A fastener machinery trade show will return as an independent event in 2019.

International Fastener Manufacturing Exposition will be May 14-16, 2019, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.  

The International Fastener Machinery & Suppliers Association announced the re-branded trade show focusing on fasteners and precision formed parts. It will be in conjunction with the Wire Association International’s biennial InterWire.

Since 2012, IFMSA has been working with the National Industrial Fastener & Mill Supply Expo in Las Vegas. Now using the IFE name, the autumn 2018 Las Vegas trade show is adding a Machinery & Tooling preview day.

In addition to Las Vegas, two other events known more as distribution trade shows have attempted some level of machinery sections: Fastener Tech and FastenerFair USA.

IFME will invite fastener manufacturers, including automotive, aviation / aerospace, military, appliance, communications, energy, marine, furnishings, medical, construction, electronics, MRO and heavy equipment.

IFME noted the “unparalleled manufacturing renaissance and resurgence taking place across the United States,” which is creating an increased demand for domestic fasteners and precision formed parts. “As such, there is a demonstrated need for a dedicated event for key suppliers of machinery, materials, tooling, controls, systems and supplies to display and demonstrate their products, equipment and services to an active, buying audience of manufacturers.”

“Although IFME is a new launch, we have been organizing successful exhibitions concentrating on the machinery aspect of the fastener industry for over 35 years,” IFMSA executive director Ray Zirkle noted. “The name of this new event reflects our focus on and dedication to providing the machinery manufacturers a much higher profile than may be available elsewhere.”

Zirkle said the co-location with InterWire in Atlanta is based on previous successful co-locations and “the synergy between the fastener an wire industries.”

Reed Machinery president Jim Flanagan described the reunion of IFME with InterWire in Atlanta “an exciting development. The show will provide a needed and focused event for meeting with U.S. manufacturers of fasteners and precision formed parts.”

The first IFE was held in 1983 in Atlanta. Successor shows have been held in Cleveland, Chicago, Atlanta and Las Vegas.


IFE & Machinery Show History
The first U.S. fastener machinery trade show was developed beginning in 1982 through a partnership of Billingslea & Zirkle, Danbury, CT, and UK-based Mack-Brooks Exhibitions.

The first International Fastener Exposition was held in November 1983 at the Marriott Hotel in Atlanta simultaneously with InterWire. The 1985 IFE moved to the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, where it was also held in 1989, 1991 and 1993.

Mack-Brooks and Billingslea & Zirkle – a business partnership of Lewis Billingslea and Raymond Zirkle – obtained a trademark on the IFE name in 1987.

IFE was sold to the Professional Exposition Management Company Inc. in 1988 and subsequently it was sold to Reed Exhibition Companies.

In 1995, 1997 and 1999, IFE was held at the Rosemont Convention Center near Chicago. In 2001 – then known as the Industrial Fastener & Forming International – was held at the Cleveland Convention Center and IFFE was back at Rosemont in 2003 and 2005.

In 2005 Billingslea & Zirkle purchased the International Fastener Exhibition name and logo from Reed Exhibition.

In 2007 and 2009 IFE was held at the IX Center in Cleveland.

In 2011, Zirkle signed a five-year contract with the National Industrial Fastener & Mill Supply Expo and the IFE named was shelved for 2012 through 2016 when the machinery trade show was held as part of NIFMSE in Las Vegas.

In 2015 NIFMSE was sold to Emerald Exposition. In 2017 Emerald changed the NIFMSE name to International Fastener Exposition and continues a machinery section to the primarily fastener distribution show.

In 2019, there will be a machinery show separate from IFE using International Fastener Machinery Exposition as its name.

Over the years Fastener Tech and Fastener Fair USA (now owned by Mack-Brooks) also have marketed machinery sections.