AM Trends to Explore at IMTS 2024

IMTS 2024 – The International Manufacturing Technology Show embraces the theme “Inspiring the Extraordinary” with remarkable advancements empowering manufacturers to create unprecedented solutions. Prepare for new technologies, innovation and connections to help your business thrive. With a year until IMTS 2024, now is a good time to assess how additive manufacturing (AM) technology can add value and inspire your team. 

Melanie Lang is the co-founder and CEO of Formalloy Technologies, a company that provides directed energy deposition (DED) AM systems. Lang believes using AM equipment to move work in-house is a growing trend and will continue. “The last few years opened our eyes to the instabilities in our supply chain,” Lang says. “We can’t take delivery times for granted. The true country of origin for our products remains uncertain, and some sources are subject to geopolitical issues. Fortunately, we can apply technology to solve those problems.”

As examples, consider large-scale metal additive technologies to replace forgings, castings and tooling, which typically come from overseas and with long lead times. Other applications include out-of-date parts (notably for defense systems) or remote locations (such as military bases). “When you deploy additive, typically you can do most work on a single setup on a single machine without stocking a lot of extra parts. You can have a small installation very close to where you need it,” adds Glynn Fletcher, president of EOS North America, the leading provider of laser powder bed fusion technology.

If the data from the Reshoring Initiative is any indicator (where reshoring and FDI will add more than 400,000 jobs to the U.S. in 2023), a growing number of businesses see the value in proximity. Local versus overseas sourcing also reduces CO2 emissions, which is an easy way to achieve corporate environmental initiatives. 

Lang and Fletcher both point out another benefit inherent in AM: the digital thread. “Manufacturers are used to thinking about physical items in a value chain. Now they are thinking about the virtual value chain,” Fletcher says. “Additive fits into this environment perfectly well because it’s an inherently
digital manufacturing process.”

Lang concurs. “AM can generate process data logs to support qualification and certification,” Lang says. “Proving that there are no anomalies in the data may reduce or eliminate the need for nondestructive testing with some AM processes.”

Lowering Cost, Integration

Another reason to explore AM technology at IMTS 2024 is that metal AM technology is transitioning to more medium-volume, cost-effective and mainstream production applications. 

“AM is becoming an integrated process, not an isolated process,” Fletcher says. “Ten years ago, users had a stand-alone AM machine for high-value items, design freedom or improving an assembly through parts consolidation or lightweighting. Now, manufacturers are integrating AM as part of a bigger value chain as cost-per-part comes down.” 

Visitors will also see AM companies engaged in collaborative partnerships to offer end-to-end solutions. For example, partnerships for medical devices can combine a full range of services, including front-end engineering and design services, 510(k) approval pathways, device and machine validation,
preclinical testing and commercialization.

IMTS 2024 takes place Sept. 9-14, 2024, at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. Register at IMTS.com/Register, and be inspired to create the extraordinary.