Bodine Electric Company exhibited at the Automate trade show in Chicago at McCormick Place on Monday, June 22, through Thursday, June 25. Automate, North America’s largest robotics and automation event, celebrated its most successful show to date. The 2026 show marked the 10th Automate event and featured 1,230 exhibitors drawing more than 50,000 registrants.

Our booth was in the North Hall of McCormick Place, and was manned by Terry Auchstetter, Julian Avila, Ryan Powers, Sarah Prais, and Amy Horwitz. It was a great experience talking with our customers, suppliers, media partners, students, distributors, and business consultants during the four days.

The theme of our booth was “Put an encoder on it!” Because encoder feedback is so important to the automation industry, we wanted to make sure our customers were aware that Bodine Electric has over 300 stock motors on which an encoder can be easily installed in the field – with many of those motors available immediately from stock. Our display included five of those motors. An AC inverter-duty gearmotor was shown with a Dart Controls encoder on it. A brush DC gearmotor was shown with a Quantum Devices Inc. encoder on it. And a brushless DC gearmotor was shown with an Encoder Products Company encoder on it. And because holding brakes are important to the automation industry too, we showed a gearmotor with a Stearns (Regal Rexnord) brake on it.