IFPE is proof positive that our industry is flourishing
My big takeaway after 2-½ days on the IFPE show floor (plus a couple of hours on the CONEXPO-CON/AGG lots), was simply, WOW. The energy and vibe that lived in the South Hall last month was electric (pun intended, with all the talk about mobile electrification). Companies and individuals were thrilled to be together again, and it showed.
The show hit record numbers, drawing more than 139,000 construction and fluid power professionals from 133 countries to Las Vegas — making it the largest trade show in North America with roughly 2,400 exhibitors from 36 countries spread out over 3 million square-foot of exhibit space.
The number of folks that stopped me in the aisles to say hello, offer compliments on all the great work Fluid Power World is doing, or just to introduce themselves was amazing. I have never received so many hugs on a trade show floor before in my life — clearly, everyone was thrilled to be together again, and it showed. There has been talk off and on the past three years that maybe we didn’t need trade shows or in-person calls. IFPE squashed all those thoughts with the exuberance of a toddler on Christmas morning.
And clearly, fluid power manufacturers were busy over the past three years. Although they’ve spent a lot of time catching up on perhaps the busiest times in their businesses as they dealt with high orders and supply chain crunches, the innovations didn’t disappoint.
We’ve been covering all those product innovations here in our Fluid Power network of websites — mobilehydraulictips.com, fluidpowerworld.com, hoseassemblytips.com, sealingandcontaminationtips.com, and pneumatictips.com (where relevant). Stay tuned for our post-show wrap-up videos as well, where we’ll talk about some of the coolest tech we each saw — note, you’ll see a lot of discussion about sustainability, efficiency, electrification, digitalization, and autonomy and automation.
Watch out next month, too as we compile all these stories and new product releases into a special digital-only post-IFPE issue. Here, you’ll see additional reviews of systems and technologies that create functionally safe, efficient, and reliable machines that can be powered by diesel engines, electric-hybrid, and all-electric designs. In this issue, Ken Korane takes a look at some of the machines he saw out on the CONEXPO lots (page 44), and he’ll dive further into additional machinery in May.
If time allowed, we would have visited every hydraulics manufacturer on that show floor. But one thing I noticed when I cruised by booths is that they were always busy — and while it’s great to catch up with our friends in the industry, meeting their current and potential clients is more important than ever. So please do reach out if we missed you and you have new technology to share. We’ll continue to work on post-IFPE updates for the next several weeks.
The next CONEXPO-CON/AGG & IFPE will be held March 3-7, 2026, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. We’ll see you there. In the meantime, keep reading!
Mary C. Gannon • Editor-in -Chief
mgannon@wtwhmedia.com
On Twitter @FPW_marygannon
Filed Under: Digital Issues