FabTech

This fall I heard about a welding convention happening in chicago called Fabtech. I didn’t know much about the convention but decided to save up my money and fly down there and attend all days of the convention. Well needless to say the convention was a blast.

Exhibit halls

The exhibitor halls were absolutely massive. There where three halls one hall was primarily welding and fabrication related this hall was hall B. Hall A was mostly the bigger corporations this hall was primarily robotics and automation. Hall C was finishing and tube bending, I didn’t spend much time in this hall as it was far from everything else and the only companies there were paint companies. There was one booth with someone baking cookies though!

Exhibit Hall A

This was particularly unique it had a 3d printing area and TONS of lazer cutters and automation for basically anything. This hall was mostly larger corperations will a few small ones off to the side. It was also the largest out of the three I believe, Tons of large robots and automation stuff through the hall.

Exhibit Hall B

This hall was by far my favorite hall to be in. This hall was focused on welding and fabrication. Miller, Lincon, ESAB, and much more different welding suppliers and companies were there. The hall was made up of two “rooms” one room which was the larger one (big ceiling, very spacious) had much more of the bigger brands and companies that could afford banners to hang from the ceiling. The other room was much more smaller. This room was filled with smaller buisnesses and university’s. The primary reason I enjoyed this hall the most is cause for the most part the sales people of the companies here actually spoke to me. Many people in the other two halls (Excluding C cause I didn’t go into it for more then 5 seconds) were a lot more corporate.

Favorite Booths

Forney Booth

This booth stood out to me cause they were the first people to reach out and talk to me. This was the first booth I actually interacted with at the convention and they welcomed me with open arms. The sales guys were fresh out of college and young so it was pretty cool seeing people not 50yr’s older then me lol. I welded on their machine they were demoing and plasma cut for the first time at this booth. No complaints cool dudes.

Victory Welding Alloys

Victory is a welding supply company for distributors I think. (please correct me if I am wrong) Brian Steele their Ceo/Founder was a intresting person who gave some good advice. Victory was one of the first companies I spoke to that took time out of selling and getting money to speak to me. This business is one of the biggest reasons I liked the Exhibit Hall B more then A and C, they had a soul.

https://www.victoryweldingalloys.com/

Up In Smoke Welding Apparel

This company is actually really close to my home town. They also gave me a free shirt. The founder was a pipeliner who was fed up with crappy welding shirts and jackets and saw the problem and went to solve it. They are pretty pricey though so I wont get one till I get some more dough. And honestly the logo for this brand is DOPE it fuels me with the welding spirit.

https://www.upinsmokewelding.com/

Tri Tool

Tri Tool was pretty cool I got the chance to talk to them for a bit. This company hired people very close to my interest their head engineer tinkered and works with his hands. They design and solve problems related to tooling they sell a few products as well. I connected with some of their people on linked in and had good conversations. Check them out I by no means can afford there stuff but they are cool people.

https://www.tritool.com/

Lincoln Electric

Lincoln was stellar as a booth. I got to know there Sales people quite well and formed a really good relation ship with them and we still keep in touch. Lincoln was the best from their supper high up executeive sales people to people running booths. I NEVER felt un welcome if that makes sense by lincoln and they gave me good advice and really allowed me to ask them questions.

https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en

Conclusion of Fabtech

Over all I really enjoyed fabtech. I learned quite a bit and met many cool people. The biggest thing I learned while being at fabtech is that being young and still in school has me in a very unique position that I think many people my age do not notice. I am at a age were if I just show up to these events and put myself out there people could remember me in the future and I can easily get tours and interviews then if I were already working. Also for a field like welding that already is SUPER niche happens to be a big plus. Thank you for reading or even clicking on this page lol.

Cool Pictures And Machines From the Event