Intech 2026 – At its in-house exhibition, Trumpf showed how productivity in sheet metal processing will no longer be achieved solely through individual machine parameters in the future, but that availability, data, automation and flexible application options are becoming increasingly important.
Around 2,000 visitors came to Ditzingen to attend Intech at machine manufacturer Trumpf. The focus of this year’s in-house exhibition was not purely on showcasing new machines. With the Trulaser Tube 7000, new laser solutions for hotforming applications, AI-supported copper welding for power electronics and manufacturing solutions for data centers, several high-performance technologies took center stage. Nevertheless, Trumpf is increasingly classifying the further development of sheet metal processing as a system issue. The decisive factor is no longer just how fast an individual machine cuts, punches, bends or welds, but how reliably it runs in a real production environment, how well it can react to changing requirements and how much software, data, sensor technology and service contribute to ensuring actual output.
This strategic framework was explained in detail at the press conference with Stephan Mayer, CEO of Trumpf Werkzeugmaschinen SE + Co. KG, and Hagen Zimer, CEO of Trumpf Laser Technology. As a result, industrial manufacturing is facing a phase in which competitiveness is no longer determined solely by machine performance, precision or purchase price, but by the interplay of availability, automation, AI-supported process reliability, service capability and data utilization. Mayer summarized the economic logic: “It doesn’t help to invest a lot of money in a system if it doesn’t deliver the performance that is needed overall.” In addition to a solid machine concept, fast problem solving, availability of spare parts and a quick service technician presence in an emergency ensure availability. In order to do justice to this aspect, Trumpf is supplementing the classic service components with digital and AI-based options: “We network our products and monitor the performance of the machines in the field. This allows us to recognize very early on whether problems are looming – but also whether an operator is using the system incorrectly or whether ageing effects are occurring so that components should be replaced before unplanned downtimes occur.”
Low costs per part are the be-all and end-all
Accordingly, the focus at Intech was not on individual machines in isolation, but on their role in production, which today must be more predictable, less dependent on personnel, quicker to retool and more robust in the face of disruptions. Mayer summed this up with the concept of cost per part. In his view, technology and AI provide additional capabilities to ensure availability and productivity at a level that was previously unimaginable. If implemented consistently, this would inevitably lead to the lowest cost per part. He emphasized that this effect is far more relevant from a business perspective over the lifetime of the system than a one-off price advantage at the time of purchase.
Service becomes a productivity factor
This change is particularly evident when it comes to service and condition monitoring. Tobias Spriegel, Head of the Governance portfolio, explains in an interview that the status of a machine is made up of a combination of many variables: “Vibration sensors and temperatures play a major role, as do electrical parameters and parameters relating to the optics.”
Even if AI is already helping to recognize patterns, highly experienced specialists are still needed to enable an accurate assessment of the machine’s condition from a distance. A simpler case was demonstrated in practice: a squeaking noise was heard when a laser cutting machine was moving. The system’s AI-supported self-diagnosis quickly identified a loose screw connection in the area of the cutting unit as the cause. With a torque wrench and the instructions from the app, every machine operator was able to solve the problem at the next opportunity. Such noises are not only acoustically annoying, they can also cause serious structural damage during prolonged operation.
Before defects take effect
This is exactly where condition monitoring comes in. The aim is not to wait for an operator to notice a noise or for damage to become apparent. Instead, the machine carries out targeted diagnostic runs during non-productive times – test movements to challenge certain parameters and vibration responses. This allows anomalies to be detected before problems occur.
Dr. Silvia Bellingkrodt, Head of Product Management at Sercides, assessed the economic benefits and costs of this early diagnosis: “If machine damage can be prevented with technician and spare parts costs, such a maintenance contract pays for itself very quickly.” She sees an even greater factor in preventing unplanned downtime. “If we notice at an early stage that the machine is behaving conspicuously – for our diagnostics – we inform the customer of the suspected problem and the options for remedying it. Without the evaluation of early indicators, downtimes sometimes only threaten days later, because after the malfunction, diagnostics, spare parts and technician deployment must first be organized. Instead of reacting, operators can be proactive.” According to Bellingkrodt, the effectiveness of pattern recognition in condition monitoring is the result of a combination of hard work, in-depth understanding of components and AI. This point is important to Bellingkrodt: “AI does not replace human machine understanding, but scales it up. The specialists’ experience is combined with large amounts of data. This enables a system to provide faster indications as to whether a particular noise, vibration pattern or deviation points to a known fault pattern.
When banal disruptions ruin the night shift
The topic of remote operation support is less about classic defects and more about minor malfunctions during operation, which can cause high productivity losses in unmanned or poorly staffed shifts. Spriegel reports that Trumpf has so far been able to resolve around 90 percent of the faults that caused a machine to stop during an unmanned night shift completely remotely. Only in about one of these ten cases did someone have to intervene on site. Bellingkrodt describes a typical scenario: the machine starts the night shift, after ten minutes a part tilts unfavorably – the machine consequently stops. As the night shift is often run with minimal staff, the machine sometimes stops until the morning shift arrives.
This is not the case with Remote Operation Support, where such a standstill is detected immediately and Trumpf specialists can either rectify the machine remotely or inform someone on site so that they can take the necessary measures.
Spriegel estimates that this can increase output during the night shift by 80 to 90 % – not because the machine cuts faster, but because it does not stand still for so long. This is a lever, especially for companies that calculate with third shifts or low staffing levels.
The answer to standstills
“Condition monitoring is relevant for a large number of customers,” says Bellingkrodt. “Remote operation is more for customers whose production is so busy that lost night shifts on a machine are problematic.”
Trumpf has also been increasingly offering customers performance checks since last year. The aim is to analyze the past months with customers for all machines for which data is available: What incidents have there been? Does the customer have their own observations? Do certain problems occur regularly?
“Many problems in production are not dealt with systematically because they are taken for granted in everyday life,” reports Bellingkrodt. “Users live with certain deviations, rework or malfunctions because they don’t have the time to analyze them in a structured way and find ways to eliminate them.”
AI-supported welding
Trumpf provided a concrete example of AI as a process instance with its new laser welding solution for power electronics in electric vehicles. Electrical copper cables are welded directly onto copper busbars, replacing conventional screw connections. The new laser solution creates a firmly fused connection with low electrical resistance. Conventional mechanical screw connections, on the other hand, are susceptible to vibrations and have higher electrical resistance, which can lead to energy losses and additional heat generation.
Lasers, sensors, AI and data work together
Woo-Sik Chung, responsible for the new laser welding solution at Trumpf, puts it like this: “The interaction between the laser, sensors, AI and data is crucial. Highly automated and stable processes for series production can only be achieved if all components are in perfect harmony.”
The solution has a multi-stage technical structure. First, an AI-supported image processing system recognizes the component and positions the laser beam with pixel precision. A 9 kW fiber laser then welds the copper strands.
During the process, an optical coherence tomography system monitors the welding depth in real time to prevent the component from welding through. After welding, another camera-based system checks the quality of the seam; AI is also used here. It is worth noting that just a few training images are enough to enable a reliable assessment of the seam quality.
All process steps take place in a single laser station, with component recognition and positioning taking place in milliseconds. Chung emphasizes: “The entire process remains well under 1 s and is therefore designed for highly productive series production. Our aim is to achieve seamless process control in real time without slowing down the production flow.”
This shifts the previously downstream quality control directly into the process. This is also relevant for other sheet metal and metalworking production processes in which high quantities, tight tolerances and documented quality must come together.
Tube processing: Flexibility becomes a machine requirement
The focus was also on laser tube processing. The new Trulaser Tube 7000 addresses productivity and flexibility in equal measure. It works with 9 kW laser power and can process thicker walls faster – especially with nitrogen as the cutting gas. With 8 mm thick mild steel, productivity is said to increase by up to 30% and the feed rate by up to 150%.
More important than the pure performance figure, however, is the breadth of the application spectrum. Product Manager Lucas Stix puts it this way: “In today’s laser tube processing, flexibility and productivity are paramount. On the one hand, users expect maximum speed and accuracy for components with small diameters. On the other hand, they want to be able to process very large diameters, sometimes with high wall thicknesses, with the same machine.”
The extended enveloping circle of 290 mm enables the processing of square tubes up to 203.2 × 203.2 mm, round tubes up to 273 mm diameter and rectangular tubes up to 254 mm side length. At the same time, small tubes from 12 mm in diameter can be processed quickly and precisely.
The system approach is also evident in this machine. The Scanline function has been expanded to include the Quality Pilot. If the raw material is misshapen or of poor quality, Scanline measures the tolerances and carries out compensations. Depending on the raw material quality of each individual pipe, the Quality Pilot decides whether and how often Scanline measurements are required. After processing, Observeline Comfort uses a weak laser pulse to check whether the slug has completely fallen out of the pipe.
Observeline Edge recognizes pre-punched tubes and profiles and automatically adapts the part program to existing contours.
Flexibility therefore not only means mechanically larger dimensions or higher laser power, but also arises from assistance systems that detect and compensate for material fluctuations, semi-finished product conditions and process deviations.
The Trulaser Tube 7000 enables extensive digital services. With the Loadmaster Tube for low-personnel operation, optional connection to a tube storage system as well as unloading solutions and software interfaces, the Trulaser Tube 7000 is expressly positioned as a building block of automated production.
Hotforming: cost reduction through process stability
Another Intech topic was the laser technology solution for cutting hotforming components in the automotive industry. Trumpf is addressing a very specific cost problem here: energy costs, expensive cutting gas and unplanned downtimes are driving up the price of hot-formed parts. Ralf Kohllöffel, responsible for product management of 3D systems at Trumpf, describes the solution accordingly: “With the combination of a new cutting nozzle, a new generation of fiber lasers and proven beam shaping technology, we enable efficient laser cutting of hot-formed parts that makes our customers more competitive.”
The new solution is designed to reduce part costs by up to 20% when cutting hot-formed components for safety-relevant car body structures. By using compressed air instead of nitrogen as the cutting gas, cutting gas costs can even be reduced by 75%. Until now, however, compressed air was considered less robust for such applications.
The technical key lies in a new cutting nozzle, among other things. Its design makes it possible to increase the nozzle-to-sheet distance to several millimeters. This significantly reduces the risk of collisions between the nozzle and the sheet.
According to Kohllöffel, the new nozzles were in use for more than three months in tests without having to be replaced; the typical service life of the standard X-Blast nozzles, which had already been improved in this respect, was just a few days.
This is complemented by Brightline Speed, a beam shaping technology that enables higher cutting speeds with lower laser power. Trumpf cites the example that users can cut faster with 3 kW laser power than competitors with 4 kW. The new generation of fiber lasers is also more energy-efficient and reduces the power consumption of the beam source.
Data centers: Sheet metal processing as an infrastructure technology for AI
Another key topic at Intech was the market for data centers. The global expansion of digital infrastructure offers considerable sales opportunities for sheet metal fabricators and laser technology companies. Large operators such as AWS, Google and Meta are planning to invest over 270 billion euros in new locations by 2030. Thousands of buildings filled with technology, cooling and high-precision infrastructure will be built around the world as a result.
This market is interesting for sheet metal processing for several reasons. Data centers require server racks and control cabinets, housings and components for cooling, airflow and liquid cooling, housings for power distribution and security technology as well as copper components for fast data transmission. Almost all of these components are made of thin sheet metal, must be manufactured precisely and produced in large quantities. Trumpf therefore describes the data center industry as a new industrial core segment for sheet metal processors.
However, CEO Mayer warned in the press conference against taking too one-sided a view of this growth area. The market is growing strongly, but could be slowed down again by unforeseen external factors. Users are therefore well advised to pay attention to flexible systems that can also serve other components, material thicknesses or sectors in the event of market changes.
In addition to sheet metal processing, laser technology plays a key role in fast data connections. Copper contacts and connectors have to cope with data rates of up to 200 Gbit/s. Trumpf has green lasers in its range for this purpose.
Playing with fire
A second important focus of the discussion at the press conference was machine safety. As a company, Trumpf has made machine safety a highly relevant factor in terms of industrial policy. Quite a few of the Asian manufacturers pushing into the European market are abusing the trust of customers and their lack of knowledge of European regulations on the safe operation of plant technology. Trumpf invests heavily in compliance with European standards: “On average, we spend around 10 to 20 % of our system costs on safety and ensuring compliance with CE standards.”
Those who ignore these requirements or only pretend to do so can offer systems at a correspondingly lower price. This is precisely where Trumpf sees a structural problem: suppliers who do not fully comply with security requirements enter the market with lower prices without having to fear serious consequences or effective prosecution.
Zimer added to this point from the perspective of laser technology and pointed out that safety architectures are not installed for formal reasons, but out of technical necessity. In the case of laser light, which is guided through production via fiber optic cables, several safety circuits are required. “We didn’t just install this for fun,” emphasized Zimer. If competitors from Asia offered comparable systems with fewer safety circuits, these solutions could not be considered equivalent. He derived a clear demand from this: “We are not afraid of competition. But we want an equivalent standard for what is important in these countries.” Safety standards, bureaucratic requirements and CE conformity are priced into European systems and therefore have a direct impact on price competitiveness.
Competition is also being distorted because Europe has not yet succeeded in protecting European-oriented, conscientious companies and employees in companies from providers who deliberately disregard their obligations. “The point is enforcement. We need to ensure that every product that crosses the border is checked and that everything that enters the European ecosystem must meet the standards,” he explains. Currently, however, only a tiny proportion is checked. This poses a considerable risk for smaller companies, not least because they often do not have the experts themselves to assess whether a manufacturer is just claiming that a machine complies with the regulations or whether this is actually the case. The operators have their heads in a noose: if an incident occurs and the non-compliance of the machine is uncovered by the authorities, in addition to financial and criminal consequences, a permanent shutdown of the plant can also be expected. Recourse against such suppliers is rarely successful. Mayer sums up the problem: “Our customers are used to European manufacturers telling them that when they buy a machine, it is safe. They assume that someone will enforce this safety. But that’s exactly what doesn’t happen on the part of the authorities.”
The topic of China and global competitiveness was openly discussed. Mayer and Zimer also criticized export controls, which were sometimes too sweeping, too slow or technically insufficiently differentiated. Mayer called for “more technical expertise among decision-makers”. Intech 2026 thus presented less individual innovations than a coherent development path.
For users in sheet metal processing, this is perhaps one of the most important messages to come out of Intech:
The next level of productivity is not just achieved through more laser power or higher axis acceleration. It comes from systems that know their condition better, from processes that monitor their own quality, from services that prevent faults before they cause downtime and from machine concepts that remain usable even in changing markets.
The factory of the next few years will not only become more automated. It will become more data-based, more adaptive and, in a certain sense, even more experienced – because knowledge about machines, processes and services will no longer just be in the heads of individual specialists, but will increasingly be available in the overall system.
Web:
www.trumpf.de