11 Key Takeaways From IMTS 2022

1. Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing (AM) had a major presence, and, in some ways, it had its own home in the West Hall. The entryway was guarded by industry stalwarts HP, Stratasys, and 3D Systems and behind them newer entrants like Desktop Metal.

HP had a major unveiling of MetalJet, the company’s flagship production AM workhorse that first debuted in 2018. The most notable changes are the addition of HP-branded peripheral equipment for all parts of the process except sintering (i.e., pre and post-production stations à la Desktop Metal), which many manufacturers will already have. These changes follow the great consolidation in the metal binder jetting market, resulting from Desktop Metal picking up ExOne (unicorn picking up the incumbent) and the acquisition of Digital Metal by Markforged, which also had a massive booth presence and is on somewhat of an acquisition spree (recently scooped Teton Simulation).

Stratasys is the other notable mention. If there is one company going all in on production polymer AM, it is Stratasys. In many ways, the company is in the midst of completely transforming from a 3D printing company to an AM solutions provider, an important distinction that alludes to manufacturing production versus prototyping.

Already, Stratasys provides a diverse mix of options for polymers, has more than doubled down on software as a strategic differentiator, and is starting to open its ecosystem in terms of partners and materials. The company’s GrabCAD software was cited by an executive at another firm as a standout for updates and innovation.    

2. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) was certainly present at IMTS 2022, though more in the form of talks, seminars, and presentations than on the floor. To be sure, smart manufacturing is a very real trend and there were various applications on display, not least in smart sensors, cameras, and the like, with vendors such as Vooban and the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute showcasing its solutions at their IMTS booths.

But some of the most interesting developments in AI at IMTS involved the speaker sessions and talks, where some of the topics under discussion included Critical Initiatives in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Manufacturing, Design Process With Generative Design Powered by AI, and Enabling Predictive Maintenance with AI and Machine Learning (ML). In addition, there was a Live Lab, sponsored by AMT and ASME, where various demonstrations on 5G, Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR), AI, automation and robotics, ML, and modeling simulation were put forward.

3. Augmented Reality

AR-based solutions, while not deployed at a mass scale yet, can play a part in meeting the challenge of labor shortages. Headgear with embedded AR solutions enables users to receive instructions and verify that tasks have been completed throughout their shifts.

Trumpf has incorporated the devices in its go-to-market strategy. The company gives away the headgear as part of its machine sales. This is because customers can use the devices for receiving remote advice as if an engineer is in the building; reducing the need for support engineers to visit customer sites.

Still, digital transformation is yet to reach all corners of the market with sensor and equipment vendors not necessarily enabling the data they collect to feed software and analytical applications. This kind of disconnect risks Industry 4.0 being a collection of capabilities, rather than enabling a seamless flow of data that supports operations; both manufacturers and suppliers would benefit from improvements in this area in time for the next IMTS.

4. Digital Twins

Manufacturers not only want to control their operations, but they also want to optimize their lines for maximizing productivity with digital twins considered an important method for doing so. However, some suppliers are promoting digital twins that are little more than a static digital representation of machines, rather than a virtual representation that can simulate operational changes. After being much heralded at IMTS 2018, suppliers need to refrain from ”twin washing”’ and distinguish between solutions that are digital replicas and those that virtualize their operations.

5. Generative Design

Generative design was another much-vaunted technology in 2018, but in 2022, it remained a niche focus for the likes of Autodesk and nTopology. There were some interesting examples of AI-driven design on both suppliers’ stands, but for the time being at least, enthusiasm for the technology will remain in the aerospace and transportation verticals.

6. Industrial Software

Industry 4.0-focused companies started to tout wholistic solutions versus discrete products, but these conversations were almost solely relegated to the Hannover Messe USA portion of IMTS. Here, and at Hannover Messe Germany, we saw end-to-end demonstrations of solutions from companies like Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes, Hexagon, and Siemens.

Attendees also witnessed the smaller, yet still sizeable presence of AWS, which hosted partners including GE, SKF, Telit, and Tulip (which also had its own booth).

While Siemens is historically the largest booth at Hannover Messe in Germany, it is far from the largest at IMTS. That said, there were several inconspicuous absences, such as Rockwell Automation (although Plex was there), and, interestingly, PTC did not have a dedicated booth, despite many of its peers, partners, and competitors at the show.

Microsoft (Azure) and Google (Google Cloud Platform (GCP)) were another double miss at IMTS. Their absence was at best surprising, if not inconsistent with their investment in the German edition of Hannover Messe. These companies—especially AWS—are fertile ground for exposure for technology companies selling into manufacturing. Manufacturing solutions providers should look to partner with AWS, Azure, and GCP for industry events like Hannover Messe and IMTS.

In the future, this could include connectivity at one end (i.e., 5G network providers such as Nokia and Ericsson) and actual machine builders at the other (i.e., ABB, John Deere, Mazak, Stratasys). The 2-year runway between IMTS editions leaves ample room for change between shows.    

7. Labor Shortage Solutions

While the focus for many exhibitors across the many halls in McCormick Place was signing contracts for machine tools or demonstrating the capabilities of their robots, in the hall hosting Hannover USA the talk was about digitally enhancing manufacturing facilities. The driver for doing so was consistent across nearly all the booths—labor shortages.

Labor shortages took several forms. Technology suppliers reported that their customers are unable to recruit enough staff to fulfill tasks and so are looking to automate processes to fill the void. But the technology suppliers themselves are also struggling to recruit enough digitally-savvy individuals, especially data scientists, to help them develop and deliver their solutions to customers.

Some firms were optimistic their recruitment challenges will lessen as big tech firms freeze hiring and make redundancies considering the economic climate. While AI is perceived to be a key technology to delivering process optimization and digitally transforming operations, the takeaway from the show is that it will take longer than many hope.

Pressure for digital transformation to deliver will intensify with many people stating that payback periods are shortening to just a handful of months, rather than 1 year to 18 months. Automation continues to be a critical priority for firms and now cobots are a key enabling tool with the payback often being immediate as deployment can alleviate pressures of labor shortages straightaway.

8. Machine Builders

Machine Builders were out in full force. IMTS as a show is traditionally machine builder-focused, so it is fair and understandable to see just that: machine builders.

However, as large and expansive as this year’s show was, there were more halls that could have been filled; not necessarily with more of the same, but with peripheral equipment that factories may need for a cohesive product—components other than what can be machined, such as wire harnesses and upholstery. But overall, and importantly, IMTS evidenced the deep heritage of silos and fragmentation in industrial technology markets.

The largest problems identified were price volatility, productivity, and labor/talent-related. However, one of the most notable differences among the base in Chicago versus Hannover Messe in Germany was the posture toward sustainability. In Germany, the sustainability moniker couldn’t be missed. In the United States, sustainability as a topic was scarcely found outside of the Hannover Messe USA pavilion. Instead, the focus in the North and South Halls was on traditional industrial automation, with comparatively more awareness around the benefits of digitalization and digitally-enabled solutions, but still very much traditional industrial automation.

One of the reasons is cost—U.S. energy costs are one-third of those in Europe, which means less of an impetus to adopt renewables (for now). ABI Research believes this will change by the next edition of IMTS because U.S. machine builders and their customers will continue to struggle to attract talent without a more positive and proactive posture toward sustainability, and the regulatory environment may require it.

Ultimately, the next generation of innovators and contributors want to work for companies that represent values that align with their own. This includes sustainability in no small way and was a sentiment shared among machine builders, robotics vendors, and manufacturing shoppers at the show with whom ABI Research spoke.

9. Robotics

Robots were a common sight at IMTS 2022, though in a deceptively circumscribed fashion. They were everywhere, but mostly of one type. The big industrial players were certainly all at the event, most notably FANUC, KUKA, ABB, and Universal Robots, and with them a plethora of Collaborative Robots (cobots) of all shapes and kinds, the biggest and strongest FANUC’s, the most compact and focused perhaps those of Universal Robots.

It was the cobot that took center stage at IMTS 2022. In particular, Universal Robots unveiled its latest, the UR20 cobot, FANUC demoed some of its latest Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm (SCARA) robots, including the world’s apparently strongest cobot, the CR-35iB robot, which has a 35 Kilogram (kg) payload, while ABB debuted some 30 new robots.

There were also plenty of robotic solutions and platforms, such as those put forward by vendors like Veo Robotics or Mech-Mind Robotics, which were typically showcased in machines manufactured by the aforementioned, as well as by vendors like Yaskawa, Kawasaki, and Mitsubishi, but it was still a cobot at the end of it all.

This was also the case for augmented robots, namely those that came with 5G networking, machine vision, and AI processes of various kinds (e.g., smart sensors, edge AI computing, TinyML, and the like). OnRobot, in particular, released D:PLOY software, a deployment solution, which is claimed to be able to reduce the time to deploy a cobot by 80%.

In line with one of the main themes at IMTS 2022—automation—the cobot is possibly one of the best ways to help with the labor shortage, though whether this is the way to go about it remains to be seen, and deployment is not going to happen all that quickly. AMRs can also assist with this issue, but there was much less about mobile robots at IMTS, and this is despite an impressive demonstration by Boston Dynamics and its well-known Spot robot.

There were some solution providers for mobile robots at the event, often with some connection to AI in terms of navigation and object recognition, but OTTO Motors was one of the few proper AMR vendors around.

10. Supply Chain Management & Logistics

Despite there not being an abundance of solutions pertaining to warehousing or yard management, the lack of supply chain visibility seemed to be a major point that resonated with manufacturers at IMTS. With persistent labor market complications, port congestions, and end-to-end visibility being top concerns, AWS ran a session providing an overview of its supply chain and logistics strategy. It started with an overview of the digital supply chain strategy by discussing the underlying capabilities and providing guidance on how AWS services can be used to support the operation and forecasting of a digital supply chain.

Nokia also ran a session discussing manufacturing and supply chain network issues and how private Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 5G could prove to be the answer with concise use cases that addressed very specific pain points. In addition, given how supply chain resiliency is one of the most important topics for manufacturers right now, Dassault Systèmes ran a session discussing how the right tools enable companies to adapt quickly and get ahead of the challenges.

Beyond this, there was a bit of focus on supply chain management at IMTS, with an emphasis on visibility and organizational resiliency. With an abundance of manufacturing solution vendors across the exhibit floors, streamlining intralogistics within manufacturing as a way to mitigate supply chain disruption was the main theme with solutions pertaining to supply chain management.

11. Wireless Connectivity

Wireless connectivity had an interestingly unpretentious stand at IMTS and Hannover Messe USA. Most exhibitors at IMTS kept praising fixed-line connectivity as their most reliable solution and did not see the need to even think about mobilizing their production assets. Considering the fact that IMTS mainly targets a blue-collar audience dealing with particularly heavy production machinery (large robots or welding machines for example), putting these machines on a wireless communication infrastructure to be able to mobilize them is indeed a tough ask.

Therefore, interest in wireless connectivity was almost exclusively confined to the Hannover Messe USA part of the show, where a different pattern became visible.

Outside the booth of the “usual suspects” for both Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity at Hannover Messe USA (in the East Building of Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center), exhibitors and attendees did not show interest in what connectivity technology they are deploying, as long as it provides satisfactory solutions that address key pain points.

Convergence and coexistence of cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity should be the name of the game. The skyrocketing costs of production (due to current geopolitical events) threaten manufacturers’ short and medium-term profitability and survival in the market. Consequently, enterprise digitization projects face a radically shortened ROI expectation of well below 1 year (around 6 to 8 months depending on the industry). It should be in the best interest of both cellular connectivity and Wi-Fi vendors to combine forces and deliver on these challenging financial expectations. Against this backdrop, it was interesting—to say the least—to see old battle lines between Wi-Fi and specifically 5G reappearing.

While telco infrastructure vendors and system integrators keep following the trend of cellular & Wi-Fi convergence, particularly Communication Service Providers (CSPs) continue to energize this artificial battle, as they focus their discussion not on what use-cases cellular connectivity can enable in addition to what is possible with Wi-Fi, but rather how cellular connectivity is nothing but a more efficient connectivity technology than Wi-Fi in its current form.

Click here to download the full insight of IMTS 2022 from ABI Research.