BUILD YOUR AGENDA

Explore innovations in machining, additive, automation, digital solutions, quality and more.

See a live, end-to-end manufacturing system operating continuously on the show floor.

Your front-row seat to the people shaping the industry.

Have a particular manufacturing challenge? Have a seat and discover solutions.

AMT leadership welcomes you to IMTS 2026. Please join us and Larita Clark, CEO, MPEA  at the Main Stage for the official opening of the show, including a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Head of Choose Chicago.

As manufacturing facilities move toward lights-out and highly automated production, the main throughput constraint is no longer the machine itself but the efficiency of material handling and logistics flows. While Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) provide a flexible alternative to fixed conveyor systems, integrating them into precision manufacturing environments introduces new technical challenges related to data synchronization, system interoperability, and fleet orchestration.

This technical session explores the architectural foundations required to deploy a scalable AMR framework in high-mix, low-volume (HMLV) manufacturing environments. Moving beyond basic navigation and obstacle avoidance, the discussion focuses on the critical middleware layer, analyzing how interoperability enable unified control across heterogeneous robot fleets and facilitate seamless integration with existing automation infrastructure.

The presentation will also examine the technical workflow for connecting AMR fleet management systems with Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and ERP platforms, enabling automated material requests and “call-for-parts” triggers directly from production processes. Particular attention will be given to robotic machine tending applications, including the precision docking requirements necessary for autonomous pallet exchange and raw material delivery at machine tool interfaces.

Finally, attendees will gain practical insights into industrial deployment considerations, including floor-load capacity for heavy-payload AMRs, battery management strategies for continuous 24/7 operations, and cybersecurity requirements for robots operating within shared industrial networks.

Join the leaders featured in the IMTS+ Original Series The Architect as they discuss theideas, technologies, and partnerships shaping the future of manufacturing.

Manufacturers and engineering-driven companies solve technical problems every day — improving processes, redesigning components, increasing efficiency, reducing waste, automating production lines, and developing new products. What many don’t realize is that these activities often qualify for the federal R&D Tax Credit.

This session is designed for manufacturers, plant leaders, engineers, CFOs, and technical executives who want to understand how routine innovation on the shop floor can translate into significant dollar-for-dollar tax savings.

Explore innovations in machining, additive, automation, digital solutions, quality and more.

See a live, end-to-end manufacturing system operating continuously on the show floor.

Your front-row seat to the people shaping the industry.

Have a particular manufacturing challenge? Have a seat and discover solutions.

The future of aerospace is being shaped by the priorities of its top technical leaders. Join Aerospace America Editor in Chief Marjorie Censer for an out-brief of the 2025 AIAA CTO Summit, where dozens of aerospace CTOs identified three critical industry topics: AI applications in aerospace, accelerating and enabling the digital thread, and scaling autonomy. Hear the key challenges, action items, and deliverables defined for each—along with the latest progress fresh from the 2026 AIAA CTO Summit, held just days before IMTS, where AIAA's technical working groups reported on their efforts to turn these findings into action. The session will also draw on AIAA's Technologies Transforming Aerospace report, developed with BryceTech from the input of more than 700 aerospace experts, to reinforce why these topics matter most for manufacturers today.

Explore how the North American machine tool industry is adapting to cost pressures, workforce challenges, and rapid digitalization. This session examines real-world ROI from closed-loop manufacturing, predictive maintenance, and advanced control systems, while highlighting emerging technologies—AI, automation, and smart data integration—that will define machining over the next 3–5 years.

Defense demand is outpacing what our current industrial base can supply. Accelerated deployment of advanced manufacturing technologies can play a critical role in filling that gap. This panel will explore in detail how advanced manufacturing technologies can bolster defense industrial base capacity and, therefore, where investment capital is most needed as a key enabler of deployment.

Connected worker programs are evolving from simple digital tools into fully integrated ecosystems that enhance production, safety, and workforce capability. As manufacturers face growing complexity and a changing labor market, connected technologies are becoming essential for attracting new talent, supporting real-time problem solving, and enabling on-the-job upskilling. This session explores how modern devices, data flows, and 5G-enabled environments are transforming frontline work, giving employees the information, guidance, and control they need to operate more efficiently and safely while preparing the workforce for increasingly advanced machinery and automated systems.

• How can connected worker initiatives improve production and safety?

• How do connected technologies help attract and retain new talent?

• What is the impact of digital devices on real-time problem-solving and upskilling on the job?

• How can the utilization of 5G-enabled device ecosystems enable a shift from basic machine operations to advanced, integrated machinery control?

Explore innovations in machining, additive, automation, digital solutions, quality and more.

See a live, end-to-end manufacturing system operating continuously on the show floor.

Your front-row seat to the people shaping the industry.

Have a particular manufacturing challenge? Have a seat and discover solutions.

Lace up and run to fund STEM education.

Close out the day with IMTS Unwind on the IMTS+ Main Stage! Each episode features lively interviews with industry experts, main-stage keynote speakers, manufacturers, and social media influencers. Get the scoop on must-see events for the next day and key insights to make the most of your IMTS.

Modern machining demands cutting tools that deliver repeatable performance, long tool life, and sustainability at scale. This presentation explores how control of the carbide supply chain, combined with advanced tool design and manufacturing expertise, consistently produces high-performance solid round tools worldwide. Attendees will gain insight into how powder metallurgy, flute and geometry optimization, coating technologies, and production replication work together to drive productivity in demanding applications such as aerospace, automotive, general machining, and defense manufacturing.

Industrial robotics has historically relied on rigid programming and specialized, single-purpose models. The next leap in manufacturing requires robots that can adapt and process the real world in real-time. In this session, Google explores how multimodal AI—capable of simultaneously processing vision, audio, code, and machine telemetry—is bridging the gap between digital intelligence and physical motion.

Women across the manufacturing ecosystem are leading transformation - from shop floors and engineering labs to executive leadership roles. This dynamic panel will feature leaders from across the manufacturing technology landscape who are driving innovation, building high-performing teams, and shaping the industry's future.

Panelists will share their leadership journeys, insights on navigating the industry, and strategies for building inclusive workplaces where talent can thrive.

Panel Topics

• Leading through technological transformation
• Navigating leadership in traditionally male-dominated spaces
• Building the next generation of manufacturing talent
• Lessons learned from career growth in manufacturing technology

Explore innovations in machining, additive, automation, digital solutions, quality and more.

See a live, end-to-end manufacturing system operating continuously on the show floor.

Your front-row seat to the people shaping the industry.

Have a particular manufacturing challenge? Have a seat and discover solutions.

As machinery engineers push toward lights-out production, predictive maintenance and AI-driven optimization, one design choice is becoming mission-critical: when and how connectivity is engineered into the machine. 

For decades, connectivity — the delivery of power, signal and data between subsystems — has been treated as a late-stage integration task. Core mechanical and process modules were prioritized first, with cables and interfaces addressed after the fact. Today, that approach is no longer sustainable. Shrinking footprints, rising performance expectations, predictive maintenance requirements and remote service demands mean that connectivity must be embedded at the earliest stages of machine design. 

This session will explore why thinking about connectivity upfront fundamentally changes what a machine can do. 

Moving away from hardwired point-to-point systems toward connectorized, modular architectures reduces build and commissioning time, simplifies expansion and improves overall serviceability. Hybrid connectors that combine power, signal and data into a single, compact interface enable faster assembly, error-proof installation and easier subsystem replacement. This modularity reduces mean time to repair and minimizes both planned and unplanned downtime — a critical advantage in high-value production environments. 

Early-stage connectivity design also unlocks lights-out operation. Reliable, diagnostic-rich connectors enable continuous data acquisition, automated control loops and real-time optimization. Machines can monitor flow rates, temperatures, and other critical parameters without direct human intervention — feeding predictive analytics platforms that anticipate drift, prioritize maintenance and protect yield. Every connection becomes a data pathway, supporting traceability, remote diagnostics and intelligent decision-making. 

Beyond uptime and performance, connectivity-driven architectures improve sustainability and safety. Precision monitoring allows dynamic resource management and reduced waste, while automated, sensor-enabled systems limit human exposure to hazardous tasks. In a lights-out environment, humans remain essential — but are deployed strategically for complex, high-value interventions rather than routine oversight. 

As machines become more compact and complex, connector size, reliability, error-proofing and lifecycle durability directly impact performance and maintainability. Designing connectivity early enables scalable, flexible platforms that adapt to new processes, new regulations and new production demands — without costly redesign. 

Session takeaways: 

• Why designing connectivity at the earliest stages of machine development is critical to performance, scalability and uptime. 
• The advantages of connectorization over hardwiring in modular machine architectures. 
• How connectivity enables lights-out manufacturing through real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance. 
• How compact, error-proof connector design supports optimization, safety and future-ready machinery. 

What should this part cost today? Which of last month's supplier price increases were actually justified? And where would re-sourcing beat renegotiating?
Most procurement teams can answer these questions for their top parts, once a year, in a spreadsheet. Across 400+ industrial manufacturers, we see what changes when they can answer for every part, every day: savings potential worth 10%+ of material cost becomes visible, and capturable. In a market where tariff rules change mid-quarter, freight swings double digits, and reshoring forces supplier requalifications, that speed is moving margin and market share from slow manufacturers to fast ones.
This 30-minute session shows how the fast ones do it. Real screens, real parts, real numbers. Here's how it plays out:

AI finds every part's fair cost. Cost models built from material, process, freight, and duties show what each part should cost today. The gap to the price you pay is your savings potential, mapped across 100,000+ parts, not just the A-parts.
Every negotiation runs on it. Some increases are justified; many aren't. The analysis becomes arguments, counterpoints, and target prices. You walk in prepared and run it on your terms.
AI points sourcing where the money is. Sometimes the bigger lever is a new supplier. You see which parts are worth re-quoting and the price to beat.

For procurement, purchasing, supply chain, and plant leaders, anyone who owns a margin number. Then see your own potential: Tacto, Booth 135711 - live demo plus a free savings snapshot from your own order data. Ten concrete opportunities, no IT project required.

Building on Wednesday's Smart Machining session, this presentation takes a deeper dive into what it actually looks like to put on-machine inspection to work -- from first deployment through measurable, sustained results.

CAPPS-NC has become the tool of choice for manufacturers who need more than theory. In this session, Chris Affer walks through real implementation experiences across aerospace, defense, and mold and die -- sharing the decisions made, the obstacles overcome, and the outcomes achieved by teams that have made on-machine inspection a core part of how they run their process.

Attendees will come away with a grounded understanding of what implementation really involves, including application overviews that map to common shop floor scenarios, KPI benchmarks that reflect what world-class manufacturers are actually achieving, and an honest look at the tools and workflows that drive those results.

Whether you're evaluating CAPPS-NC for the first time or looking to get more out of an existing deployment, this session offers the kind of practical detail that moves projects forward.

Inspection teams are often blamed for slowing production or rejecting parts, and are seen as the bottleneck—when the real problems usually started much earlier. In many organizations, unclear design intent, poorly communicated drawing changes, and inconsistent use of standards create downstream confusion that inspection is left to untangle.

This session focuses on why inspection problems so often originate in design—and what to do about it. Rather than diving into inspection techniques, we look upstream at the decisions that shape how parts are measured, verified, and debated on the shop floor.

Attendees will walk through common, real-world situations that inspectors face every day: drawings that are technically legal but hard to inspect, changes that quietly explode inspection effort, and arguments that turn into opinion battles instead of objective decisions. From there, the session introduces three practical, low-barrier strategies that improve alignment between design and inspection without adding bureaucracy or slowing teams down.

Topics include bringing designers into inspection planning, keeping communication open when drawings change, and using ASME Y14.5 and ISO standards as shared references instead of sources of conflict. The session concludes with simple, immediately actionable steps teams can use to reduce inspection disputes, improve first-pass quality, and stop inspection from being cast as the villain.

Ideal for quality managers, inspectors, design and manufacturing engineers, and plant leaders who want better drawings, smoother inspections, and fewer “why is this taking so long?” conversations.

Explore innovations in machining, additive, automation, digital solutions, quality and more.

See a live, end-to-end manufacturing system operating continuously on the show floor.

Your front-row seat to the people shaping the industry.

Have a particular manufacturing challenge? Have a seat and discover solutions.

When the machine checks out fine but the scrap bin keeps filling up: the real culprits behind blown parts.

The US manufacturing base needs faster access to advanced technology to compete globally. Dean Banks joins AMT's Ryan Kelly for a conversation on what that takes — policy, talent, and industrial strategy working together — and a candid look at where American manufacturing stands today.

Five days, miles of show floor. By Friday, one question remains: of everything at IMTS 2026, what actually matters for your shop? The MakingChips hosts and guests break down the tech that mattered, debate what's next, and place their bets. We'll also announce who won the DN Solutions + Kennametal Machine Giveaway at the end.

IMTS showcases what is possible across automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, digital manufacturing, and other advanced technologies—but turning inspiration into action can be challenging. Sarah Hartwick of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association and Dan Hofmann of the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center will discuss how manufacturers can evaluate emerging opportunities, prepare their workforce, access available resources, and make informed investments. The conversation will highlight the strength of Illinois’ manufacturing ecosystem and how industry, government, education, and workforce partners can help companies move from curiosity to implementation.

Explore innovations in machining, additive, automation, digital solutions, quality and more.

See a live, end-to-end manufacturing system operating continuously on the show floor.

Your front-row seat to the people shaping the industry.

Have a particular manufacturing challenge? Have a seat and discover solutions.

Kickstart your day with the IMTS Morning Show on the IMTS+ Main Stage! Each episode features lively interviews with industry experts, main-stage keynote speakers, manufacturers, and social media influencers. Get the scoop on must-see events and key insights to make the most of your day at IMTS.

Close out the day with IMTS Unwind on the IMTS+ Main Stage! Each episode features lively interviews with industry experts, main-stage keynote speakers, manufacturers, and social media influencers. Get the scoop on must-see events for the next day and key insights to make the most of your IMTS.

Women aren’t waiting for an invitation to shape the future of manufacturing. This candid conversation brings together women from across the industry to talk about getting in, staying in, and stepping up — from the shop floor to leadership — and what needs to change to build the next generation of manufacturing.