(l-r) Greg Buck, President of Productivity Inc.; Andre Ey, VP, Makino; and Pete Nelson, Machine Tools Sales Manager
Student Day Alexandria Group
Student Day Career Room
Productivity Inc. hosted the Oktoberfest Tool Show at its main facility in Plymouth, MN, September 23 - 26. The show featured CNC machines, tooling and software technologies. Productivity's Oktoberfest event was started in 1981 as a means of introducing new CNC manufacturing equipment and acknowledging its appreciation to clients and professional contacts.
Machine manufacturers included Haas Automation Inc., Makino, Matsuura, FANUC Robotics, Citizen, Miyano, Swiss Tec, Hyundai WIA, ANCA, Murata, Omax, Durma, Okamoto, Scotchman, EDM Drillmate, Tsune and FOBA Lasers. Tooling vendors included Kennametal, Ingersoll, Lista, Guhring, PH Horn, Lista, Komet, RedLine and more.
There were close to 3,000 attendees from the Midwest representing a variety of shop sizes, manufacturing vocations and industries. This year's theme was "Where Technology Meets Innovation." Demonstrations included fast pill sorting, power cutting steel using high feeds and speeds, 3 + 2 axis machining, laser engraving, waterjet cutting, EDM machining, tool vending and more. Attendees had chances to claim prizes that demonstrated technologies including card swiping on a tool vending machine, laser engraving of their name on an eye loop or laser etching on a pen.
Twelve seminars covered topics such as "The True Cost at the Spindle," "Tool Management for Manufacturing Engineers," "Uptime-Pro - Automated Production Reporting Software," "Advanced Robotic Vision" and more. With over 120 vendors at the show, there was also opportunity to speak with industry experts.
Over 21 schools attended the show's Student Day event. "Introducing tomorrow's manufacturing professionals to new technologies in the machining and tooling industries is important," said a company spokesperson. "Productivity sponsors a day just for students. This day allowed almost 1,100 high school and vo-tech students to discover the possibilities in manufacturing and see the jobs available in this industry. In addition, there were over 14 manufacturing sector employers there to show graduating students the opportunities in this sector."
For more information contact:
Productivity Inc.
15150 25th Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55447-1969
800-328-3272 / 763-476-8600
www.productivity.com