IMTS 2026 Will Put 3D-Printed Drones and an 11-Ft Test Vehicle Front and Center

A Defense-Focused Preview

This September, the International Manufacturing Technology Show returns to McCormick Place in Chicago, and the AMT Emerging Technology Center is shaping up to be one of the most focused displays of additive manufacturing's practical impact. Inside the North Building at booth 236700, visitors will see a full-scale manufacturing cell producing quadcopter airframes live, alongside an 11-foot-tall test flight vehicle built with metal 3D printing.

The ETC's theme is clear: show how AM supports the U.S. industrial base by making production faster, more agile, and less dependent on long international supply chains. Douglas K. Woods, president of the Association for Manufacturing Technology, put it plainly: the technologies needed for national defense are the same ones that make domestic manufacturing more efficient and competitive.

Aires Tide: Eleven Feet of Inconel

The headline draw is Aires Tide, a full-scale proof-of-concept test flight vehicle standing 11 feet tall. It was developed by Sandia National Laboratories using AI, advanced computing, and metal additive manufacturing. Velo3D's Sapphire XC printer produced the large-scale vessel in Inconel 718.

The results are hard to ignore. The team went from concept in October 2025 to a test flight in May 2026, cutting development time by roughly seven times compared to traditional manufacturing. Cost dropped by about 15 times. A half-scale vehicle was dropped from 32,000 feet at the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, capturing flight data that continues to shape the design.

Lonnie Love, a Sandia fellow who led the project, said AI gets the design to about 95% in days or hours, where engineers once spent months iterating for different payloads. Additive manufacturing then lets them refine the physical part without retooling.

Live Drone Production at ORNL

Next to Aires Tide, the ETC will run a live manufacturing cell built by the U.S. DOE Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The cell combines additive and subtractive processes to produce quadcopter airframes in real time. Visitors will watch the frames being built and then see the drones fly in a netted area.

Thomas Feldhausen, an R&D staff member at ORNL, said the demonstration is meant to show how flexible production systems move from design to finished part while adapting to changing requirements. The cell makes bodies for drones with 3.5-inch, 5-inch, and 10-inch rotors, covering both high-mix, low-volume work and the transition to higher-rate production.

A Broader Industrial Picture

Drone production will extend beyond the ORNL cell. Mazak, FANUC, Kennametal, Open Mind, Edgewater Automation, MTConnect, and Schunk will all show technologies used in drone manufacturing, from CNC and robotics to workholding and data communication.

IMTS 2026 runs September 14-19 at McCormick Place. The ETC makes the case that the same machines building defense hardware today can build commercial parts tomorrow.