprint of your product?’ we need to answer. To do that we’re implementing life cycle assessments on each item so we’ll be able to respond.”

The company’s also introducing a Productivity Analyzer that takes speeds and feeds and machining time, plus energy consumed, and calculates how much CO₂ is produced for each process. The most appreciative customers so far are the ones getting pressure on their CO₂ emissions, Ekbäck says.

“Sustainability is accelerating,” he adds. “We’re seeing more high ambitions but also more regulations, especially in Europe.” https://www.sandvik.coromant.com

Featured at the Marposs metrology booth in the East Building was the C- THRU4.0, a database management system for tool, process, and machine condition monitoring. The C-ENERGY Artis Smart Factory analysis software module for C-THRU4.0 measures, collects, and evaluates energy use data collected by sensors in machines throughout a plant – even the coffee maker’s energy consumption can be tracked and optimized.

“We use power consumption to monitor energy consumption,” says Cosimo Cereda, head of sales for Marposs Monitoring Solutions. “The CO₂ emission is a relationship between the cost per kWh for every country and how many grams of CO₂ are produced generating that power.”

The dashboard gives energy costs, CO₂ footprint, and consumption peaks – data that can inform decisions on optimizing energy use, such as shutting down an inactive machine. https://www.artis.de/eng/application/data-management

Summing up

A major reason for attending IMTS is the opportunity to meet application engineers with years of experience who are passionate about the products they represent. Or seeing the expansive arrays of robots or machining centers as well as the small booths where entrepreneurs are introducing their innovations. But maybe the best benefit of attending a trade show is the person-to-person interaction that builds on the questions and answers, establishes trust, and lets one feel fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from the experts exactly what can fast-track your business in the wider world of manufacturing.

As AMT’s chief experience officer Peter R. Eelman put it, “IMTS 2024 will accelerate the adoption of advanced technology in ways visitors could not have imagined before the show.”

IMTS 2024
https://www.imts.com

About the author: Eric Brothers is editor of Aerospace Manufacturing and Design. He can be reached at EBrothers@gie.net.