ABB has launched a new mid-sized series of its Azipod ship propulsion pods aimed primarily at ferry operators. The announcement comes as a new study by the Finnish marine consultancy Deltamarin found that Azipods could save ferry operators up to $1.7m in annual fuel costs per vessel, as well as cutting their CO₂ emissions by about 10,000 tonnes per year – equivalent to taking about 2,200 passenger cars off the road.

A multi-national group of researchers has developed a system for testing wireless industrial communications. They were aiming  to overcome the lack of standardised methods and test systems for measuring the reliability and performance of such systems. The three-year project, called ReICOvAir (Reliable Industrial Communication Over the Air), developed both software- and a hardware-based test beds for evaluating the reliability, latency and throughput of wireless communications systems.

Siemens Digital Industries has joined forces with the analytics specialist Atos and the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Hartree Centre, to launch a “ground-breaking” Industrial Digitalisation Accelerator (IDA) programme that will offer UK businesses of all sizes a practical, collaborative space in which to explore Industry 4.0 technologies. They claim it is the first time that experts in the fields of IoT, analytics and computing have come together in this way to help industry to discover new pathways to growth.

A group of German organisations have shown that using beams of light to locate and guide autonomous vehicles, such as AGVs, is a practical, flexible and reliable technique. In a three-year collaborative research project, backed by the German Federal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF), the researchers demonstrated that ceiling-mounted LED lights can be used to guide driverless transport vehicles reliably through production or storage areas.

The Welsh drives-maker, Control Techniques, now part of the Japanese Nidec group, has announced a new generation of low-power servodrives and motors. The 200V Digitax SF drives, spanning ratings from 50–750W, will be positioned alongside CT’s flagship Digitax HD servo platform.

The UK government is funding a £3m extension to the Remote Applications in Challenging Environments (Race) research facility at the Culham Science Centre, near Oxford. The extension will allow Race to expand its workforce by more than 50%, to around 250, and increase its collaboration with academic and industry partners on the latest robotics equipment and testing facilities.

ABB is setting up a research centre in Texas where it will develop collaborative robot (cobot) technologies for non-surgical roles in laboratories and hospitals. Currently, the number of patients that can be treated using high-tech treatments, such as cancer therapies, is limited by the need for skilled medical experts who spend much of their day doing repetitive, low-value tasks, such as preparing slides and loading centrifuges. Using robots to automate these tasks would allow them to focus on more skilled and productive work, and could help more people to receive treatment by speeding up the testing processes dramatically.

The market for collaborative robot (or cobot) arms will become increasingly mainstream over the next 10 years, with annual sales soaring from $711m in 2019 to reach $11.8bn by 2030, according to a new analysis by ABI Research. If revenues from related products such as end-of-arm tooling accessories and software are included, the cobot ecosystem will mushroom from just over $1bn in 2019, to $24bn by 2030 – a CAGR of 28.6%.

ABB has named Björn Rosengren as its new chief executive officer, succeeding Peter Voser, who stepped into the role on an interim basis when former CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer resigned suddenly in April 2019. Rosengren, who is currently CEO of the global engineering group Sandvik, will join ABB on February 1, 2020, and will succeed Voser on March 1, 2020. Voser will then revert to his position at ABB solely as chairman of ABB’s board.

Festo has developed what it claims is the world’s shortest pneumatic slide. The DGST slide has a twin-piston design and comes in diameters from 6–25mm and stroke lengths from 10–200mm. The slide houses an integrated guide and end-plate made from a single part, thus eliminating torsion and misalignment issues and providing precise movements. Impact shocks at the end-of-stroke are reduced by integral cushioning, while in-built stroke adjustment eliminates the need for additional parts.

Rockwell Automation has upgraded its MagneMover Lite production transport system, allowing it to move heavier products and support larger-scale applications. The system, which uses independent carts to move items along production lines, can now carry loads of up to 10kg ­­– five times more than before – and supports larger applications.

Fairford Electronics, the long-established British developer and manufacturer of soft-starters for electric motors, has adopted the name of the American company which bought it just over a year ago. It will now be known as Motortronics UK and will supply a much wider range of motor control products and systems.

The private equity investor, Equistone Partners Europe, is buying a majority stake in Bulgin, the Cambridge-based manufacturer of rugged electrical components, from its current owner, Elektron Technology, in a deal that values the company at £105m. Bulgin will continue to be led by John Wilson, who will move from the role of executive chairman to CEO, and the company will keep its existing management team, who will acquire a minority shareholding. Peter Williamson will join as non-executive chairman.

The London-headquartered connection and protection systems group nVent Electric is buying the Spanish enclosures manufacturer Eldon, adding it to a portfolio that already includes the Hoffman, Schroff, Raychem, Caddy, Tracer and Erico brands. nVent is paying around $130m in cash for the privately-owned business, including repayment of Eldon’s debt.

Omron claims to have set a new world record for the sensing distances possible when using full metal proximity sensors. It says that its new E2EW series sensors achieve sensing ranges about twice as long as previous sensors when sensing steel objects, and six times as long when detecting aluminium components.

The International Society of Automation (ISA) has created an alliance to promote cyber-security readiness and awareness in manufacturing, as well as in critical infrastructure facilities and processes. The founding members of the Global Cybersecurity Alliance (GCA) include Schneider Electric, Rockwell Automation, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Claroty, and Nozomi Networks.

Sales of industrial automation products in the UK grew by 7.3% last year – the third consecutive year of growth – according to the latest statistics issued by Gambica, the trade association that covers the sector. However, despite being boosted by including servodrives for the first time, growth in the sector was slower than the 12.3% it achieved in 2017.

An inescapable theme at this year’s Hannover Fair was the emergence of 5G as potential game-changer for industrial communications. The high-speed, low-latency technology could oust traditional signal wiring in many applications – although widespread adoption still seems several years away.

Omron has announced a family of 164 new safety light curtains, with the claim that they form the industry's broadest portfolio. The F3SG-SR/PG curtains provide finger (10mm beam gap), hand (20mm), leg (40mm), and body protection (80mm), and cover protective heights from 160–2,480mm. They are IO-Link compatible, and can thus be linked into IoT systems on factory floors.

At the 2019 Hannover Fair, Schaeffler presented a series of ironless linear motors designed to reduce the mass of the primary part without compromising drive forces. The UPLplus motors are aimed, in particular, at applications where the maximum acceleration of linear drives has previously been limited by the relatively large proportion of the rotor mass to the total moving mass.