MCLEAN, VA – The International Manufacturing Technology Show has become a founding partner of the Smart Manufacturing Experience, which takes place April 30 – May 2 at the Boston Convention Center.

Created by SME and The Association For Manufacturing Technology, the Smart Manufacturing Experience provides a setting for technology providers and users to be immersed in an interactive learning atmosphere. It provides practical solutions that industry can apply immediately to boost productivity, increase sales, improve efficiency and reduce costs. 

IMTS will bring some of its front-end technology partners to the Smart Manufacturing Experience, including the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). ORNL will showcase fundamental research on qualification and certification of additively manufactured parts leveraging capabilities in data analytics. Data analytics application tools are being developed by ORNL researchers to optimize and certify components for end use, in addition to reducing costs and time to market. Applications of interest include 3D printing highly non-weldable nickel-base alloys for gas turbine engines and developing new high temperature aluminum alloys.

“Becoming a founding partner extends the reach of IMTS by exposing Boston audiences to the type of transformative technologies that will be showcased at IMTS 2018, especially those in the AMT’s Emerging Technology Center,” said Peter R. Eelman, vice president, exhibitions and business development at AMT, producer of IMTS.

IMTS 2018 will be held Sept. 10-15 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

IMTS will also bring technology partner Local Motors and the famous Strati 3D printed vehicle to the Smart Manufacturing Experience. 3D printed and assembled live from the ground up and driven off the show floor on the sixth day of IMTS 2014, the Strati proved the viability of Cincinnati Incorporated’s Big-Area Additive Manufacturing system and garnered prime-time media acclaim.

“In just four years, IMTS has moved from showing the large-scale capabilities of Additive Manufacturing to now showing how the digital thread has extended from machine monitoring technologies to algorithms that accurately predict properties at the individual voxel level,” said Eelman. A voxel is the 3D printed equivalent of a pixel.

Other technologies associated with IMTS that Smart Manufacturing Experience visitors can discuss include MTConnect. A royalty-free open standard that fosters interoperability between controls, devices and software applications, MTConnect was created with support from AMT, introduced at IMTS 2008 and is now one of the most widely-used protocols.

“To become a founding partner for Smart Manufacturing Experience, an organization must be a technology leader and willing to contribute its knowledge,” said Eelman. “We hope that the small sampling of technologies we bring to the Smart Manufacturing Experience encourages visitors to attend IMTS 2018.”

For more information, visit smartmanufacturingexperience.com.