International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS)
The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), first held in Cleveland, Ohio in 1927 , is a trade show that features industrial machinery and technology. It is the largest manufacturing technology trade show in North America, and in 1990 was renamed from the original "International Machine Tool Show" to reflect the growing scope of the show to additional technologies such as welding, lubrication, and materials engineering.
The first National Machine Tool Builders' Exposition was held September 19-23, 1927, in the Cleveland Auditorium. The show occupied 63,000 sq ft and attendance topped 12,000. Many of the machines shown were entirely new and many others embodied new features.
The show required more power than any single industry exposition ever held anywhere before. A special transformer station erected for the show was rated to handle 5,000 HP, and cost $50,000. The organizers noted, "The show brought vividly to your customers the importance of an industry that could show 428 operating machines, ranging in size from milling machines weighing 100,000 pounds, down to small portable machines like electric drills."
With the computer revolution in its early stages, numerical control was a hot topic as the Machine Tool Exposition-1960, scheduled for Sept. 6 - 16, approached. As described at the time, it involved adapting the principle of the electronic computer to design machines to respond to instructions coded in number form on punched or magnetic tape and transmitted electronically to servo-mechanisms that operate the machine tool.
According to a Metalworking report, "Some say it will be a numerical-control show. Only five years ago, at the 1955 Machine Tool Show, a few numerically controlled machines piqued the interest of all visitors. The years since then have been filled with its excitement. This year, you'll see the fulfillment of builders' plans to develop the numerically controlled equipment needed to improve industry-wide, metalworking's production efficiency."
In 1978, the McCormick Place facility was expanded to include Donnelley Hall. The building (later to be known as McCormick Place West) had been donated to the city of Chicago by R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., a large printing firm that had constructed the building in 1946-47 to print and bind LIFE magazine. With this expansion, the entire machine tool show could be held at one location.
By 1980 the machine tool show had grown so large that it overflowed even the expanded McCormick Place facility and additional space had to be used in the Conrad Hilton Hotel. This blockbuster show, "broke virtually every industrial exposition record ever set," according to post show reports, and set the stage for continued expansion through the '80s.
By 1990 the official name of the show was changed to the International Manufacturing Technology Show, reflecting the changing industry and the broader scope of exhibits. Other changes included the setting aside of an area as a Forming and Fabricating Pavilion, grouping these related exhibitors together; and participation by The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) as co-sponsors and managers of the expanded technology conference.
An agreement between the AMT and the CECIMO (European Machine Tool Industry Association), which organizes the European-based EMO trade show for the metal working industry, coordinates the IMTS and the EMO such that every even-numbered year the IMTS is held in Chicago, and every odd-numbered year the EMO is held in Europe.
IMTS 2020 will be the 33rd edition of the Premier Manufacturing Technology show in North America. Industry professionals from all over the world visit IMTS to see and experience more than 15,000 new machine tools, controls, computers, software, components, systems and processes that will solve their manufacturing challenges and improve their efficiency. The IMTS 2020 will take place on 6 days from Monday, 14. September to Saturday, 19. September 2020 in Chicago.
Photo credit: IMTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Manufacturing_Technology_Show