If you weren't a part of The FABRICATOR's Technology Summit in early October, you missed a great learning experience. About 50 attendees visited six fabricating operations, two manufacturers of laser equipment, and one systems integrator of custom laser machines. If the event didn't "ignite innovation"—as its tag line suggested—it certainly got some people thinking about how they might change their own operations.

What exactly did attendees see as they traveled around Minnesota's Twin Cities? They got to see everything, from the automated manufacturing processes used to fabricate Hoffman boxes—one of the most recognizable brands in the metal manufacturing industry—at Pentair Technical Products, Minneapolis, to the manufacturing might needed to construct giant grain handlers at Schlagel Inc. in Cambridge, Minn. At those stops and others they saw the latest in automated storage and retrieval systems that feed material to laser cutting machines with no human intervention; specialty laser cutting devices tailored for industries such as medical device and aerospace parts manufacturing; and even a fiber laser that ripped through tubes, cutting shapes in a matter of seconds. (more...)