The doors closed on the 2018 edition of TCT Show yesterday after three days of innovation, announcements and product debuts. More than 250 exhibitors converged on the NEC, Birmingham, to create the largest show floor in the event’s history and to showcase game-changing design and manufacturing technologies to around 10,000 (audit pending) attendees.
“The number of new products on show reflected the current pace of change in the industry,” said Jim Woodcock, VP, Content, Strategy and Partnerships at Rapid News Group. “From advances in additive metal technologies, to materials, to innovative software, the technologies that will shape manufacturing in the future were on display across the show floor.” Biggest news from the show floor included
- UK debut of Mimaki's 10 million colour 3DUJ-553 3D printer in partnership with Hybrid Services.
- Trumpf debuted its TruPrint 3000 metals system for the first time.
- Shapeways announced its full colour 3D printing service with Stratasys' J750 machine.
- Ultimaker unveiled new material alliances and print core for composites on the desktop.
- DyeMansion showcased increased colour capabilities for its DM60 post-processing machine.
- Materialise introduced a simulation module to its Magics software.
- Sculpteo announced the direct integration of FDM to its Fabpilot cloud-based end-to-end solution.
- Several partnerships were also struck on the show floor; XJet secured a distribution agreement with Carfulan Group, Additive Industries teamed with Laser Lines to accelerate its UK presence and Link3D partnered with the ACAM Aachen Center for Additive Manufacturing.
We’re having lots of conversations that have been technical, lots of engineers coming to us. Conversations like this means we are having a good show. People coming to us for solutions is great and the R+D team have been taking some great enquiries - Nuno Campos, Chief Marketing Officer, Ultimaker.
It’s been amazing and we’ve seen a really good result. I think TCT is the future because in this industry everybody needs to mix and build relationships within the industry. That’s the amazing thing about TCT, the mix of the universities, the people who want to acquire technology and the people who have a concept and want to try out their designs - Lee Moakes, Managing Director, Trumpf UK.
Another excellent year for TCT and Europac3D. We’ve had hundreds of visitors on the stand, business good, and it looks like two machines will be sold and delivered next week. Here we go again - looking forward to 2019 - John Beckett, Director and Founder, Europac3D.
We’ve had an amazing time here at TCT, a lot of great conversations, a lot of interest from quite a variety of markets and industries. Getting in front of people and being able to show them a product in person is great for us - Nick Brewer, Events Marketing Manager, Formlabs.
We’ve had great footfall this year, we’ve used this as a format for looking at new opportunities within new sectors and we’ve had a very good mix of markets both in terms of aerospace and medical markets. In general terms I'd think that we doubled the level of conversations we’ve been having in terms of business and there's been quality conversations at a senior level - Mark Da Costa, Engineering Solutions Sales Manager, Datron Technology.
The TCT Show conference programme covered the entire industry through almost than 100 speakers. Airbus, PepsiCo and BMW took to the main stage highlighting technical breakthroughs and advances. Education and increasing technology adoption is key to every TCT event and three stages of content ensured there was something for all technology interests.
Duncan Wood, Chief Executive at Rapid News Publications Ltd, organisers of the TCT Show, commented: “Yet another amazing TCT Show to reflect on with so many highlights in the conferences, at the TCT Awards and across the show floor. Add to this the largest number of exhibiting companies ever and a steadily increasing international participation and we can look forward to an even more exciting and internationally focused event in the future. We are already deep in planning for 2019 and we look forward to welcoming the industry again next year.”
TCT Show will return to the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham, UK, from 24-26 September 2019.
