FABTECH 2011: Metalworking in Chicago

Last week, FABTECH, the largest North American metal forming and fabricating expo, returned to Chicago. The conference is always a fantastic showcase for metal manufacturers and equipment suppliers, as well as a great opportunity to learn about the best ways of managing procurement, personnel, and other business aspects of the industry. FABTECH’s site provides a full listing of exhibitors, seminars, lectures, and other events that happened at the expo. See the detailed schedule here (PDF). Here’s a recap of a few events that were most interesting to us:

• Monday: Error-Proof Metalforming session. The tight tolerances of our four-slides allow us to come as close as possible to perfection – but who wouldn’t want to learn more?
• Tuesday: Shipbuilding professional program. With our past experience performing metal stamping for submarine components, this session immediately appealed to us.
• Wednesday: World Class Safety and How to Compete Globally session. Worker safety is always a primary concern of ours, and it’s great to see that our colleagues share this view.
• Thursday: Cloud Computing Basics session. For more information on cloud computing, click here. In short, this technology can help us be more efficient in sharing the results of services like design and inspection with our customers, and can help streamline our own in-house processes as well.

Please get in touch or leave comments with your own impressions of FABTECH 2011!