FABTECH 2027 Chicago: 3D animation for welding, cutting and metal forming exhibitors

Dates

13 to 16 September 2027

Venue

McCormick Place, Chicago

Sectors

Metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing

Previous edition

21 to 23 October 2026, Las Vegas

Audience

North American fabricators and job shops

Sources: Gardner Business Media event listing, GAWDA Media.

FABTECH 2027 returns to McCormick Place in Chicago from 13 to 16 September 2027, after the 2026 edition in Las Vegas. It describes itself as North America's largest metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing event, and for makers of welding power sources, robotic welding cells, laser and plasma cutters, press brakes, punching machines, tube processors and finishing systems it is the show that sets the year's order book.

Fabrication equipment has a particular visual problem. The processes that sell it, the arc, the beam, the bend, the coating, are exactly the ones you cannot film properly. A welding arc blows out any camera, a fibre laser cut happens inside a closed enclosure, and the inside of a press brake under load is never visible. Animation built from your CAD shows all of it, safely and at the speed the buyer needs.

What fabrication buyers want to see

• Weld quality and process stability. Wire feed, gas flow, torch angle and seam formation, shown in a cutaway at a speed the eye can follow.
• Cut quality and speed. Beam path, nesting, part removal and edge quality for laser, plasma and waterjet systems.
• Bending accuracy. Back gauge movement, crowning compensation and angle measurement on a press brake, which are invisible on a live machine.
• Automation and material flow. Loading towers, part sorting and robotic welding cells, where the buying argument is unattended operation.
• Service access. Where the consumables are and how fast they change, which matters to every job shop.

Four formats for a FABTECH stand

1. Process cutaway films

Thirty to sixty seconds per process. The machine opens, the camera moves inside and the process runs with annotations. These are the clips your sales team will reuse for years. See how it works animation for machines.

2. Cell and line animation

For automated cutting and welding systems, show the full flow from sheet or tube storage to finished part. Our robot cell animation guide applies directly to welding cells.

3. Product range renders

Welding power sources, wire feeders and torches in every variant, rendered in one consistent standard for the booth wall, the catalogue and distributor websites. Volume pricing from $290 per SKU makes a full range realistic.

4. Interactive 3D for distributors

Much fabrication equipment is sold through distributors. A browser-based 3D viewer lets every distributor show the same machine with the same accuracy.

Mistakes to avoid

• Stock sparks and flames. Fabricators can tell a generic spark effect from a real process. We base effects on your process parameters.
• Machines shown only from the outside. Every competitor's enclosure looks similar from the aisle. Open it up.
• Forgetting the US market. Use imperial units and US terminology in the FABTECH cut, even if your engineering is metric. We deliver both from the same production.

Timeline for FABTECH 2027

Budget

All prices include CAD preparation. Every further asset from a machine we have already prepared costs 20 to 40 per cent less, so a single preparation can carry you through FABTECH, your European shows and your distributor launches.

What to send

• Machine CAD as STEP or native files, plus process parameters for the cutaways.
• Your range list with variants and colours if you want catalogue renders.
• Stand plan and screen specifications.

We sign an NDA before any file moves. Send one CAD file for a free assessment and fixed quote within one working day.

Written by Engr. Bilal Naseem, mechanical engineer (PEC Reg. No. 47883) and founder of 3DEnginuity. Questions about your own machine? Write to bilal.naseem@3denginuity.com.