Advanced Manufacturing at IMTS 2026: 3D Printing and AI and Drones, Oh My! – 3DPrint.com

Varun September 25, 2026 3D Printing News

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Last week’s International Manufacturing Technology Snow (IMTS) in Chicago welcomed over 90,000 attendees to the jungle that is McCormick Place. With over 1.17 million square feet of exhibit space, and more than 1,700 exhibitors, everyone certainly got their steps in, as we all kept reminding each other when we bemoaned our aching feet.

I spent the majority of my first day in the East Building with quality assurance, 3D scanning, and software, and split the rest of my time in the South Building with additive manufacturing (AM) and the North Building with automation, robotics, and AI. The additive companies were mostly tucked in a back corner, but at least we were in one of the two main halls this time, which I think means people like us now?

Looking down at the main concourse between the North and South Buildings

Actually, our sector’s placement was rather fitting, as the AM companies in the South Building were located right next to the metal removal area; this is an integral part of the metal additive process. As many people said, this is evidence that AM is finally thought of as a real part of the manufacturing workflow, and not just a niche technology for making Pokemon planters…so again, I think people like us!

Here are the highlights from some of the companies I visited at the show.

Hexagon

At the Hexagon booth, Technical Sales Specialist Sean Parker talked to me about Scan to CAD and reverse engineering when the original CAD file is gone. Often, users are trying to recreate a broken part, which means that even if they scan it, the data is incomplete. Geomagic DesignX allows you to basically fill in what’s missing. The software takes the point cloud, or mesh, captured on a 3D scanner, processes it into a polygon mesh format, and uses a one-click transfer button to send it to DesignX, where it can be cleaned up.

“We wanted to be able to bring in the scan mesh and allow you to model directly on top of it like you’re in the CAD world,” Application Engineer Manager Greg George explained. “We have the same tools that all the CAD packages have, where you can sketch and extract things directly from the mesh.”

The CAD model and accompanying information can also be quickly and easily transferred to other CAD packages, like SOLIDWORKS, “as native entities.”

I also spoke to Robert Kratzer about AI in manufacturing, and Hexagon’s Connected Worker Platform, which helps with digitization of paper-based operations in factories.

“I think one area where it’s going to be extremely useful is an operator being able to use it like they’re talking to their supervisor,” he said. “They could type in their issue, and AI tells them how to troubleshoot it.”

I wondered how many hours an AI tool would have to “train” to be trustworthy in this kind of application. He said it’s not so much about teaching a large language model (LLM), but ensuring that it’s working within the correct parameters.

“As far as work instructions or telling somebody how to troubleshoot something, I think the most important thing is being locked into that organization’s architecture. What you don’t want to have happen is you ask a question, and AI goes out and grabs somebody else’s data or information,” he said.

That answer changes when it comes to inspection; a lot of training is needed here. Kratzer has worked with customers who want to use AI, but had no library, and he said they needed to start capturing “good vs. bad” scenarios and testing them, so the AI could learn.

Overall, he said that AI in manufacturing is not meant to take jobs away from people, but to make their jobs easier, safer, and more productive. He also said it could be used to shorten learning curves for new employees, and free up senior employees from having to train new people.

I also got to see Hexagon’s latest optical tracking scanner, the wireless HYPERSCAN SR. With WiFi 6 connectivity and battery power, it’s quick to deploy, with dynamic tracking following both the part and the scanner at the same time so scans aren’t interrupted by movement or vibrations. It also offers a wide scanning area, multiple scan modes, and target-free scanning, and is meant for applications where mobility is important, like field service and on-site inspection in industries like construction, automotive, railway, and energy.

HYPERSCAN SR

Artec 3D

Speaking of wireless scanners, Artec 3D debuted its new structured light Artec Neo scanner at IMTS, which offers what the company calls tolerance-driven 3D scanning. The best way to illustrate this is to look at the below image on the right. Scan targets have been applied only in some areas of the part being scanned, but not all—just the functional features with critical tolerances have targets. Not all surfaces are created equal, so users can employ flexibility in how they apply the targets.

You can cover an object in targets for full-part metrology needs, with a volumetric accuracy of 0.025 mm + 0.035 mm/m. If the scanner is in hybrid mode, it uses the targets as “metrology anchors,” as Artec puts it, and only scans what’s needed, without having to switch between different scan modes; where there are no targets, AI is used to maintain tracking through color, texture, and geometry. You also don’t have to use targets at all, and the Neo will scan the part at up to 0.05 mm resolution in full color.

EOS

At the EOS booth, I talked to Dave Krzeminski, Business Development Manager for Polymer, about 3D printed drones. There were several on display, like the Glaive Attack Drone by Adler Aerospace. EOS printed polymer components for 20 mission-ready drone bodies, developed for the DoW’s Drone Dominance Gauntlet II challenge. Krzeminski said the turnaround time Phillips Federal gave EOS for the drone components was extremely quick, like just days vs. several weeks. But EOS more than delivered, printing 180 parts in a little over 12 hours.

Glaive Attack Drone

EOS also printed some Nylon 12 parts, like the drone body and motor pods, for the Quantum Systems Counter-UAS Interceptor drone, which launches vertically with a solid-fuel booster and can reach 4,000 meters in just 30 seconds. Krzeminski told me that Quantum is actually “going to go for the Guinness World Record of drone speed” later this month!

We also looked at a demonstration piece that showed off the interior conformal ribbing used for drone wings and bodies, created by InfinitForm. He said the platform was very easy to use, and was able to achieve 0.4mm wall thickness and 0.8mm rib thickness on an EOS printer.

HP

Another company with 3D printed drones at their booth was HP. Brian Ingold, Global Head of Business Development & Applications Solutions, is on HP’s Drone Team, which has increased from two people to over 25 in just four years. He explained that HP’s Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) technology is a good fit for drones because it can “print thin, strong parts at production scale,” as well as prints that are “light as foam.” He handed me a 3D printed demo drone with 0.4mm wall thickness that was so light, it felt like I was holding a paper airplane.

“Many OEMs have gotten quite good at designing all kinds of drones for MJF,” he told me.

This includes drones that are making life better, as he put it, and not just used for war.

The Eye Above drone by HP

He showed me a large fixed-wing drone for The Eye Above, an anti-poaching drone project. These drones, which contain a camera for monitoring poachers, have to be very sturdy, because South Africa has extremely strong winds, and durable, in case you’re getting charged by a rhino and you have to quickly toss the drone in the back of your Jeep and speed away!

Because of HP’s open parameters, it was easy for The Eye Above to tweak the design to achieve the desired outcome. Using additive to build the drones also means that if a wing section is damaged, you don’t have to lose the whole wing; you can just pop off that section, fix it or replace it, and move on.

Ingold shared other customers using HP 3D printed drones for good, like blueflite and its delivery drones. That company, recently certified by the FAA, is working on blood delivery to accident sites, because most emergency vehicles don’t carry blood supplies. So this could literally save someone’s life. Xmobots in Brazil makes drones that have tons of MJF parts for rainforest deforestation monitoring, and he even mentioned a customer in Taiwan that’s using drones with MJF parts to monitor the tuna population.

Caracol

At the Caracol booth, which was wisely located in the automation sector of IMTS, and not the additive area, the robotic large-format Heron platform was printing a construction support for an arch. This is just one of the many applications that the Heron serves; the composite printing system also prints things for applications like furniture, molds, transportation (covering maritime, automotive, and aerospace), energy, and, of course, drones, “especially maritime drones,” as Co-Founder and CEO Francesco De Stefano told me.

With the Vipra, Caracol’s metal DED system, De Stefano said they are “seeing similar industries with different applications. Caracol has developed these two processes together to bring the objectives and the advantages of large core modality manufacturing within highly regulated industries.” Their goal with the Heron and the Vipra is to serve the same kinds of customers in the same industries, “but with different ranges of applications.”

I also asked about Caracol’s AI usage, and De Stefano said that one layer is “the analytics part.” Over years of projects that the company completed as a service bureau, they’ve built up a lot of data, which is then used to train AI models in order to improve its own processes. Caracol also uses AI to develop software that helps make the workflow easier, faster, and more predictable for its users.

At last year’s Formnext, Caracol released its updated Eidos Manufacturing Software Suite for the Heron, and at IMTS, the company was sharing some of its new AI features that will hopefully be released within the next year. De Stefano said these features allow the machine to “start making decisions locally.” In other words, the ultimate goal is for the platform to learn from its mistakes and auto-correct itself.

“It creates a comparison with a digital twin, and it’s basically able to start understanding, ‘Okay, am I deviating from the parameters that I originally had? Am I recognizing defects on what I’m doing? Let me adjust the next layer and try to compensate for that.’ So we reduce downtime, we reduce scrap, and we increase productivity.”

It’s early days yet for Eidos, and the company still needs to collect a lot of data, but that’s a big thing they’re working on.

FormAlloy

As CEO and Co-Founder Melanie Lang showed me, there was an exciting new part at the FormAlloy booth that demonstrates what’s possible with multimaterial Directed Energy Deposition (DED). The large-scale functionally graded material blisk “showcases our ability to place any material any location on the part, it doesn’t just have to be graded in a single direction.” Users can blend different metal powders and finely tailor their material properties and locations, so they’re precisely where they need to be for optimal performance.

“This takes out the manual labor and takes advanced additive manufacturing to the next level,” Lang said.”

In other FormAlloy news, the company went through a large expansion this year and moved into a new 24,000 square foot facility, which brings all teams under the same roof. FormAlloy also received several new defense contracts in 2026, from the likes of the US Navy, America Makes, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). Lang said the new facility makes FormAlloy “better equipped for defense manufacturing.”

Aixway3D

At trade shows, I always try to visit some companies I’m not that familiar with, and IMTS was no exception.

Chinese firm Aixway3D, a spinout from the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (Fraunhofer ILT) in Germany, specializes in micro metal 3D printing. The company has a production factory in Suzhou, China, as well as an R&D center in Aachen, Germany. Their exclusive micron-level Micro-LPBF/SLM technology can achieve a typical printing accuracy of 2-10 µm, 30 µm wall thickness, 0.8 µm Ra value surface roughness, and support-free printing for various structures above 10 degrees.

Aixway3D can print with a variety of materials, including stainless steel, nickel-based alloys, precious metals, titanium-based alloys, tungsten, cobalt-chromium alloys, and several others. Because of the technology’s ability to majorly optimize surface roughness and accuracy, a major application for the company is parts for medical devices, like endoscopes, forceps tips, and stents.

Canmora Tech

Canadian company Canmora Tech offers electron beam technology, but its real focus is large-scale LPBF. Its Laser Electron Additive Manufacturing (LEAM) platforms don’t move the build plate up and down like what happens with standard LPBF processes; instead, it’s the tank that moves. This way, the build plate can be mounted directly onto the machine frame, which makes the process much more stable. Because Canmora is making parts at the meter scale, they obviously use a lot of powder on the build plate, and according to Additive Manager Will Starling, “you can’t really lift that up and down at a couple hundred degrees. So you move a fixed load at a couple hundred pounds.”

Starling said another difference is that Canmora’s LEAM-Q laser platforms use individual laser heads, instead of galvos. This enables a beam that’s constantly perpendicular to the powder bed, “so you don’t have any change in focal distance or projected areas as a result of the angularity of the galvo. Their systems start with just one laser, and go all the way up to 36 lasers for very large naval and energy parts.

Here are some other pictures from my time at IMTS: