IMTS 2018 was the Largest Show in Its History
February 02, 2023
It has been a few weeks since IMTS 2018 has closed its doors, after having run from September 10-15 at the Chicago’s McCormick place.
The 32nd edition of this largest and longest running manufacturing technology show in North America, broke all-time records for registration, square feet of exhibit space, booths and exhibiting companies.
For those of us who were in attendance it was obvious, as you were going through the daily struggle trying to make your way down the show isles, that this year’s show will beat at least the attendance record. It drew a massive 129,415 amount of people and featured 1,424,232 sq. ft of exhibit space, representing 2,123 booths and 2,563 exhibiting companies from more than 117 countries. Exhibitors have brought in more than 55 million lbs. of machinery on 4,465 trucks with eight machines weighing more than 100,000 lbs.
“IMTS 2018 is setting records because manufacturing technology has grown exponentially since the last show,” says Peter R. Eelman, VP – Exhibitions & Business Development at AMT – The Association for Manufacturing Technology, which owns and produces IMTS. “The rapid growth of digital technology, automation, and additive manufacturing are especially driving interest. Digitization collided with a robust manufacturing industry to create our most dynamic show ever.”
Everyone who visited IMTS 2018, agrees that the technology exhibited at this show has matured significantly and people were driven by focused and set agendas.
At the Hennig booth, located in the East building, we showcased our entire line of conveyor products, including CDF system, which received great interest from the visitors. Also, featuring Hennig flex products line, we showed the actuating 15.8’ ft long pit cover and the new Roof Protect machine roof cover, built for the show in a size of the gigantic pergola. Hennig can make these in custom sizes, even larger than the size displayed, to fit customer’s specific application. The height of this display was 9.9’, length 20.6’ and width 11.75’. It had many people stopping by, intrigued by this product and inquiring further about utilizing it in their manufacturing processes. And of course, the major eye catcher in the booth was Hennig-branded, extra-large machine enclosure model (photo below). It truly served as a centerpiece of our booth, highlighting many capabilities of Hennig products, combined in one attractive display.
The Hennig team made the most out of the six-day show by having two networking events on Tuesday September 11 and Thursday, September 13th. The Tuesday event was a reception night for German/European exhibiting companies, who have interest in the Rockford area and could possibly bring their manufacturing here. The event was organized in partnership with Rockford Area Economic Development Council, (www.rockfordil.com), Larson & Darby Group (www.larsondrby.com), and Mike Delany, International Business Attorney and Consultant (www.linkedin.com/in/mikedelany).
We want to thank all our partners and employees who made the show an amazing success for Hennig. Also, thanks to the visitors who came by our booth, their interest and positive feedback. The most important thing was – we had fun, and people noticed. Whenever we interacted with customers, demonstrated the product or simply welcomed visitors, we tried to keep our message light and on target, focusing on the things we do best - making and servicing the products that make our customers successful.
Hennig Machine Enclosure Display Model at IMTS 2018