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Special Feature

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EDM Today Magazine IMTS PREVIEWS
See What New Technologies Will Be On DisplayEDM Today Magazine

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This year’s IMTS show is shaping up to be a return to form of this great event with many manufactur-
ers attending and putting more machines and content on display! While IMTS was canceled back in
2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was back in action in 2022 but saw less equipment
and a greater mix of creative digital messaging. IMTS 2024 will be an event no shop should miss if
there is an opportunity to attend!
The IMTS event has always been a venue where manufacturers showcase their latest technologies
and innovations. The show is an ideal opportunity to learn about and explore new machines, fea-
tures, programming, and tooling that can help improve a shop’s capability, throughput, and bottom
line! IMTS represents a perfect time for a shop to look at and evaluate its current equipment and
processes for comparison against leading-edge technologies and techniques. You might just be
surprised with what you find!

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What to expect…
If you have never attended the IMTS event before, be prepared for information and sensory overload! From fancy

flashing lights to large and loud display screens highlighting everything “New and Improved” along with machines
in action, it is VERY easy to get distracted and off-track to what really matters to your shop. There are truly so many
different things to see and learn about under one roof that it is next to impossible to experience it all in detail, which
is why it is CRITICAL to come prepared with a plan or a target hit list of technologies to seek out.
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It is important to do some homework prior to walking into the show, as this needed and mature self-evaluation of
your shop’s current technologies and procedures will help to identify areas in need of improvement. This approach
will yield different answers for each shop, but the primary task is to pinpoint bottlenecks and areas of struggle within
your walls. Things to also consider are the age of existing equipment, weekly and monthly equipment utilization, and
whether the machine(s) are considered a primary or secondary function within your operations.

Once at the show with your prepared list of specific topics of interest, be sure to visit multiple manufacturer booths

that offer similar equipment. This will allow quick and direct comparisons of capabilities but also look into the service
and support behind each product. While it is unavoidable to interface with a salesman, try to seek out and talk with
the applications engineers who are supporting the show…this is your opportunity to discuss all things technical with
an expert! Having direct access to talk with so many engineers is a hidden gem of the show, as this allows tapping
into technically skilled and experienced personnel who can cover additional details about the equipment, along with
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recommendations on processing techniques.
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