IMTS 2024: A Personal Reflection Celebrating a Decade of Additive Innovation

If looking for an unbiased review of IMTS 2024, this is not the place. For me, it was a magical experience; the show was a celebration of the past and a hopeful view of the future. 

1. Let me start with some background. In 2014, I worked as part of an audacious team (including AMT, Oak Ridge National Laboratories [ORNL], Local Motors, Cincinnati Incorporated, and industry partners) who did the unthinkable: 3D printed — in under six days — the world’s first 3D printed car, the Strati, which is celebrated in the Guinness Book of World Records. To mark this 10th anniversary of achievement and inspiring advancements in industrial additive manufacturing (AM), AMT displayed the Strati at IMTS 2024 and gathered some of the collaborators for a celebratory panel discussion on the IMTS+ Main Stage. Since this was one of the most challenging and fun projects of my career, I jumped on the opportunity to rejoin the best team I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Watch the discussion “How to 3D Print the Audacious” at IMTS.com/Audacious.
    
   

   Panel discussion, “How to 3D Print the Audacious” on the IMTS+ Main Stage at IMTS 2024, featuring the 2014 IMTS Emerging Technology Center Collaborators, Bonnie Gurney, AMT vice president -— strategic partnerships & industry relations, Jay Rogers, CEO and co-founder of Haddy, Inc., Lonnie Love, Fellow at Sandia National Laboratories, Brian Post, group lead, disruptive manufacturing systems development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and me with Gary Vasilash, transportation editor, in the middle as the panel moderator. 

2. Neil Ball, president of Directed Light, Eliana Fu, industry manager, aerospace and medical at TRUMPF North America, Alex Kingsbury, market development manager for nLIGHT, and I built the Industrial Laser Conference that took place within IMTS 2024. The list of speakers was phenomenal. Most of the speakers were women — we purposely built a phenomenal list of mostly women speakers to highlight their impact on the additive manufacturing and laser processing industries. The highlight of the day was a panel discussion called Women in Photonics. It is exciting that, in laser systems and additive manufacturing, women are making a gigantic impact in developing, using, and selling new technologies, and it was apparent in this talk.

3. AMT produced the Formnext Stage adjacent to the Additive Manufacturing Sector, accelerated by Formnext at IMTS 2024. I spent a day managing the stage and watched some insightful discussions, starting with a live “Tom & Lonnie Chat” (TLC). Lonnie Love, fellow at Sandia National Laboratories, Tom Kurfess, chief manufacturing officer at Georgia Institute of Technology, Kyle Saleeby, research staff at Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute, and Stephen LaMarca, senior technology analyst at AMT brought their podcast live to IMTS. If you haven’t tuned in to a TLC, you should — their show brings humor, industry expertise, and offers quippy banter to all manner of manufacturing topics.  
    

The Formnext Stage concluded with the panel discussion, “AM Business Development and Marketing Perspective,” led by Adam Penna, founder, business development leader at All Digital Additive Manufacturing. With him was Juan Mario Gomez, chief executive officer at Xact Metal, and Emily Elpes, head of human resources and Communications at 3DEO. They discussed how to get into metal additive manufacturing, showing off how Xact Metal provides affordable laser powder bed fusion systems and how 3DEO provides a service that provides small, very accurate metal parts in production quantities. 

I then moderated three panels that were all worthy of being technology keynotes. Many of the speakers are friends who are undisputed experts in their fields. During the talks, we learned about the trends in software in programming, scheduling, and monitoring processes. We explored a range of service providers who can accelerate your ability to use additive manufacturing. We saw some of the newest technologies that can make parts larger or faster than most people could imagine. We learned about the latest in powder bed processes to make metal parts. It was a whirlwind of valuable information, and I could write entire articles about each of them.

4. Finally, my son Tyson, a college senior spent the day at IMTS. I introduced him to friends, like Jack Kline, regional sales manager at Additive Manufacturing Media, who took a genuine interest in his desire to find a sales and marketing position when he graduates in the spring. He now understands why his dad gets so excited to go to Chicago for a week every two years.

From my interactions throughout all of IMTS 2024, I know the industrial AM community, Tyson and I are looking forward to IMTS 2026 where the manufacturing community gathers to share new developments and build relationships for a lifetime.

To revisit more highlights from IMTS 2024, inspiring stories about people in the industry, and updates on technology in advanced manufacturing, visit IMTS+ at IMTS.com/Watch and IMTS.com/Read. [jp1]