Smart Machines & Factories

igus has announced the official opening of its automated assembly line for readycable at its UK facility in Northampton. Representing a significant investment for company, the new line uses fully-automated machines and lean manufacturing methods to streamline its manufacturing process to deliver fully-harnessed drive cables shipped within 24 hours of order placement.

New robust, industrial Ethernet physical layer (PHY) products to help manufacturers address key Industry 4.0 and smart factory communication challenges surrounding data integration, synchronisation, edge connectivity, and system interoperability, have been launched by Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI).

Atlas Copco has marked its century of operations in the UK with a look forward at how industrial technology might evolve over the next 100 years.

UK manufacturers must tip the balance in favour of automation in 2020 to avoid falling behind international competition, according to FANUC UK’s managing director Tom Bouchier.

Cyber security and wireless experts from academia and industry will join forces to tackle the growing threat posed to wireless networks by cyber-attacks, thanks to a £6.1 million funding boost from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and industry.

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago comprising two main islands and 778 smaller islands covering an area of 12,000 sq km (almost half the size of Wales) with a population of just over 3.5 thousand. Here, a radio station covers local news and the territory's only newspaper is Penguin News. The islands are self-governing: Susannah Nightingale, Communications Regulator is appointed by the Governor of the Falkland Islands. There are two schools in Stanley, the capital, the Infant and Junior School and Camp Education (IJS&CE) teaches ages 4 to 11 and the Falkland Islands Community School caters for ages 11 to 16.

University of Birmingham Professor of Robotics, Rustam Stolkin, has been elected as Chair of a new international Expert Group on Robotic and Remote Systems (EGRSS) - part of the OECD’s global Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), which brings together the governments of 33 member nations.

The UK has the potential to lead the world in the application of artificial intelligence for manufacturing, according to an AI lead at Coventry's Manufacturing Technology Centre.

Condition-based monitoring (CbM) is the Industry 4.0 equivalent of wearable fitness devices. With the explosion of connectivity comes the opportunity to observe the physical world like never before and to see physical processes in action, in real time, in fine detail. In industrial systems, one of the processes important for us to understand is the process of the aging of equipment and machines. This is important in diverse markets from oil and gas, wind power generation, and industrial process control, where capital equipment costs are high, and downtime is costly. Stuart Servis*, senior applications engineer, reports.

University of Birmingham Professor of Robotics, Rustam Stolkin, has been elected as Chair of a new international Expert Group on Robotic and Remote Systems (EGRSS) - part of the OECD’s global Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), which brings together the governments of 33 member nations.

By Bob Squirrel :Modularization and interoperability are playing an ever-increasing role in modern systems and are the core requirements for Industry 4.0. PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) spoke out at an early stage for OPC UA as an open, cross-vendor standard for machine-to-machine communication. However, to round out the technology, a standard for fail-safe communication had been lacking at this level. This problem has been resolved by the specification “OPC Unified Architecture, Part 15: Safety,” a joint development of the OPC Foundation and PI. The technical work has now been completed.

Free-to-attend training opportunity – April 28, Birmingham. Presented by PROFIBUS and PROFINET International at the National Motorcycle Museum, this event will address 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).

For many years Turck Banner has used smart solutions using “middleware” to interface directly to customer’s databases and ERP / MES systems. Smart Machines & Factories reports.

Global integrated mechanical and electrical services company EnerMech has announced the appointment of industry heavyweight Christian Brown as its new chief executive officer.

One of the world’s fastest digital manufacturer of custom prototypes and low-volume production parts has released investment on a £5million expansion plan at its European Headquarters in Telford.

The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) will be taking on more than 200 apprentices for its 2020 intake.

Siemens has signed an agreement to acquire Atlas 3D, Inc., a Plymouth, Indiana-based developer of software that works with direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) printers to automatically provide design engineers with the optimal print orientation and requisite support structures for additive parts in near real-time.

A new study from the Capgemini Research Institute has found that smart factories could add at least $1.5 trillion to the global economy through productivity gains, improvements in quality and market share, along with customer services. However, two-thirds of this overall value is still to be realised: efficiency by design and operational excellence through closed- loop operations will make equal contributions. According to the new research, China, Germany and Japan are the top three countries in smart factory adoption, closely followed by South Korea, United States and France.

A new generation of swarming robots which can independently learn and evolve new behaviours in the wild is one step closer, thanks to research from the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England (UWE).

Leading experts from across UK industry were lined-up as speakers for the conference: Demystifying the jargon: How to make the digitalisation transition, (https://www.smartconferences.org.uk) which took place on 20th November 2019 at the MTC in Coventry. Smart Machines & Factories reports.

EPMA, through the collaboration of the EuroAM Sectoral Group, has launched the 3rd Edition of the well-received Introduction to Additive Manufacturing Technology booklet. The recently launched edition at the Euro PM2019 Congress & Exhibition in Maastricht, The Netherlands, looks to build on the previous versions by further expanding the depth and range of case studies from several industries, as well as, providing an update of the AM technical processes and new ‘Non-Destructive Testing’ aspects, from the two previous editions. Since its original launch in 2013 all editions have been widely distributed and downloaded from EPMA.com, as well as, distributed at many industry related events throughout Europe and more recently cited as reference text for academics, during the last 6 years of the brochure being in circulation.

Construction workers could soon benefit from voice-activated technology that beams real-time audio instructions in their earpiece, and augmented reality (AR) graphics onto their helmet visor, thanks to technology being developed at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). Using artificial intelligence (AI), the system will voice and display information, thereby removing the need for walkie-talkies or consulting hard copies of blueprints.

As of 2019, SPS IPC Drives has a new name: SPS – Smart Production Solutions. While the title of the exhibition may have changed since its inception thirty years ago, the concept and areas of focus will stay the same and continue into the future.

This year's TCT Show was a platform for helping to drive to increase awareness and adoption of additive manufacturing and 3D printing technology, with more than 250 exhibitors showcasing a myriad of innovative applications.

Government, Industry and the Trade Unions have come together in an unprecedented way to launch a new set of Guiding Principles for Digitalisation to help companies and the workforce make the most of the increasing drive towards a new digital era for manufacturing.