Microsoft has announced the launch of a cloud platform dedicated to the manufacturing sector. The computing giant says that manufacturers have been moving towards data-driven automation, IoT, machine learning and AI for years and that 2020 showed how critical those capabilities are as factory floors ground to a halt and even the most sophisticated just-in-time supply chains were impacted.

ABB has extended its portfolio of collaborative robots (cobots) with two new easy-to-program six-axis models which, it claims, set new benchmarks and are up to five times faster than others in their class. They are:

The Swedish industrial communications specialist HMS Networks has announced what it claims is the first commercially available industrial 5G wireless router optimised for private industrial networks. The router supports Ericsson Industry Connect 5G networks and allows users to get started with 5G. HMS is also offering a starter kit for testing and evaluating 5G in industrial settings.

SKF has announced three handheld tachometers designed to monitor rotational and linear speeds of machinery, and to help maintenance staff spot any emerging mechanical problems. Data gathered by the three devices can give insights into machine and component health, helping to cut maintenance costs and boost efficiency.

The US-based mechanical power transmission supplier Rexnord is merging its process and motion control (PMC) business with that of its larger rival Regal Beloit to create a new business that will adopt the Rexnord name and is expected to generate sales worth $4.5bn in 2022. The deal will take the form of a tax-free transaction known as a Reverse Morris Trust, in which Rexnord will spin off the PMC business and merge it simultaneously with Regal Beloit. It will make the PMC business worth around $3.69bn. 

Schneider Electric has formed a strategic relationship with Wood, the global automation systems supplier, to help deliver its vision of “universal automation”, based on open standards. The partners will offer their clients next-generation, open automation and control technologies, promising them step-change improvements to their existing operations, and simplifying future upgrades.

Fanuc has announced its most powerful Scara robot to date – a small, lightweight system that can carry loads of up to 20kg, which is 8kg more than the company's next most powerful machine. The SR-20iA robot is predicted to open up new possibilities in assembly, handling, picking and packaging applications.

A consortium of organisations including Mitsubishi Electric, Ericsson and Hirschmann, is developing an end-to-end real-time industrial communications infrastructure based on 5G mobile technology and TSN (Time Sensitive Networking). The partners in the German-based 5G-Comet project want to combine TSN, which was originally developed for wired networks, with wireless 5G technology in a real-time system which provides reliable, secure communications from field-level sensors and actuators, via 5G and Ethernet connections, to an edge cloud.

Yokogawa Test & Measurement has added a new instrument to its ScopeCorder family of portable multi-channel data-acquisition recorders, which is faster and has more channels and data acquisition functions than earlier versions. The DL950 ScopeCorder provides detailed views of an application’s electrical and mechanical behaviour. Its uses include testing inverters, motors, robots, sensors and serial buses.

Pepperl+Fuchs has announced an ultrasonic safety sensor which, it claims, is the first in the world to be certified in accordance with EN ISO 13849, Cat 3, PL d. P+F has acquired the technology from the German Mayser group, which specialises in safety technology, moulded parts and headwear.

UK engineers have used robots to cut the time it takes to place powerful magnets in electrical generators from one hour to just 55 seconds. The development work was done by automation experts at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) as part of a project called Robomag.

The Coventry-based Manufacturing Technology Centre is to trial a private 5G network aimed at helping manufacturers to boost their productivity. The network will be installed at the MTC's Ansty Park site and will allow manufacturers of all sizes to explore the potential benefits of multi-edge computing and wireless connections for digital manufacturing and robotics. A live 5G-connected robotics demonstrator is planned for later this year.

More than a third of UK manufacturers have seen sales and orders drop since the start of the latest lockdown, according to a new survey by the manufacturers’ association, Make UK. A similar proportion (36.7%) think it will take between 6–12 months for normal trading to return, while 28.9% believe it will take a year or longer. A quarter of the 186 companies surveyed (25.4%) report that they are currently operating at full capacity, while half expect to have recovered to that position by the start of 2022.

The Japanese electric motor and drives manufacturer Nidec is buying Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ machine tools business for a reported 30 billion yen ($285m). The business, which manufactures machine tools, cutting tools and related products, is the Japanese market-leader in gear cutting and grinding machinery, with about 60% of the market, and has manufacturing operations in in China, the US and India, as well as in Japan.

Siemens’ UK drives factory in Congleton, Cheshire, has started to produce a new distributed drive system targeting the global conveyor market. The G115D inverter, announced late last year, is being produced in wall- and motor-mounting versions which users can specify via an online configurator, along with matching motors and gearboxes, to tailor the drives for their applications.

The German engineering plastics specialist igus has developed a lightweight, low-cost gearbox with an integrated motor and controls which, it says, could cut the cost of collaborative and service robots. The modular gearbox kit consists of a tribo-polymer strainwave gear, combined with a brushless, external-rotor DC motor and controller, force control electronics, and an absolute encoder.

The Japanese automation supplier Omron claims to have taken human-machine collaboration to a new level with a “breakthrough” intelligent cell production line that integrates sensing, vision and robotics, and is designed to enhance the performance of both humans and robots as they learn from each other. Aimed, in particular, at high-mix, low-volume (HMLV) operations, the technology is said to accelerate employee training and knowledge transfer, eliminate defects in production, and enhance workflow efficiencies.

ABB Robotics has launched a condition-based maintenance (CBM) service that allows robot-users to create preventive maintenance schedules for individual robots, or fleets of them, to optimise productivity and minimise downtime.

The British encoder manufacturer Renishaw has launched a series of enclosed, absolute linear encoders for use in harsh environments such as machine tools. It claims that the Fortis encoders deliver high repeatability, low hysteresis and good measurement performance using a non-contact design that does not need a guide carriage.

SEW-Eurodrive has launched a condition-monitoring service for industrial gearboxes that records and evaluates operating data from the boxes and allows users to plan their maintenance and repair activities to avoid potential problems.

ABB has launched an free programming tool for its IRB 1100 industrial robots that allows first-time users to implement robotic automation without needing specialist programming skills or knowledge of the Rapid programming code.

The German machine vision specialist Chromasens has launched its first shortwave infrared (SWIR) linescan camera, capable of picking out defects in the 950–1,700nm spectral range that are invisible to the human eye. For example, the sensor in the allPixa SWIR camera can detect fill levels in non-transparent containers, identify water and fat in foods, help to tackle counterfeiting, identify chemicals, and monitor plant moisture to prevent over- or under-watering.

Industrial gearbox users – especially in the EMEA region – are turning increasingly to integrated gear-motor packages, which offer cost and maintenance advantages over buying separate gearboxes and motors, according to a new study of the $6.2bn global market for gear-motors and solo gearboxes by Interact Analysis. Geared motors remove the need for couplings and mountings. They not only save space, but ensure compatibility between the components and make predictive maintenance easier to implement.

The organisers of the Southern Manufacturing & Electronics show have announced that the 2021 event, previously postponed from February to April, will now take place as a two-day event on 6 and 7 October at its usual venue, the Farnborough International Exhibition Centre. The 2022 show will return to its usual dates in early February, five months later. It will be a three-day event, running from 8–10 February.

The Danish actuator manufacturer Linak claims to have produced the first linear actuator with built-in two-way IO-Link communications. The device, based on its LA25 actuator, promises to simplify installation, automate parameter setting, and expand diagnostics.

The manufacturers’ group Make UK is calling for the Government to tackle the border delays being caused by complex paperwork since the UK left the European single market at the start of the year. A Make UK survey of 186 manufacturers has shown that 60% of them have experienced significant disruption at the UK’s borders with the EU since 1 January, with 61% suffering from supply chain disruptions either importing or exporting to or from the EU, and 32% having their supply chains impacted in both directions.

ABB’s Austrian subsidiary B&R Automation has announced a magnetically levitating shuttle system with six degrees of freedom for moving items freely around production machines. It claims that the rail-free Acopos 6D system, which can carry items weighing from 0.6–14kg at speeds of up to 2m/s with a positioning repeatability of ±5µm, heralds “a new era for manufacturing”.

Robotics experts at the UK’s Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry have developed a flexible industrial robot that, they say, has the decision-making capabilities of a human operator. Using a combination of machine learning and visual recognition, the robot can be taught to make assembly decisions based on components put in front of it. The MTC is hailing this as “a breakthrough development” which could save manufacturers the costs of expensive fixed tooling.

Cognex has announced a “breakthrough” embedded vision system which, it claims, makes 3D inspections as easy to perform as 2D. The In-Sight 3D-L4000 camera uses a 3D laser displacement technology that allows users to conduct a variety on inspection tasks on production lines quickly, accurately and cost-effectively.

The German injection-moulding machine manufacturer Arburg has bought the drives and motors developer AMK Arnold Müller from its Chinese owner, Zhongding Holding Europe. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

The German machine safety specialist Pilz has developed a technology that allows users to configure and order customised safety relays online for orders as small as one relay. In many cases, the bespoke modular relays will be delivered the next day, tested and ready-to-install without needing any programming. All that’s needed is a screwdriver to install the relay in a control cabinet.

The industrial distributor Rubix UK has acquired Knowlton & Newman which provides electromechanical repair services to customers in the South of England. The acquisition is part of the Rubix’s network development strategy, and follows its recent acquisition of the industrial automation specialist, Matara.

Fears over the impact of the UK’s new trading relationship with the EU and the attractiveness of the UK for investment and talent are clouding the outlook for manufacturers as they enter 2021, according to a survey conducted by Make UK and PwC.

The US engine-maker Fairbanks Morse has acquired one of the oldest names in the electric motor industry, Ward Leonard, for an undisclosed sum. This acquisition will expand the power and propulsion equipment and services that Fairbanks Morse offers to its customers, which include the US Navy, US Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard.

The US industrial conglomerate Teledyne Technologies is buying the infrared imaging giant Flir Systems in a cash-and-stock deal worth around $8bn. Although both companies are active in the sensing market, they say that their technologies and markets are “perfectly complementary … with minimal overlap”.

The British specialist electric motor manufacturer Aeristech is expanding and creating up to 60 jobs after being awarded £2.75m of Government funding as part of the $49.7m UK-based HyFlyer II project which aims to deliver the world’s first 19-seat hydrogen-electric powered aircraft by 2023. Aeristech is planning to expand its aerospace activities, including developing technologies such as power-dense electric motors and controls for hydrogen fuel-cell compressors. The company is investing in an advanced facility in the West Midlands and, over the next four years, expects create up to 60 skilled roles in areas such as power electronics and drive engineering.

Researchers at Toshiba in Japan have developed a new magnetic material that, they say, will deliver major improvements in electric motor efficiencies at low cost and without needing any design changes, and could lead to significant reductions in power consumption. Toshiba estimates that if the material was used in all of the electric motors in use worldwide today, it could eliminate the need for ten 1GW power plants.

The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the UK manufacturing sector hit a three-year high of 57.5 in December 2020 – up from 55.6 in November – boosted by customers bringing forward orders to beat the end of the Brexit transition period, and by the ongoing bounce from the re-opening of the global economy which increased new orders and pushed output higher. However, port delays and other disruptions meant that supply-chain delays were among the longest in the survey's history.