Smart Machines & Factories

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.

EEF, The Manufacturers’ Organisation has taken a historic step forward and announced its new name and identity – Make UK at its National Manufacturing Conference.

The Smart Way to Industry 4.0 with PROFINET Based Technologies

PI UK is proud to announce its role as an official supporter of The Smart Industry series of Conferences, a series of events launched, in the words of the organisers, to "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."

Some of the world’s biggest businesses — such as Siemens, Bosch Rexroth and Airbus — will gather at Manchester Metropolitan University next week to discuss and advance the digital revolution known as Industry 4.0.

Burnley born, Susan Scurlock, CEO and Founder of Primary Engineer and its wider programmes has been awarded an MBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours List for services to Education and Engineering across the UK. The honour is fitting recognition for Susan’s pioneering work that is helping reshape how young people are introduced to the skills needed for a career in engineering.

A new white paper from Siemens examines the investment required to support the UK chemical industry’s digital transformation towards a highly connected and data-rich operating environment.

Shell Lubricants’ latest manufacturing industry report exploring Industry 4.0, has revealed that UK manufacturers are engaged and optimistic about Industry 4.0 technologies with 96% of those surveyed anticipating that new high-tech equipment will deliver cost savings to their company. However, a lack of expertise combined with concerns about pace of change and costs are hindering the widespread uptake of connected, predictive and data-based technologies.

Sheffield City Region schools are taking part in nationally recognised Primary Engineer programmes supported by the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) to inspire the creative engineering talent of tomorrow.

The Coventry-based Manufacturing Technology Centre is developing a partnership with the North American space agency (NASA) as US space scientists look to use MTC-developed technology in future space missions.

Omron has opened a new Robotic Innovation Lab at the company’s UK headquarters in Milton Keynes. The lab, which represents an investment of £600,000 with a creation of five new jobs, is set to demonstrate how robots can be a boon to the UK manufacturing industry, as well as providing customers with a realistic overview of how robots can enhance their own individual applications.

The newly launched Smart Industry series of Conferences: 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.

The recent Smart Machines & Factories 4IR survey, supported by GAMBICA and EEF, and sponsored by Festo GB, highlighted that some manufacturers are already grasping 4IR opportunities, but others are still to take their first steps on their journey.

The 29th SPS IPC Drives event is set to highlight the importance of smart and digital automation. Some 1700 automation providers from all over the world are expected in Nuremberg on 27 - 29 November 2018.

An overwhelming majority of UK industrial product manufacturers want continued regulatory alignment with the EU, a new industry survey has revealed.

Manufacturers are continuing to boost investment in Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies with increasing evidence that many companies have moved beyond the initial ‘conception’ phase and into the ‘evolution’ phase where they are seeing real benefits from their investments according to a survey by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation.

Europe's biggest conference on maintenance & asset management returns to Antwerp, Belgium between September 24th - 27th.

Irish manufacturing solutions firm SmartFactory announced funding of €500,000 as part of the Enterprise Ireland High Potential Start-Up fund. The investment was announced at the recent Start-Up Showcase Event in Croke Park and will see SmartFactory expand its operations and double its workforce over the next three years. The company, established in 2016, is based in the Nexus Innovation Centre at the University of Limerick.

Rockwell Automation is joining industry leaders ABB, Belden, Bosch Rexroth, B&R, Cisco, Hilscher, KUKA, National Instruments, Parker Hannifin, Phoenix Contact, Pilz, Schneider Electric, TTTech, and WAGO (collectively known as Shapers) to create a communication solution for real-time and sensor-to-cloud applications in industrial operations. The solution will be based on the OPC UA protocol, which allows easy and secure sharing of information across different vendor technologies, and the time-sensitive networking (TSN) suite of standards, which helps improve latency and robustness in converged industrial networks.

Toshiba machine partner and robot distributor, TM Robotics, has released a white paper that examines the political challenges facing today’s manufacturing industry. Tackling issues such as the threat robots pose to jobs, robot taxation and investments in Industry 4.0, the company discusses the politics of automation from a robot manufacturers perspective.