Wisconsin Manufacturing & Technology Show Returns

The three-day event will have critical areas of focus:

• Next Generation Manufacturing Principles,
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR),
• Wearables,
• 5G Wireless Technology,
• The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT),
•  Industry 4.0,
• Global Group Buying,
• 3D Printing (Additive Manufacturing), and
• Automation.

Established in 1989, the biennial event had nearly 5,000 attendees in 2019. This year, it’s back with 100,000 sq. ft. full of exhibit displays, competitions, seminars, and knowledgeable industry executives and professionals eager to help companies succeed.

The theme is “Disruptive Technology. Advanced Manufacturing.” It’s a known fact that everyone in manufacturing must become more productive— that is, must get more output with less input, especially less labor input. This necessity influences every manufacturing enterprise, whether it is the forward-thinking job shop or the major corporation reacting nimbly to global markets.

Attendees will experience 360 degrees of solutions. They will see and hear solutions for their jobs and businesses. Machines will be up and running so that new technology can be evaluated by seeing it up close, touching it, and speaking directly to the people who design, manufacture, and service it.

On display will be cost-saving technologies, interactive manufacturing processes, and innovations designed to make businesses more efficient, competitive and profitable.

Nearly 200 companies are expected to exhibit, encompassing the following sectors of the manufacturing industry:

• 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing
• 5G Wireless Technology
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Artificial Intelligence/Virtual Reality/Wearables
• Automation and Robotics
• Energy and Environmental Efficiency
• Fabrication/Stamping
• Fluids/Lubricants
• High Speed Machining
• Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
• Inspection
• Lean Manufacturing
• Machining/Metal Cutting
• Marking Systems
• Material Handling and Assembly
• Metrology
• Nanotechnology
• Next Generation Manufacturing/Industry 4.0
• Quality/Measurements
• Reshoring
• Software ERP/MRP/CIM, Business Systems
• Testing/Test Equipment
• Welding
• Workholding
• Workplace Safety and Ergonomics

Three learning centers will have two dozen seminars presented by industry-leading professionals providing need-to-know, need-to-grow education and information.

Titles of most of the seminars are as follows:

1. Technical College or Third-Party Workforce Training: Combining the Best of Both
2. Tackle Workforce Constraints by Increasing Productivity by 30%
3. UW-Milwaukee’s Connected Systems Institute: Connecting Systems and Talent to Create an Interconnected Manufacturing Supply Chain
4. Reshoring is Surging Nationally. How Your Company and Wisconsin Can Benefit
5. WEDC Resources for Growth
6. Growth Through Automation – Expand Production with Existing Workforce
7. Manufacturing Your Future
8. Wisconsin Is Leading on Industry 4.0: What to Do if You’re Not Yet Part of the Club
9. Preparing for the Future: Challenges and Solutions for Wisconsin’s Manufacturers
10. Dip Your Toes into Industrial IoT
11. Power Formula for LinkedIn Success
12. Industry 4.0–“Where to Start?” for Small to Mid-Sized Manufacturers
13. Cybersecurity and CMMC
14. Gateway Technical College: Leading the Way in the Education of Industry 4.0 Using the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
15. Wearable Technology in the Workplace
16. Today’s Automation for the Job Shop World
17. Implementing Digital Twins in Manufacturing – Your Path Towards Digitalization and the Future Starts Here
18. Simple Automation – Making the Most with What You Have
19. IOT Foundations
20. Mazatrol Smooth AI, Using AI to Improve Productivity

Also, there will be student competitions, which will showcase Wisconsin’s brightest talent. The competitions are aimed at helping solve labor problems.

In the Automation & Robotics Competition, teams of up to three students (in two divisions: high school and college) will be challenged with designing an automated solution to a proposed manufacturing objective. Teams will have to strategize and design a solution, create a flowchart, choose end-of-arm tooling, program the robot to complete the objective, and then actually operate the robot performing the task.

The Welding Contest will consist of students attending a technical college this fall, performing the following welds: horizontal 3/16” fillet weld and vertical down 3/16” weld on 10-gauge carbon steel, and horizontal ¼” fillet weld and vertical up ¼” weld on ¼” carbon steel.

In the Automation & Robotics Competition, the schools where the top three teams attend will be awarded prizes. The Welding Competition will grant scholarships to the top three individual finishers.

There is free registration for the show online at www.wimts.com.

The show hours are:

Tuesday, October 5: 9 am–5 pm
Wednesday, October 6: 9 am–5 pm
Thursday, October 7: 9 am–3 pm