The Composites and Advanced Materials Expo (CAMX) is known as the go-to composites event for products, solutions, networking and advanced industry thinking. This year it co-located with Industrial Fabrics Association International Expo (IFAI), the premier industrial fabrics expo for new and innovative products, in Dallas, Texas October 15 – 18. The result was a high-energy hotbed of education and networking with experts and influential industry leaders. If you were at the show, you couldn’t miss Autometrix. As Operations Manager Terri Van Wagner put it, “Two shows in one, two significant industries for Autometrix, ten Autometrix personnel, three cutting machines and a TON of energy! Yee-haw!”
Templates Wins Show Stopper Competition for Equipment & Tools
IFAI held a Show Stopper competition, which recognized the most popular products on the show floor. Autometrix won the Equipment & Tools category with its Templates software, which makes “just in time” manufacturing possible. Templates allows manufacturers to generate new patterns for each product in any size, greatly reducing inventory costs, and providing the ability to offer a variety of sizes or dimensions for custom and semi-custom products.
Jonathan Palmer Leads Industry Panel Discussion
Autometrix CEO Jonathan Palmer demonstrated his leadership in the industry by moderating a panel discussion of “Emerging Leaders” in the industrial fabrics industry. The panel covered a variety of important and relevant topics for manufacturers: new trade tariffs (especially timely for those with vendors in China), change management, hiring the right people for a company’s culture, employee engagement and retention, balancing veteran and new/young labor, finding and sharing resources that help small businesses such as local workforce development agencies, and more. In addition he participated in a workforce development panel and gave two presentations, namely “Makers in need of tools” and “Making sense of kit-cutting”.
Autometrix Booth Stood Out on the Floor
The Autometrix booth was consistently packed with current and future customers. A beautiful carbon fiber Allied bike attracted people to watch a virtual reality video on how the bike was produced. Once there they could collect Dallas-inspired swag cut by the Catalyst conveyorized cutting machine and a static Argon/Radium cutting machine (blue vinyl footballs, helmets, Dallas Cowboys stars and faux carbon fiber stickers). At the other end of the show floor, another Autometrix cutting machine participated in the Manufacturing for Good booth, which hosted a live manufacturing line that produced duffel bags for people experiencing homelessness in Texas.
We Love Helping Customers
Booth visitors loved watching the cutting machines, but they were just as impressed with the software solutions on display, especially CadShot Mobile. Truy Pham, Director of Global Sales wasn’t surprised by all the buzz at the Autometrix booth. “We provide more than just a cutting machine,” he said. “We have product design and pattern making software, digitizing tools, and solutions to improve manufacturing workflow. Even before you touch material to be cut, we can help. And, yes still, we make the best single ply cutting machine in the world.” Galen Shumaker, Mechanical Engineer, enjoyed meeting Autometrix customers at the show. “By far the highlight was listening to the needs of our customers,” he said. “I enjoyed hearing about their businesses and ways we could help. Most were small to mid-sized companies with some level of success looking to make that next step forward in productivity, performance and profitability.”
If you missed the cool VR demo, here is the link on our official youtube site. If you visited us and are now inspired to get your own cutting machine, go here to find your solution and get a customized report with suggestions of the best table and software for your business. See you at IFAI Expo and CAMX 2019!