IMTS is organized into product pavilions so you can head straight to what you need. The floor was anchored by Metal Cutting — the machining centers, lathes and 5-axis machines most shops come to see — surrounded by tooling, forming/fabricating, automation, additive, controls, EDM, gear, finishing and quality pavilions.
Beyond the sectors, IMTS 2026 features destination attractions worth planning around: the Industrial AI Arena, where exhibitors show AI applied to quality, inspection, uptime, cybersecurity, safety and forecasting; the expanded Automation sector; and a deep conference program with 3,000+ registrants covering the technologies on the floor.
If you're there to shop machines, prioritize the Metal Cutting halls — walk the builders you're considering, watch them cut live, and get current new-machine pricing so you can judge used-market value. The brands and types below are the ones you'll see most.
| Metal Cutting | The heart of the show — machining centers, lathes, turning centers, 5-axis and mill-turn, flexible manufacturing systems and assembly automation. |
|---|---|
| Tooling & Workholding | Cutting tools, jigs, fixtures, chucks, vises and toolholders. |
| Metal Forming, Fabricating & Lasers | Waterjet, plasma, laser cutting, welding, press brakes and heat treating. |
| Automation | A large, growing standalone sector — robots, cobots, palletizing, gantries and lights-out cells (260+ exhibitors). |
| Additive Manufacturing | Industrial 3D printing — metal and polymer, with more production-grade materials and processes than ever. |
| Controls & CAD-CAM | CNC controls, CAM software, digital twins and connectivity. |
| EDM | Sinker and wire electrical discharge machining. |
| Gear Generation | Hobbing, shaping and gear grinding. |
| Abrasive Machining, Sawing & Finishing | Grinding, sawing, deburring and finishing. |
| Quality Assurance & Metrology | CMMs, scanners, gauging and inspection. |
Official show site: imts.com · Dates: September 14–19, 2026 · Venue: McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois.
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