Smart Machines & Factories

Analog Devices has opened the doors of its new headquarters office in Hayes, London. The global manufacturer of semiconductor-based technology solutions and systems says that the location will strengthen its ability to connect customers with the best engineering talent in the UK and overseas.

The Board of ABB has unanimously appointed Björn Rosengren, as Chief Executive Officer. He will join ABB on February 1, 2020 and succeed CEO, Peter Voser, in this role on March 1, 2020. At that time Peter Voser will revert to his position at ABB solely as Chairman of the Board.

A fifteen-year mission to bring engineering into primary classrooms has taken its most ambitious step yet as Primary Engineer officially launched The Institution of Primary Engineers and The Institution of Secondary Engineers at the House of Lords last month.

The Coventry-based Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) has been appointed a lead auditor by the British Automation and Robot Association (BARA) - the trade body which aims to promote the use of robotics in British Industry.

This year, DIRA Business (November 14 2019) is set to be even bigger and has been expanded with a conference with presentations from end-users from specific industries, who will among other things, share their experiences regarding automation and, not least, outline the opportunities available to automate a production process.

Presented by PROFIBUS and PROFINET International and hosted by Endress+Hauser, this event addressed the key practical issues arising from the use of digital communications technologies in automated manufacturing and process industry applications, with particular attention to Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

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Anyone who has driven in a storm can attest to the importance of windshield wipers. This essential invention was created by Mary Anderson and became a fixture in most vehicles by 1916. While windscreen wipers, computer software, space station batteries and the circular saw can all be credited to female engineers, females in the engineering workforce are still few and far between.

Agile methods are required to implement flexibility, variant management or even batch size 1 in the Smart Factory. According to Steve Farrow, managing director of Pilz UK, this brings major challenges with it in practice, for example in terms of safety.

The UK’s first live 5G factory trials are beginning at the Worcestershire 5G Testbed, in a landmark step towards the creation of smart factories in Britain. The trials mark the first time that British industry has deployed this next generation technology and it is set to completely transform the way the sector operates.

PI UK's free-to-attend seminar to be held on June 26th at Endress+Hauser Ltd, Floats Road, Manchester M23 9NF will address the key practical issues arising from the use of digital communications technologies in automated manufacturing and process industry applications, with particular attention being paid to Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Artificial intelligence in industry and robotics, the potential of the new 5G mobile communications standard for industrial applications, lightweight design, and the future of work in a time of increasing digitalisation were this year's most important topics at the world’s leading tradeshow for industrial technology, Hannover Messe.

Leading industry experts from across the Food & Beverage industry have been lined-up as speakers for the forthcoming dedicated digitalisation conference for the Food & Beverage industry: Demystifying the jargon: How to make the digitalisation transition, which takes place on 22nd May 2019 at the National Conference Centre, Birmingham.

A third of UK manufacturers expect some low skilled jobs to be lost over the next five years as a result of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital technologies. But over half of companies (54%) say they will up-skill these lower skilled workers to take the jobs that this innovation creates.

The Coventry-based Manufacturing Technology Centre has hosted a visit by top level officials from the US state of Michigan, keen to learn about the MTC's world-leading capabilities in advanced manufacturing.

New for 2019, Phoenix Contact has created a series of educational workshops to demonstrate how it can help machine builders create and maintain their competitive edge. It will showcase four machine building topics:

"This seminar is the latest in a series of events designed to help engineers, technicians and engineering management understand how to improve system reliability, productivity and security by the correct implementation of PROFINET and associated technologies such as PROFIBUS and IO-Link.

The Combustion Engineering Association is hosting a new series of conferences for 2019. Delegates at the previous conferences wanted to know more about some of the topics which is why the CEA has launched this new programme.

The head of Britain’s manufacturers has warned the Government that leaving the EU with no deal would be catastrophic for the sector and that the prospect of applying zero tariffs on imported goods as a consequence would kill off some sectors of industry overnight.

Due to numerous requests for an extension to the entry deadline, it has been decided to put back the MCIA nomination deadline until Monday 1st April.

Rockwell Automation has won the “Overall IoT Company the Year” award in the global 2019 IoT Breakthrough Awards programme.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester has called on all schools and community groups to get involved in this year’s “If you were an engineer, what would you do?” competition. Last year the competition attracted over 37,000 entries nationally, and over 2400 were from Greater Manchester.

The newly launched Smart Industry series of: Demystifying the jargon: How to make the digitalisation transition will address and unravel the vast array of conflicting information around 4IR, discussing the practicalities, technologies and issues surrounding transition and implementation of digitalisation in manufacturing across key market sectors in clear and concise language.

There is a time when a successful cooperation between humans and robots has decisive importance: it is in the precise moment that one "actor" is required to hand an object to another "actor" and, therefore, to coordinate their actions accordingly. But how can we make this interaction more natural for robots?

Employee orientation pays off: Lenze was honoured with the "Top Employer Germany 2019" award and the "Top Employer Engineers Germany 2019" award by the independent Top Employers Institute for the 14th time.