Formnext Chicago Secures Premier Exhibitors for 2025 Event

Formnext 2022 has more than 760 planned exhibitors. Photo Credit: Mesago Messe Fraankfurt/Marc Jacquemin

Organizers for Formnext Chicago have secured letters of intent from 20 companies to exhibit at Formnext Chicago, set for April 8-10, 2025, at McCormick Place, in Chicago, Illinois. These companies represent some of the world’s premier providers of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, as well as startup companies launching new materials solutions.

Confirmed exhibitors include EOS, Desktop Metal, Autodesk, HP, Zeiss, Mazak, Markforged, 3DEO, 3D Systems, Oqton, Baker Industries, Dyndrite, Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies, Massivit 3D, nTopology, Velo3D, Carpenter Technology, Trumpf, Ingersoll Machine Tools and America Makes. 

“Formnext Chicago will truly capture the entire spectrum of AM-related technologies, creating a unique experience at a familiar destination,” says Douglas K. Woods, president, AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology. “The initial exhibiting companies represent an additive value chain that starts with materials, moves through design and control software, production and postproduction equipment, service providers and metrology.”

Gardner Business Media (GBM) is one of the event organizers. “Our team had direct conversations with many of the top additive suppliers in the world at IMTS,” says Rick Kline Jr., GBM president. “And the feedback we received across the board was extremely positive. People are excited about the breadth and depth of audience reach and technical understanding that our three organizations [Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH, AMT, and GBM] can bring together.”

Organizers say Formnext is the premier industrial additive manufacturing trade show in the world, with the 2019 event featuring 852 exhibitors and attracting 34,532 visitors. Formnext Chicago resulted when Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH (the organizers of Formnext) cooperated with AMT and GBM, creating a partnership for the whole additive and manufacturing industry in the North American market.

“EOS has been engaged with both Formnext, AMT and GBM for many years,” says Glynn Fletcher, president of EOS North America. “The combined strengths of these three organizations brings exceptional value to the additive manufacturing industry and stimulates further peer-to-peer engagement.”

The goal is to build a coalition of leaders with broad appeal to the additive and manufacturing communities for Formnext Chicago 2025. “With the AM show experience of Formnext, the manufacturing audience brought by AMT and IMTS, and the conference technology and media resources from GBM, we have created the most complete experience for those who want to invest in innovative capital AM technology,” Woods adds. 

In support of bringing Formnext to the U.S., a series of Formnext Forums will be held over the next two years. The first is in Austin, Texas, Aug. 28-30, 2023, followed by a Formnext Forum co-located at IMTS 2024. The forums are designed to offer intimate, immersive learning experiences for attendees and are built around a robust conference schedule with an emphasis on sharing ideas and technology advancements in production 3D printing.

According to AMT, there are 12 million people directly connected to the manufacturing industry in the U.S. “As a still-evolving industry, much of the industrial manufacturing community is just beginning to explore and fully understand the production benefits of AM,” Woods says. “The U.S.-based Formnext events create more opportunities for jobs shops, OEMs, startups and service providers. Formnext Chicago will expose them to different parts of the supply chain and different parts of the innovation cycle so that they can learn how to apply AM tech to their existing business and create new opportunities.”