June 2024 | Mesago Messe Frankfurt announced the expansion of its successful Formnext exhibition to the United States with the launch of Formnext Chicago. Scheduled for April 8-10, 2025, this event aims to showcase the entire industrial process chain of additive manufacturing (AM).
Vice President of Formnext, Sascha F. Wenzler, highlighted the untapped potential within the U.S. market for companies unfamiliar with or not using AM technologies.
“We see a huge potential of companies in the USA that have not yet come into contact with Additive Manufacturing (AM) or do not use the advantages of this technology,” explains Sascha F. Wenzler, Vice President Formnext. “We focus on the various user industries to which we want to offer solutions. In this way, we bring the possibilities of additive manufacturing even more widely into the industry and thus intend to advance the AM technologies and significantly increase the business contacts of our exhibitors.”
With Formnext Chicago, Mesago Messe Frankfurt is expanding the strategy of locally adapted formats in relevant AM markets based on the very successful parent event in Frankfurt. So far, exhibitions in Shenzhen, China, and Tokyo, Japan, have been established.
In hosting Formnext Chicago, Mesago Messe Frankfurt cooperates with AMT (The Association for Manufacturing Technology) and Gardner Business Media. AMT is the organizer of IMTS, the largest manufacturing fair in North America. Gardner Business Media is North America’s leading media company with a focus on machining, plastics processing and other manufacturing technologies.
Challenging appointment situation
Formnext recognized the relevance of the US market for the AM industry at an early stage and already announced the premiere of its event in Chicago for 2025 in 2021.
“The worldwide growth of the AM community is proof of the great demand for the success format. Other providers such as the Rapid + TCT confirm us in our assessment of the potential of the local AM industry and are now holding their event at the same time as Formnext Chicago,” says Douglas Woods, President AMT.
Nevertheless, the AMT President looks forward to the Chicago-event in 2025 positively:
“We see Formnext Chicago as a great opportunity for the US application industries because it depicts the entire additive value chain from material providers to software and AM systems to post-processing and quality assurance. This makes the new format on the US market clearly different from the existing events in 3D printing or rapid prototyping.”
The meeting of the AM Users Group in Chicago will also take place promptly at the Chicago-event. Due to the very different formats of AMUG and Formnext Chicago, Sascha Wenzler continues to see the potential to “discuss how we can realize synergies with AMUG or support each other. This makes it possible to create added value for the industry.”
Doug Woods adds: “There is always competition and especially in the USA. And in a market as large as the United States and with such an important technology as additive manufacturing, there is room for more than one format.”
The Formnext Chicago will take place from 08. – 10. April 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. Further information formnextchicago.com
Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH, the organizer behind Formnext, continues to serve as a hub for additive manufacturing, industrial 3D printing, and advanced industrial manufacturing processes worldwide.
