Amid the Great Depression, the American Society of Tool Engineers is founded by 33 tool engineers in Detroit on March 31, 1932. Joseph A. Siegel serves as the Society’s first president.

In 1936, the Society receives its first female member, Margaret Irene Cecil, who served as secretary of the first student chapter at the Detroit College of Applied Science.

ASTE holds its first tool show – the ASTE Machine Tool and Progressive Exhibition – at Convention Hall in Detroit in 1938.

“The Tool Engineers Handbook” is the first book published by the Society in 1948; by 1955, more than 65,000 copies of the book were sold. In 1976, it transitioned to the all-encompassing “Tool and Manufacturing Engineering Handbook.”

The SME International Honor Awards were established in 1954. On March 14, 1955, in Los Angeles, the awards were presented to the first set of honorees at the Society’s Annual Meeting. Then and now, these awards recognize individuals for their manufacturing career achievements in and service to the Society.

March 16-20, 1964, in Los Angeles, the first Western Metal and Tool Exposition and Conference is held. There were more than 25,000 attendees at the conference.

Effective September 4, 1969, the American Society of Tool and Manufacturing Engineers (1960-69) legally became known as the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

In January 1972, the SME Board of Directors approved in initiation of a new certification. At the time, over 1,500 manufacturing engineers were approved and certified as certified manufacturing engineers (CMfgE).

In January 1976, Manufacturing Engineering magazine made its official debut. The magazine was previously published under the following titles: “ASTE Journal” (1932-35), “The Tool Engineer” (1936-60), “The Tool and Manufacturing Engineer” (1961-69) and “Manufacturing Engineering and Management” (1970-75).

In April 1979, the SME Manufacturing Engineering Education Foundation was formed to act as a catalyst in providing financial and technical support to a broad range of educational institutions. It’s now known as the SME Education Foundation.

FABTECH International, a new conference and expo for the metal fabrication industry, makes its debut February 14, 1981, in Cleveland with 161 exhibitors. SME and the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association were FABTECH’s original co-sponsors.

The charter class of SME Fellows were inducted on May 19, 1986. The 97 new fellows are a distinguished group made up of all previous International Honor Award recipients.

In 1990, this three-day conference and trade show was designed to bring together all rapid prototyping vendors, suppliers, service bureaus and end-users under one roof to provide advanced product development solutions for groundbreaking technology. Event is now known as RAPID + TCT focusing on 3D printing, scanning and additive manufacturing.

SME acquires the Reed Exhibitions’ Industrial Group of Trade Shows on January 19, 2007, forming its Canadian office. Included in the transaction are the Montreal Plant Maintenance & Design Engineering Show, Western Manufacturing Technology Show, Canadian Manufacturing Technology Show, Advanced Manufacturing Expo, Montreal Manufacturing Technology Show, Southwestern Ontario Industrial Show and Canadian Manufacturing Week.

On October 14, 2010, SME attained Tooling University LLC. Following the acquisition, Tooling University became Tooling U-SME. It continues its operations in Cleveland.

On October 24, 2011, the Foundation established its Partnership Response In Manufacturing Education (PRIME) program. PRIME provides a comprehensive, community-based approach to manufacturing education with strong partnerships among organizations, businesses and exemplary schools.

On June 3, 2013, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers discontinued the use of its full, legal name and became known solely as SME. This organizational shift connects SME to an even wider group of people in manufacturing, as well as allows the continuation of addressing critical needs, such as the shortage of engineers, technologists and technicians already impacting most manufacturing industries today, and preparing the current and next-generation workforce for the advanced technologies of tomorrow.

On May 3, 2016, the first issue of SME’s Smart Manufacturing magazine was launched. The inaugural issue honored the leading thinkers, makers and doers in manufacturing who are helping to make the Fourth Industrial Revolution, often referred to as Industry 4.0, a reality.

SME and The Association For Manufacturing Technology announced their new major partnership on Sept. 13, 2016, to co-produce a series of regional, co-branded trade shows focused on the manufacturing technology industry. The collaboration encompassed the existing EASTEC, WESTEC, SOUTHTEC and HOUSTEX events.

SME and the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) partnered to bring together The Manufacturing Technology Series. Each of the four regional events are located in key manufacturing hubs across the United States. The goal is to strategically connect decision makers from diverse industries with leading suppliers of advanced manufacturing technology, equipment and tooling.

The SME Education Foundation received $6 million from the state of Michigan as part of the approved School Aid Fund Budget. The award will help double the number of schools participating in the unique manufacturer/educator partnership-driven SME PRIME initiative, which offers education and career-readiness opportunities to high school students.

SME and CESMII join forces to accelerate smart manufacturing adoption. The two key manufacturing nonprofits lead the drive to digital transformation and innovation. Together, CESMII and Tooling U-SME set a new benchmark for developing educational resources that remain current with rapidly changing technology and focus on democratizing access to training on smart manufacturing skills.