Technology to Look Forward To

The largest metalworking exposition concluded in mid September. I realize many of you don’t make the trek to Hannover, Germany, for the biennial European machine tool show. That’s OK because we trade show editors do and then report back through our magazines and electronic media about the cool technology we saw there. We are your proxy.

However, when September 2012 rolls around, and it will come sooner than we think, many of you will attend North America’s version—IMTS. I understand that it seems a long way off, but with EMO fresh in my mind, I though it might be useful to give you a snapshot of some trends and products we saw there that you might want to check out in Chicago.

There will be many debuts of products and processes at IMTS. However, this interview with my colleague, Mark Albert, editor-in-chief of PM’s sister publication, Modern Machine Shop, will give an inkling of where some of the cutting edge technologies are heading. Mark talks about what he saw at the show and what trends he expects to be on display at IMTS next year.

AMT, which sponsors IMTS, interviewed Mark on site at EMO about his impressions of the show, and more important, his insight about how these new developments will continue to impact your shop.