FABTECH 2026

A metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing event where suppliers showcase technology and industry products and developments. The event connects manufacturing decision-makers with suppliers and solutions aimed at improving productivity and business results.

The program includes keynotes, panels, breakouts, and interactive roundtables on steel-industry conditions; fabrication businesses, leadership, and industry outlook; AI and digitization in manufacturing; shop-floor equipment use cases and return on investment; and manufacturing’s economic and financial outlook. Sessions also address profitability, capital investment, business growth, tariffs, steel, leadership development, recruitment, small- and midsize-manufacturer growth, and potential changes to tax policy, OSHA and EPA regulations, and tariffs. Roundtable topics include culture, marketing, AI, and operations.

A four-day industrial automation and digital transformation event at the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center. The program combines keynotes, an expo with demonstrations, and general-access sessions featuring customer voices, industry viewpoints, partner solutions, and product introductions. Featured tracks cover executive insights; AI and edge-to-cloud operational data; process control; production logistics; OT security; and the future of industrial automation. Industry tracks include automotive and tire, food and beverage, life sciences, mining and metals, energy, OEMs and machine builders, and water and wastewater. Topics include rare-earth processing automation, critical metals and industrial energy systems, grid decarbonization through hydro and bioenergy, and data-driven oil and gas operations. Five curated summits address process automation and PlantPAx DCS; secure digital operations, industrial data, AI, MES, digital thread, and OT cybersecurity; OEM machine building, digital twins, and secure design; production logistics, autonomous material movement, robotics, and orchestration; and industrial safety. The safety program covers functional-safety and cybersecurity standards including IEC 61508, IEC 61511, ISO 13849, and IEC 62443, as well as robotics, AI, and autonomous operations. Process-summit sessions include copper-mine control systems, PlantPAx modernization, predictive control, and EtherNet/IP. Keynotes address leading through change and complexity, the future of industrial operations, and innovation through experimentation.

The program combines technical and management sessions, exhibits, and presentations for foundry professionals, suppliers, casting designers, buyers, and OEM representatives. Topics include additive manufacturing, casting design and purchasing, engineering, environmental health and safety, ferrous and nonferrous alloys, Industry 4.0, marketing and sales, melting, molding, pouring, quality control, workforce development, and casting case studies, reshoring, material selection, and casting quality. The program also includes the Hoyt Memorial Lecture on integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) and artificial intelligence for sustainable metalcasting. Its themes include alloy design, process innovation, digital manufacturing, workforce development, and using physics-based ICME with AI and machine learning to improve casting development, manufacturing processes, and prediction of microstructure, defects, and mechanical properties.

The event features exhibits in automation, robotics, smart manufacturing, precision machining, software, industrial IoT, and cybersecurity, alongside an executive keynote panel series and presentations, technology demonstrations, and interactive Knowledge Bars. The Knowledge Bars address how technology, innovation, and AI can help small and medium-sized manufacturers adopt technology. Featured technology areas also include additive manufacturing, advanced materials, digital transformation, energy and environmental efficiency, and manufacturing engineering. SME Mission Critical: Workforce 2030 focuses on manufacturers’ workforce challenges.

Exhibit areas include automation, robotics, smart manufacturing, precision machining, software solutions, industrial IoT, and cybersecurity. The Executive Perspectives series features panels with manufacturing-company executives and technology providers; Knowledge Bars cover advanced manufacturing technologies and how innovation and AI adoption can address technology challenges for small and midsize manufacturers. Other listed features include the SME Mission Critical: Workforce 2030 experience on manufacturers’ workforce challenges; a Pop Up Factory demonstrating an assembly and inspection workflow that captures data and connects apps, devices, and analytics; and a Corporate and Institutional Roundtable addressing the manufacturing skills gap, alignment between academic outcomes and workforce needs, and strategies for manufacturing’s future. The Bright Minds College Experience includes executive chats, student-led sessions, hands-on exposure to advanced manufacturing technologies, industry roundtables, and discussions about the manufacturing workforce.

The program combines manufacturing exhibits with an executive perspectives keynote panel series and featured presentations across manufacturing disciplines. Exhibit and technology areas include automation, robotics, smart manufacturing, precision machining, additive manufacturing, software, industrial IoT, advanced materials, cybersecurity, and energy and environmental efficiency. The Smart Manufacturing Experience Knowledge Bars focus on advanced manufacturing technologies and how technology, innovation, and AI can help small and medium-sized manufacturers address technology adoption challenges. The event also features SME Mission Critical: Workforce 2030, focused on manufacturers’ workforce challenges, and the Bright Minds College Experience, with panels, roundtables, executive insights, peer learning, and hands-on exploration of manufacturing technologies.

The event brings together the ACerS Annual Meeting, AIST Steel Properties & Applications, the TMS Fall Meeting, and the Advanced Materials Show. Planned technical symposia cover additive manufacturing, including modeling, AI and machine learning, process control, ceramic 3D printing, and qualification and certification of computational materials tools. Other materials topics include ceramics, glass, electronic and nanostructured materials, advanced alloys, and high-temperature phase transformations. Steel and ferrous-metallurgy programming addresses alloy design, steel processing and coatings, medium- and high-manganese steels, decarbonization, scrap recyclability, and materials for transportation, defense, energy, hydrogen, carbon capture, geothermal, and nuclear applications. Energy-focused symposia cover clean hydrogen, electrochemical storage and conversion, thermal management, and alternative-energy devices, including solid-state batteries, electrolyzers, fuel cells, and thermoelectric systems. Additional planned topics include corrosion and degradation in extreme environments, nuclear materials and waste-storage forms, and materials for advanced manufacturing. The co-located Advanced Materials Show focuses on high-performing materials technology and the materials manufacturing supply chain.

The program brings together energy, industrial transformation, and advanced manufacturing, with cross-cutting themes of workforce development, standards, finance, AI and digital transformation, policy, and resilience planning. Roundtables, workshops, and demos are designed to address tradeoffs involving affordability, risk, standardization, and deployment speed. Program tracks include Powering Growth, with sample sessions on data-center power and cooling, new nuclear deployment, solar cost reduction, and scaling geothermal; Industry Reimagined, covering industrial heat electrification, next-generation steel, and EPC project-delivery costs and risks; Next-Gen Manufacturing, addressing hardware investment and bankability, additive manufacturing, and sustainability tradeoffs in product design; and Future Workforce, on nuclear workforce readiness, apprenticeships, and aligning training programs with real projects. Additional sessions are in development in areas including energy storage, fusion, industrial efficiency, critical minerals, and sustainability tradeoffs. The listed sessions are samples and subject to change.