One Year Out: Save the Date for MPT Expo 2027
October 26–28, 2027—Huntington Place, Detroit—Mark your calendar now
The countdown is officially on, and this one comes with a milestone attached. In just one year, the gear and bearing industries return to Detroit for the Motion + Power Technology Expo (MPT Expo), and 2027 marks the show’s 40th anniversary. It started in 1986 as Gear Expo, back when exhibitors worked out of tabletop displays rather than full booths. Four decades later, it’s still the one event where gear and bearing manufacturers, suppliers, and the OEMs who depend on them show up in the same room, at the same time.
Why Save the Date
MPT Expo isn’t a generic manufacturing trade show, and it never set out to be one. It has stayed a niche event built around the core of this industry, the traditional mechanical power transmission sectors like mining, oil and gas, agriculture, and industrial manufacturing that have always relied on gears, bearings, and drivetrain technology. What’s changed is what else now shows up alongside them: robotics and automation, electric and hybrid vehicles, urban air mobility, and a growing presence from aerospace, space, and defense, all welcomed into the same show floor as the traditional base that built this event. It happens once every two years, which is part of what makes it feel less like a trade show and more like a homecoming. It’s where 2025’s Power Breakfasts sparked some of the most talked-about conversations of the year on supply chain, workforce, and the pressures facing gear and bearing manufacturers today, and where the next round of white papers, standards releases, and product debuts happen live, not in a press release.
It’s also, at its core, a chance to see the whole industry in one place, something that matters more as the show enters its fifth decade. The people designing humanoid robots and the people machining the gearboxes that drive them. The suppliers watching air mobility move from concept to certification and the manufacturers building the components that get it there. But the innovation on display isn’t only coming from the companies building the next humanoid robot or the next air mobility vehicle. It’s the suppliers behind them, the ones pushing forward on cutting tools, lubrication, heat treat techniques, and the dozens of other disciplines that make those end products possible, who have quietly been doing just as much of the hard work. MPT Expo is where that work finally gets seen.
Aerospace, space, and defense deserve their own mention here. As drone technology, next-generation propulsion, and space hardware place new demands on precision components, gear and bearing manufacturers are being asked to meet requirements once reserved for a narrow slice of the industry. MPT Expo is where those buyers and the suppliers who can meet those requirements find each other.
Attendees leave with something a webinar can’t give them: face time with the people actually shaping where this industry goes next. Save the date, block the travel, and plan to be in the room.
What to Expect on the Floor
Expect the same mix that made 2025 memorable, just bigger, and with four decades of history behind it. Panel discussions in the style of our Power Breakfasts, tackling the supply chain, workforce, and manufacturing challenges facing this industry head-on. A show floor where the machine tool companies that have anchored this industry for decades stand alongside the people designing the robots, vehicles, and aircraft that are newest to it. Sessions covering everything from established mechanical power transmission topics to robotics, air mobility, electric vehicles, and the fast-growing needs of aerospace, space, and defense, each grounded in a year of real research rather than headlines. And we will not forget the traditional craft needed for agriculture, automotive, mining, oil & gas, and industrial applications that have built our industry. And plenty of the unscripted, coffee-line conversations that tend to be where the most useful information actually changes hands.
