Radwell International, the US-headquartered specialist in surplus and remanufactured industrial control systems, has bought the Blackburn-based automation repairs firm, Northern Industrial, for an undisclosed sum.
The UK Government is planning to raise Meps (minimum energy performance standards) and to strengthen energy labelling requirements for energy-using products, to help cut energy demand. This was revealed in the more than 2,000 pages of documents that accompanied the recent launch of its Powering Up Britain plan for the future of energy security in the UK.
The Welsh drives-maker Invertek has started work on a 2,771m2 extension to its manufacturing and distribution facility in Welshpool, Powys. The extension to the existing 5,500m2 facility is part of a £10m investment that also includes a new Application and Training Centre.
The final seminar programme for the Talking Industry Live event taking place at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry on April 25, has now been released. The free one-day event organised in partnership with the MTC, will provide an environment for delegates to learn about cutting-edge technologies and best practice through panel discussions, presentations, live demonstrations and workshops.
More details have been released about Manufacturing & Engineering Week 2023 – the week-long festival of live and digital events taking place at the Birmingham NEC in June, including a two-day exhibition on 7–8 June that will be the new home of the Drives & Controls Show.
Output and orders have both rebounded for UK manufacturers during the first quarter of 2023 as domestic and global markets have improved, easing fears of a significant recession for the sector this year, according to a survey published by the manufacturers’ association Make UK and the accountancy and business advisory firm BDO.
Schneider Electric has appointed Mark Yeeles– currently vice-president of its Industrial Automation business in the UK and Ireland – to be the new vice-president of its Secure Power division in the UK&I, succeeding Marc Garner, who is now leading the Secure Power Division in Europe. A new VP for Industrial Automation in the UK and Ireland has not yet been announced.
The British prime minister Rishi Sunak has announced plans, backed by more than £370m of new government funding, to boost infrastructure, investment and skills in technologies ranging from quantum and supercomputing to AI (artificial intelligence). The aim is to ensure the UK’s place as a global science and technology superpower by 2030.
A new digital platform aimed at connecting the UK’s PEMD (power electronics, machines and drives) community and closing the skills gap in the sector will be launched later this month at a conference in Birmingham.
The Made Smarter digital adoption scheme has launched a fast-track leadership programme to help SME manufacturers to accelerate their digital transformation. In three months, the programme – called Leading Digital Transformation – aims to turn participants into digitally-informed leaders with bespoke digitalisation strategies.
The Welsh drives-maker Invertek is planning to invest £6.3m in a new innovation centre at its global headquarters in Welshpool, Powys.
The UK compressed air and fluid power specialist Thorite has launched a campaign to raise awareness about unseen energy inefficiencies in compressed air systems that can lead to high costs. The Behind Closed Doors campaign urges users to monitor what is happening in their compressor houses, where leaks that go unnoticed or are ignored can inflate energy bills.
The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) has appointed the former chair of Ford of Britain, Dr Graham Hoare, to succeed Dr Clive Hickman as its CEO, when he retires as chairman on 31 March. From April, Hickman will become chair of the MTC board.
The keynote address at the inaugural Talking Industry Live event taking place in April will be presented jointly by Dr Megan Ronayne, head of industrial technologies and manufacturing at Innovate UK KTN, and Mike Hague-Morgan, executive director of Autocraft Solutions Group. Together they will explore how Autocraft – a leading OEM for the manufacture, remanufacture and assembly of internal combustion engines and electric vehicle batteries – transitioned from being a traditional manufacturer using hand tools and paper-based systems, to a high-technology company with world-class quality, repeatability and digital traceability.
A next-generation smart workbench designed to showcase and experiment with the latest production technologies has been installed at the AMRC Cymru centre, near Chester, UK. The workbench, which has been developed by the machine vision and industrial automation specialist Industrial Vision Systems (IVS) in collaboration with the centre, combines technologies including 3D and 2D machine vision, a seven-axis cobot, a mixed reality headset, smart tools, intelligent projection, pick-to-light and automation – all in a single cell.