Metal fabrication trends to watch at FABTECH 2023

It’s show time for FABTECH 2023. Get ready for new levels of fabrication power and new levels of programming and planning simplicity, all driven by the almighty algorithm. The industry might be at the dawn of a new era—driven by data, machine learning, and AI. Butler Photography

Fabricators visit this year’s FABTECH this week in Chicago as the industry stands at a crossroads. Boomers are retiring, and the skilled labor shortage continues to worsen. Automation is helping to fill the gap in some areas, but it certainly doesn’t reduce the need for talent. That said, the industry needs a different kind of talent—a person who knows and can use the, then take advantage of automation, both software and hardware, to drive efficiency to new heights. And those who make best use of data will thrive.

Metalworks Inc. is a case in point. The Lincoln, Neb.-based custom fabricator has embraced automation fully, so much so that it’s integrating its own welding robots, robotic bending cells, and more. But that’s just half the story.

The other half involves the shops’ progressive use of data. Company personnel have developed their own business software platform designed to harness all the data the fabricator produces and, with it, drive productivity. The goal is to eliminate those information silos created with legacy software and data systems. The fabricator has even spun off a new company, Cortex Data Services, to sell the concept to others.

I touched on this in our October issue, and I’ll be diving deeper into the subject in future editions of The Fabricator. Metalworks isn’t the first shop we’ve covered that’s developed or customized their own business software systems. And with AI-driven software development on the horizon, they won’t be the last. Our columnist, Caleb Chamberlain of OSH Cut, will soon be describing the company’s new scheduling and nesting system, developed in-house (though not with AI-assisted programming) and tailored exactly for OSH Cut’s needs.

Machine makers are starting to use AI to detect and accommodate problems in real time. Imagine a world where machines set themselves up not just by loading a program, but by automatically tweaking it by examining the workpiece in front of them. This is already happening in robotic welding, and at least to some extent, it’s happened for years at the press brake (with adaptive bending) and laser cutting, with systems detecting rough patches on material surfaces and adjusting in real-time.

Imagine extending such real-time adaption to scheduling, production planning, engineering, quoting, purchasing, even measuring vendor performance? Such technology could drive WIP down to new levels of lean and dramatically increase part flow velocity.

In such a data-driven environment, collaboration between fabricators, machine makers, and software vendors will become deeper than ever (which makes industry gatherings like FABTECH even more important than they already are). Technology development overall might become more distributed, ever more customized, with technological “building blocks” mating together in different ways, and AI-assisted development (especially in software) allowing fabricators themselves to customize software and various technology platforms to the nth degree.

One snag: This new data-driven world needs curious people who aren’t afraid to share their knowledge and are open to change. People make or break any organization, a fact that won’t change no matter how advanced machines and software become.