IMTS Day Two closed out with an official count of 106,250 attendees at IMTS 2014, just shy of 6,000 more than 2012. The biggest aisle blockers? 3-D Printing.
The crowd lines up to catch a glimpse of DMG Mori's new hybrid machine, the Lasertec 65 3D.
In 2012, additive manufacturing was still in the 'Emerging Technologies' classification. This year, 3-D printing has broken out of Emerging Tech and is "on fire," says Tom Charron, vice president of product marketing at 3D Systems. "The whole space is growing like crazy and there is so much interest all the way from the little consumer stuff that everybody knows about, all the way up to metals."
The blocked aisles at IMTS are a witness to the 3-D revolution. The attendees that made it into the 3-D exhibitor booths weren't there just to check out the pretty toys, however. They came in as they would any machine tool or grinding booth: armed with questions about tolerances and capabilities, ROIs and output potential.
