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.